The Oscars: Read Chris Rock's Complete Opening Monologue

Here is the complete opening monologue from host Chris Rock as he opened Sunday night's live broadcast of the Academy Awards:

"I'm here at the Academy Awards — otherwise known as the White People's Choice Awards. If they nominated the host, I wouldn't have got this job — you would have been watching Neil Patrick Harris. This is the wildest, craziest Oscars to host — no black nominees. And people are like, 'Chris, you should boycott. How come only unemployed people ask you to quit something. No one with a job tells you to quit. I thought about quitting [but] they’re not going to cancel the Oscars. The last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart.

Why this Oscars? Why this Oscars? It's the 88th Academy Awards. It's the 88th Academy Awards, which means this whole "no black nominees thing" happened at least 71 other times. In the '50s and the '60s, what are those years. I'm sure there were no black nominees, and black people did not protest. Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time. We had real things to protest. We were too busy being raped and lynched to worry about best cinematography. But what happened this year: People went mad, Spike [Lee] got mad and Jada [Pinkett Smith] went mad and Will [Smith] got mad. It's like me boycotting Rihanna's panties: I wasn't invited. But I understand. I'm not hating. it's also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for "Wild Wild West."

This year things are going to be a little different. Yes, I said it. If you want black nominees every year, you need to just have black categories. You already do it with men and women. Think about it, there's no reason to have a men and women category in acting. It's not track and field; you don’t have to separate them. If you want black people at the Oscars, then have black categories. Like the real question everyone wants to know, "Is Hollywood racist?" You know, you gotta go at it the right way. It’s a different type of racist. I remember one night I was at a fundraiser for President Obama; all of us there, and there's four black people there — me, Quincy Jones, Russell Simmons and Questlove — and every black actor that wasn't working. Needless to say, Kevin Hart wasn't there. You get a little moment with the president, they don’t hire black people, and they're the nicest white people on earth, they're liberals — "cheese."

Is Hollywood racist? Damn right they're racist. Hollywood is sorority racist. "We like you, Rhonda, but you're not Kappa. I call it "black Rocky." Rocky is a science-fiction movie. There's things that happens in Star Wars that are more believable than Rocky. There are a lot of snubs. One of the biggest snubs that no one is talking about is Paul Giamatti. Last year he was in 12 Years a Slave; this year he is in Straight Outta Compton. Now that's fange. Ben Affleck can’t do that. It's not about boycotting; we want opportunity, we want the same opportunities, that's it. Not just once. Leo gets a great part every year. All of you guys get great parts every year, Jamie Foxx is one of the best actors in the world; we don't need two of these, naw man, everything is not about race.

You're not allowed to ask women what they're wearing anymore. "Ask her more." You have to ask her more, everything is not sexism, everything is not racism, every guy is wearing the exact same thing. Welcome to the 88th Oscars, Academy Awards. Yes, thank you. You want diversity; we want diversity."