Watch Chris Rock's opening monologue

Well, his opening monologue focused entirely on the diversity issue, wavering between declaring that Hollywood is racist, and pleading for more opportunity for actors of color.

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Read excerpt from speech and watch video below;

"Why are we protesting this Oscars? It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this no black nominees thing happened 71 other times."

"You got to figure that it happened in the 50s, 60s. One of those years, Sidney Poitier didn’t put out a movie. … Black people didn’t protest, because we had real things to protest at the time. We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer. When you’re hanging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary short.

I wasn't invited. I thought about quitting. I thought about it really hard. And the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart. Is Hollywood racist? You got to go at that the right way. Is it burning cross racist?

It’s a different type of racist. The other night, I was at a fundraiser for president Obama – a lot of you were there. There were four black people there: me, Quincy Jones, Russell Simmons, Questlove.

The usual suspects. … At some point you get to take a picture with the president. I’m like, Mr. President, you see all these writers, producers, and actors; they don’t hire black people – and they’re the nicest white people on Earth. You’re damn right Hollywood is racist. Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like, we like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.

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Watch video below;