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Hollywood: So Progressive. So Racist.
The Oscar nominations were announced yesterday morning and Hollywood — that bastion of hyper-liberalism — has once again proven itself to be super-duper-mega-ultra racist. I hear your saying “But didn’t 12 Years a Slave win Best Picture just two years ago, with Lupita Nyong’o winning Best Supporting Actress? Didn’t Octavia Spencer win that same award two years earlier? Haven’t the last four Best Director winners been a French-Lithuanian Jew, a Sino-Taiwanese, and two Mexicans? Wasn’t Selma nominated for Best Picture last year, and didn’t John Legend and Common win Oscars for Best Song last year?”
Irrelevant! That was the past! And besides, the actors weren’t nominated! As Progressivism (of the post-Great Society liberal variety, rather than the racist-as-all-get-out version of the early 20th century), has taught us there must be racial quotas in all things. The Academy Awards are no exception!
The lefty press has already ramped-up the knee-jerk high dudgeon:
- Vulture: “Actors of Color Were Entirely Shut Out of the Academy Award Nominations”
- Vox: “Oscars 2016: The nominees are blindingly white. Again.”
- Jezebel: “The 2016 Oscar Nominations Are Here: Still Very White, Still Very Boring”
- Variety: “Black Actors Shut Out of Oscar Race — Again”
- People: “Actors of Color Shut Out by Academy: Oscars Under Fire for Lack of Diversity Again”
- USA Today: “Oscars: Acting races are an all-white field”
Of course, this is essentially a repeat of what happened last year:
The choice of cover photo on that last piece (of Halle Berry and Denzel Washington holding their Oscars at the 65th Academy Awards) is insightful. Berry’s win for Best Actress in 2002 is seen by many — myself included — as one of the worst Oscar choices in recent memory (and it’s not for lack of options). The glamorous Berry was glaringly miscast in Monster’s Ball, and her performance has become a bit of a joke. She appears to have been chosen solely on the basis of wanting to give the Best Actress award to a black woman, perhaps to complement Washington’s win.
It’s startling that America’s paragon of leftist “open-mindedness” and “tolerance” is also — somehow –simultaneously deeply racist (whether in a 1860s or 1960s sort of way being open for debate). Of course, none of these articles call out Hollywood’s self-congratulatory nature, as stars pal around with the Obamas and talk about how backward the ordinary little people are. (And if one thinks it must be cinematographers and sound editors choosing all those bigoted, hate-filled ballots, think again: The largest voting bloc in the Academy is, by far, the actors’ bloc.)
So once again, Hollywood is simultaneously so progressive, yet so racist. I eagerly await Al Sharpton’s press conference. Oh, wait, I don’t have to: “Al Sharpton calls Hollywood ‘fraudulent’ after all-white Oscar nominations”
Published in Culture, Entertainment
Geez, they should just invent a new categories like “Most Oppressed Minority of 2016”, “Group Most Likely to Tick off SJW’s if a Joke is Made About Them”, “Best Picture Depicting How Racist America is”.
Any Others?
Few things are more fun to watch than a progressive circular firing squad.
I may or may not work in the industry commonly known as “Hollywood,” and I may or may not have heard the out-and-proud office SJWs, as you might call them (the people who used to work for CurrentTV before Jesus 2: Electric Car Boogaloo, a.k.a., Al Gore, sold them out for that sweet, sweet fossil fuel cash), bemoaning how Idris Elba or others didn’t get nominated. “I didn’t see the movie, but I heard it’s great.” So then why are they certain he should have been nominated? Because he’s black, of course!
Obviously this waters down the prestige of the Academy Awards (which I have long since stopped caring about). But, if a “person of color” wins an award, would be because of their performance or is it an affirmitve action win? Won’t everybody be thinking that? If they aren’t already with past wins
It really doesn’t surprise me that the Culture of the Participation Trophy has decided that Academy Awards are an entitlement.
They should just hand out Oscars to everybody, like the high school that had 117 valedictorians.
BTW, in this era of gender equality, why are there still separate categories for Best Actor and Best Actress.
Not very progressive, if you ask me.
Great point. What if Leonardo DiCaprio is self identifying as a woman for the night of the awards show, if he wins Best Actor then that would be so disrepectful to the trans community. Best to have Gender Neutral catagories.
< devil’s advocate mode = on >
Aren’t the vast majority of Academy voters behind-the-scenes people, like technicians and the like?
Perhaps the Oscar nominations reflect a backlash from a “silent majority” who don’t necessarily think the same way as the most vocal celebrities?
< devil’s advocate mode = off >
Oh, wait, I see that you already covered that objection in the OP…
This, itself, raises a question: The actors already have the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Why does that particular bloc get such out-of-proportion influence over the Oscars as well. AMPAS really should reflect the opinions of the entire cross-section of those working in Hollywood.
What a scam.
The Spike Lee Award for Tokenism : Each year this award is given to a performer whose work is so-so, but who we know will cry racism if not nominated.
There are categories for actor/actress in “Lead” roles and “Supporting” roles, meaning that some parts are more significant than others. That’s demeaning. Shouldn’t all roles be just as important as every other? Every part of a team is just as necessary as every other part, so why should there be this “Lead”/”Supporting” distinction?
If my memory from film class is correct, the actors who aren’t stars are lucky to have that category at all. When the Oscars were first set up there was only supposed to be a “best actor” and “best actress” award. If my memory from film class is correct.
Again, if my memory from film class is correct, everything about the Oscars is negotiated by the various unions. Producers, having no union, only get one Oscar (Best Picture is awarded to the producer of the film), while SAG made sure that four awards go to actors.
