On Tuesday the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year’s Oscars. The nominees evoked such praise, you could almost hear Hollywood singing the song, “Kumbaya, my Lord.”
This stood in stark contrast to the Academy’s announcement last year. The nominees provoked such outrage back then, you could almost hear Hollywood bemoaning the song, “We Shall Overcome.”
Of course, the viral nature of all things great and small is such these days that you’d be forgiven for not remembering that outrage. Especially given that black-swan Donald Trump has had the whole world wallowing in one black hole of outrage after another since then.
But last year’s nominees provoked that outrage because, in the major acting categories for the second consecutive year, they were all white.
The Academy was duly spooked; so much so that its president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, rushed to announce new rules to redress this whitewash (and hopefully prevent future episodes).
I duly commented in “#OscarSoWhite! Duh. But Boycott? Nah,” January 22, 2016, noting the irony that it fell to Isaacs, the Academy’s first black president, to tackle institutional racism in Hollywood. Here is an excerpt.
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Reports are that Isaacs has proposed new rules to ensure noticeable and sustainable change by next year. But I can think of nothing more anathema to the artistic license and freedom that defines Hollywood than requiring Academy members to vote like North Korean bureaucrats.
After all, the only way Isaacs can fulfill her promise is to impose a quota for black nominees, which only a rash fool like [Spike] Lee would recommend.
There’s also talk of increasing the number of nominees in each category. The expectation is that this would give black movies like Straight Outta Compton and black actors like Idris Elba a better shot at being nominated. But this would be tantamount to the farce of awarding ‘participation trophies,’ which diminishes recognition of all achievement. Not to mention making a mockery of the real purpose of affirmative action.
Again, human nature being what it is, the only way to seed and grow diversity at the Oscars is to ensure diversity at every stage in the filmmaking process. This will lead organically to the Academy reflecting the demographics more of the American people than a Connecticut country club. With all due respect to Isaacs, this cannot be done in one year. But the silver lining in this backlash is that it presents this year as an unprecedented seeding season for diversity in Hollywood.
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As it happens, California has been blessed with so much rain since then, its drought-stricken soil is now more fertile than a Jamaican Ganja plantation. (For what it’s worth, legalization has made recreational marijuana a growth industry in California.) Even so, it will take a generation or two for the seeds I recommended last year to bear the fruit of diversity we all want to see in Hollywood.
But, hey, it’s Hollywood; hence the miracle-gro that produced this show of diversity after just one year:
While no actors of color were nominated the last two years, this year saw every acting category recognizing a person of color. A record-tying (with 2007) seven minority actors were recognized, including a record-setting six black actors.
(Variety, January 24, 2017)
Except that there’s nothing surprising or reassuring about white guilt compelling Hollywood liberals to, er, Do the Right Thing (i.e., vote like North Korean bureaucrats to fill the Academy’s black quota of nominees). Not to mention that this kind of guilt is as fleeting as a teenage crush.
Therefore, unless the Academy is pruning diversity at every stage of the filmmaking process, I fear it will only be a matter of time before Hollywood suffers another #OscarSoWhite episode.
NOTE: The 89th Academy Awards show is scheduled for broadcast on February 26. As usual, I shall publish my Oscar picks a day or two before.
Related commentaries:
#OscarSoWhite…
Last year’s Oscars…