On the heels of a threatened boycott of this year’s Academy Awards by black film figures comes a well-timed report on diversity in the film and television industries. This “>conducted a “meta-analysis” of self-esteem. To their surprise they learned that black youths scored the highest in regard to self-esteem among all racial groups studied. They found that black youths consistently made positive statements about themselves, regardless of personal accomplishments or other negative factors in their lives.
It’s insulting to imply that black children can only be inspired by someone who “looks like them.” Children can be, and are, inspired by a wide variety of events, actions and individuals having little to do with skin color.
It would be a rare individual who these days would offer an argument against racial and gender inclusion in the film or TV industries. But entertaining an agenda that places race at the center of the subjective decision-making process regarding the craft of filmmaking is a bridge too far.
Are those spinning a utopian (and silly) vision of the world where every activity or segment of America is a pie slice of national demographics equally concerned about obvious disparities in other professional arenas?
According to the latest available “>players are black while only 28% are white. Is anyone outraged about this? Shouldn’t these teams be more diverse? If not, why not? Can white kids identify with a team that has predominantly black athletes (a manifestly absurd question)?
Most Americans, sports fans or not, would not express concern because they understand that professional sports is all about the best athletic prowess available — meritocracy. Players in the National Basketball League (or the NHL, NFL and major league baseball) can all jump, shoot, run, hit and compete at the highest possible levels. Leave your racial attitudes at the arena door.
There is no racial cabal in Hollywood keeping black talent at bay. Already a new black-themed film, The Birth of a Nation — a film about Nat Turner’s slave revolt — released at the Sundance Film Festival was surrounded by lots of Oscar buzz. Some argue it’s a shoo-in for Best Picture.
Shamefully, the Hollywood grievance industry will not refrain from looking for villains if this film gets lost in the crush of other good films and talented actors before next Oscar season.
