Whiteys Oscars

Sigh. I was hoping this whole non-sense would remain in the bowels of the Internet, like Twitter and Tumblr, from which is came. But now that Chris Rock is getting calls to step down as host, it seems this faux outrage just won't go away. And since I work in the film industry, it's been hard not to hear some chatter about this on a day-to-day grind.

So here it is, why this whole thing is bulls***.

OK, so some (black) people in the industry are taking issue that no minorities (blacks) were nominated for an acting category for the 2nd year in a row. Assumably, if even one minority (black) actor had been nominated, then we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now.

So, broadly speaking, there can only be 2 reasons as to why it's all whitey this year. Either because:

Voting members are racist

OR

Minority (black) performances simply weren't as good this year (Occum's Razor).

The default logic for everyone should be the latter: That the voters select the best performances, regardless of race. Obviously, those causing a stir take issue with this, which can only mean they assume minorities (blacks) are getting the snub because of some form of racism.

Problems with this:

-None of those boycotting themselves have said it is because of racism. Well, Spike Lee kinda inferred as much, but he's also a notorious pot stirrer and hardly has a moral high ground to talk about racism anyways.

-Just within 2 years ago blacks were massively represented at the Oscars, with the likes of "12 Years a Slave" and "Django Unchained", and with films relevant to blacks, like "Lincoln". So, if the accusation of racism by the Academy is true, then it happened pretty f***ing quickly in the last 2 years.

-On that note, it's very curious that the focus is solely on the acting categories and not, say, the dozens of other categories that exist, all usually well represented by minorities. For f*** sake, "Straight Outta Compton" is nominated for Best Screenplay this year! If the Academy doesn't favor minorities, then they sure do a s***ty job of showing it.

-Minorities, especially blacks, are actually over-represented for Oscar nominations, especially considering the racial makeup of actors, and the racial makeup of America. Andespecially the makeup of Academy voters. For as much as been made of the voters being a "bunchy of old white dudes", they sure do love nominating minority actors and minority related films almost ever chance they get, save the last 2 years. If anything, you'd statistically expect way more "all white" Oscars. But you don't.


So without further examples needed, it's pretty clear racism isn't behind this. Yet, it simply isn't being accepted that the Academy simply didn't find any performances by a minority as god as other selections this year. So what do these people want? Affirmative action? A token nomination every year for a minority, whether they deserved it or not? Because that seems to be what is really being asked for, here. It's one thing to lament and be bummed that no minority actor got a nomination this year. It's quite another to boycott and for the Academy to "do something about it." Do WHAT, exactly? Double-down on Hollywood's already massive white guilt by enacting affirmative action?

No, f*** that. Token bulls*** like that is objectively bad and wrong, and will never happen. But if that's not what they want, either, then only one, final conclusion can be made: These people are sore losers that they didn't get nominated, and need to deal with it and move on.