Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Oscars diversity push yields new Academy class with some overdue names
Salon.com: After two straight years of acting nominees that were all white, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was in an awkward position, at the very least. If it ignored the criticisms of the #OscarsSoWhite movement, started by April Reign, it would outrage activists and continue on the same path that had led it to overlook structural gaps. If it changed its rules too rapidly, it would anger its existing members. Some of these people are stubborn and won’t acknowledge the problem, and many see the Academy as an institution that needs to respect its history and should not change too radically.
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As the article starts out by mentioning, with all the pushback against the Academy and the actual Academy Awards themselves for not including enough people of different racial and gender backgrounds, something has needed to change for quite some time now. This year's #Oscarssowhite online hashtag trend brought the issue of little to no diversity within the Academy to a much larger light for the public to see. As of the recent additions to the Academy membership, the diversity within the prestigious group has risen, but not as much as many of us would like. Not until there are an equal number of men and women, until people of color make up the majority, not the minority, until people of different cultural backgrounds are included in the Academy will the group succeed in having "enough" diversity. Though, the problem of low diversity in the Academy does no necessarily start with the Academy itself, but instead with the hiring and inclusion of more types of people in the film industry itself. If we are able to see more female directors, more African-American designers, more Latino actors, etc. both on and off the screen, we will also be able to see more diversity in both the people nominated for Academy Awards and people that are members in the Academy.
How ridiculous is it that people are impressed by the change that took place when the Academy decided to change its percentage of people of color form eight percent to eleven percent? And now the percentage of females is 27%. And the old members are still upset over this? The biases the Academy takes are well known, but seeing percentage breakdowns like this are just ridiculous. The argument those who are against the diversification put forth is also interesting. They say that the Academy has a certain level of prestige and matching quotas isn't the way to pick who votes, but, first of all, a movie's worth is not inherently dictated by how prestigious it is. Movie's don't have to be pedantic to be good or touch others or influence people. Second, even if you decided that only picking high brow Academy members was the way to go, there are just as many talented people of color as talented white people, and there are just as many talented women as men. Also, the "solution" the Academy put forth is not really a solution at all. A three percent raise in the amount of people of color present in the Academy won't tip the scales when categories like "Best Actor" are being voted on. It'll continue to be all white people who are being nominated because three percent won't make any difference. I agree with Anabel; the Academy won't have enough diversity until its diversity reflects the percentages our society is made up of.
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