Oscars and race: the reaction online

One beauty site's mistake: Whoopi Goldberg or Oprah Winfrey?

Calls for a boycott and an outspoken African-American host meant that the Oscars were primed for controversy even before the first expensive shoe hit the red carpet.

And on that score at least the night did not disappoint, with Chris Rock kicking off the ceremony by confronting the race debate head-on followed by a number of moments and hashtags that lit up social networks.

If there was an award for biggest gaffe of the night, it might well have been won by a beauty website that mistook Whoopi Goldberg for Oprah Winfrey. The observation was quickly deleted and an apology was issued, but not before the offending tweet had been shared hundreds of times - @TotalBeauty was roundly mocked online for mixing up two hugely popular African-American celebrities.

On Instagram, Oprah's friend (and a TV presenter in her own right) Gayle King commented: "We don't all look alike jeeze"

The boycott of the ceremony by several black stars, including Will Smith, his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee, came after the charge that several worthy minority performers were overlooked in the Oscar nominations.

Rock weighed in on the controversy with from the very start of his opening monologue, which followed a montage of films from the previous year.

"Man, I counted at least 15 black people during that montage. You realise if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job." But the host also poked fun at the boycotters (see here for a full report on his "stunningly deft" performance).

The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which appeared as early as September last year, was used more than 200,000 times on Twitter. The most popular tweets criticised the lack of diversity amongst Oscar nominees and winners.

Other ethnic groups including Asians and Latinos also decried their relative lack of representation on the screen with hashtags including #HollywoodBrownOut and #OnlyOnePercent.

Another notable moment came when actress Stacy Dash, who played Dionne in the cult film Clueless, took the stage.

Dash has voiced her objection to the boycott by black actors and has also criticised Black History Month, which has been celebrated in the United States every February since 1976.

So when she wished the audience "Happy Black History Month", many were left confused.

On Black Twitter- a loosely defined term for users who use the social network to highlight their cultural identity - there was a mixed response, with some baffled by her apparent turnaround, while others viewed it as a joke.

Blog by Rozina Sini

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