He said what? Cynthia Erivo clapbacks at Stephen King by Taura Kimble

On Monday, the highly anticipated Oscar Nominations were announced by Issa Rae and John Cho. In not so surprising news, the nominees were dominated by…. yep you guessed it the white men of Hollywood. Several female and Black actors, actresses, writers and directors were snubbed as usual. Many celebs spoke out and gave their opinion on this continuous cycle of ignoring talented female and black thespians but, the one that seems to stand out the most though is from the IT man himself, Stephan King. 

On Tuesday, King first tweeted out that as an author he is allowed to put forward contenders in three categories for the Academy Awards. “For me, the diversity issue did not come up.” He further dug himself into hole by tweeting “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality.” Since Tuesday those two tweets have garnered over 10,000 retweets and 68,000 likes. As you can imagine, the backlash immediately rolled in and Cynthia Erivo used the moment to spark a much needed conversation

Erivo told the Television Critic Association, it`s up to people in positions of power to “open their eyes and open doors” to provide more opportunities to have a wide range of representation in the film industry. She stated, “it`s also up to those people who are used to doing things a certain way to change the way they think, cast things and change the way they hire producers, writers and directors.” Diversity is a major part of what makes the performing arts so unique and exciting. It should always be acknowledged no matter what award show is in question. Hopefully that classy clapback made its way to King, the Academy and others in the film industry who can`t seem to step into the present and give credit where credit is due.