Again, if my memory from film class is correct. I’m not entirely confident.
Last year’s winner of both the SAG and Oscar Best Picture, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), is the quintessential actors’ movie – it’s about an actor, after all – full of showy performances that the acting bloc just loves. The most prominent “actors’ films” this year are The Big Short, Spotlight, and Alejandro Iñárritu’s follow-up to Birdman with an equally pretentious title, The Revenant.
Don’t believe me about the actors’ bloc? Combined number of Best Director Oscars won by cinematic pioneers Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Fritz Lang, Federico Fellini, Robert Altman, Akira Kurosawa, David Lynch, George Lucas, Ingmar Bergman, and Orson Welles: Zero. Combined number of Best Director Oscars won by actors Bob Fosse, Woody Allen, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Richard Attenborough, Sydney Pollack, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, and Ron Howard: Eleven.
I am too. I wonder if Mr. Sharpton will weigh in on the best original score category. Wasn’t that Ennio Morricone score for Hateful Eight wonderful?
Also, if he could give his opinion on the costume design category, I will be all ears.
His expertise on all things cinema is legendary.
That is fascinating.
Eh, they all get what they deserve. I barely even go to the movies anymore much less listen to these whiny, highly over-paid, spotlight hogging “celebrities.”
It’s even more fascinating when you put the actual movies to the awards:
Robert Redford: Ordinary People, 1980
Defeated David Lynch for The Elephant Man and Martin Scorsese for Raging Bull
Warren Beatty: Reds, 1981
Defeated Louis Malle for Atlantic City and Steven Spielberg for Raiders of the Lost Ark
Richard Attenborough: Gandhi, 1982
Defeated Wolfgang Petersen for Das Boot, Sydney Pollack for Tootsie, and Steven Spielberg for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Sydney Pollack: Out of Africa, 1985
Defeated Akira Kurosawa for Ran and Peter Weir for Witness
Kevin Costner: Dances with Wolves, 1990
Defeated Martin Scorsese for GoodFellas
Ron Howard: A Beautiful Mind, 2001
Defeated Robert Altman for Gosford Park, Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and David Lynch for Mulholland Drive
Hollywood is a perfect place to attack for sexism and racism. Lots of liberal guilt and deep pockets.
I don’t think the charges of discrimination are crazy. A lot of business is done overseas and different countries have their own particular biases. (It’s a common accusation that China has a lot of prejudice against African-Americans and Africans.)
As for the American market, I believe Hollywood thinks the worst about us and probably makes decisions about casting that reflect the view that we are a nation of hillbillies. I suspect the average American is more tolerant than the average power player in Hollywood.
Why don’t the Oscars do what most major American corporation’s HR departments do. Throw away all non-minority candidates and choose the winner from the minority only pool.
Just make a safe space for the minorities. Create a separate-but-equal Black Oscars. Then all the SJWs will have to watch both. They can’t not watch the Black Oscars cuz they will be labelled racist.
NBA All Star game weekend during February
How can a vote count be racist?
If the best performance by a black actor gets the 6th most votes, that implies nothing about the racial biases of any particular voter or of the group of voters.
I’m reminded of how years ago on “American Idol” Jennifer Hudson came in 9th in one particular round, if memory serves, and, hearing the result guest celebrity mentor Elton John castigated the voting public for racism, as in his mind she was the best. He didn’t seem to notice that the top vote getter, Fantasia Barrino, was also black, and two others who beat Hudson were black and two were Hispanic.
So all those people who voted for one of the other black or Hispanic performers were racist. It goes without saying that those who voted for whites were racist.
It looks like the only obvious racist in this story is Elton John.
The solution is obvious…12.5% of all awards…or all winners of each award in each category over a period of eight years…has to be African American. Similar quotas must be maintained for Hispanics. Jews must be limited to 2% of all awards over this period. I think this is especially true for Muslims, who are being given very shabby treatment by so many these days.
In the event that no award for Best Picture (for example) is made to an appropriate minority group over a seven year period and there are no contenders, then no awards will be given out in that category until a suitable film by a suitable ethnic group is nominated. Or they could just grab the nearest film by a black director and make the award on that basis…no matter how bad it is.
I’m sure the Hollywood crowd will be OK with that.
So, why doesn’t the Directors Guild stand up to SAG when it comes to Academy numbers?
I quibble about this one. Howard’s been a director and producer for WAY longer than he ever was an actor.
I mean, Alfred Hitchcock has more onscreen credits than Ron Howard does!
(Orson Welles also qualifies as much as an actor as he does a director. He was the voice of Unicron for cryin’ out loud!)
Hollywood could launch a major push to hire lots and lots of African American sound designers, lighting directors, and costume designers. That way they can stick the 12.5% in those technical categories, leaving the “real” categories lily white!
Seems it would be easier to just exclude whites from participating in the Oscars (or any award show) and be done with it. That way every year we can avoid this whining and arguing. Then every year minorities will win every award and can be happy that they dominate every field.
Yabbut, the movies made with foreign markets in mind aren’t generally the same ones that get nominated for actors. It’s the dialogue-light action movies that make the overseas money.
They would, but they want to hire the best available people, regardless of race. It’s only everyone else who should hire according to race.
(yaaaaaaaawn)
Then I suppose it would be better to fill the acting category with tokens, since it’s the category that requires the least genuine skill.
;-)
Doesn’t everyone know that giving recognition to minority actors and filmmakers is a form of cooption designed to de-radicalize minorities by making them part of the system of oppression?
Or, to put it differently, even if there were black nominees, some people will always find a reason to be unhappy. It’s not a matter of doing one thing or another, but jumping when Al Sharpton says jump.