Can We Stop Blaming The Academy For It’s Lack Of Diversity…
It’s another Academy Awards season and another year that people are screaming about the lack of Diversity in the Oscar nominations. The Academy has a lot of problems however, it’s lack of diversity isn’t one when it comes to deciding who gets nominated. I know, that’s hard to believe. I know we all want someone to blame but we need look no further than the filmmakers themselves and the studios behind them. They produce, primarily films staring white people, by the hundreds. That is the problem. We need to stop blaming the Academy when it’s not their fault.
What it comes down to is simple math. There are hundreds of movies the Academy has to choose from each year. Of those films, only a handful of them have non-white actors in them. And, of that handful of films, only a few of them have non-white leads. So when it comes time for the Academy to start sorting through the films, there’s a pretty good chance that a lot of good acting by actors of all colors including white actors are going to be unseen or ignored.
Let’s say there’s a hat with a 1000 names inside it. Those names are all the actors and directors that made movies this year. Of those names, the Academy can only pull out 15 names. Now, of those 1000 names maybe 20 of them are non-white actors and directors. What do you think the chances are that a non-white name is going to be pulled out of that hat? Stop blaming the Academy because “Hollywood” doesn’t make more movies with non-white leads. The Academy can only judge from what they’ve been handed.
If they Academy does anything in an attempt to make the Oscar’s more diverse than the whole thing becomes meaningless. That being said, as I understand it, the majority of people that make up the Academy are “old and white” as I have heard countless “liberals” scream over the past few days. I think that this is a vary valid point. I think it’s absolutely pathetic and everyone, not just liberals should be upset over this. However, the Academy could be made up of all non-whites and it wouldn’t change the diversity of the Award nomination that much. We know this is true because when nearly every single movie released is directed by a white guy and stars mainly white actors, all the results are going to be the same year after year. History has shown this to be true.
It’s easy to blame the Academy. There is so much wrong with them. The lack of diversity within its members. There is a lack of categories that we care about. When is the Academy going to recognize comedy and horror? These don’t even exist to the Academy. That’s something the Academy can change. What they can’t ever change are the movies that are released each year. They also can’t change who stars in those movies or who writes and directs them. You can blame the Academy for a lot of things but please, stop blaming the Academy for it’s lack of diversity with regard to the nominations because it’s not really their fault. Hating on the Academy for it’s lack of diversity is like hating on 2 + 2 for always equaling 4. You get out of it, what you put into it. You want different results, feed the equation new numbers.
