Samuel Brace on diversity and the Screen Actors Guild Awards…
Ugh. Why does this keep happening? Why does cinema continue to take the hits? Why has cinema become the symbol of the regressive lefts shameful molestation of our society? I’m getting tired of this, of our movies — and the industry around it — being a punching bag for victimhood culture. After the ‘incident’ surrounding the Oscar nominations not so long ago, the Screen Actors Guild Awards piled on the steaming load of societal excrement with one of the most embarrassing displays of sycophancy one is likely to see. In a frightened and spineless reaction to the Academy’s lack of diversity with its nominations, they attempted in one fell swoop to tell the world how un-racist they were. The transparency of the entire debacle was palpable.
SAG handed out trophies to a black actor or actress in every category where one was nominated. Regardless of merit — a word becoming less and less meaningful with every passing day — regardless of who deserved and didn’t deserve what, an actor of colour was awarded with the night’s… honours. Now, if they were more prudent with this condescending display, if they spread out the ‘love’ a little more, picked and chose which black actor to insult, instead of taking a dump across the entire board, they might have gotten away with what happened last weekend. But of course the SJW’s, the PC police and the Phony Diversity Crusaders made that impossible. They had them all so scared, so fearful of the vitriolic torrent surely headed their way if the night’s winners were handed out on some kind of meritocracy, that they decided to jump out in front of the bus and do… well, do what they did.
If their shameful display wasn’t so transparent, if it wasn’t so damaging to cinema and culture in general, it would be hard not to feel some kind of sympathy for them. In the end, this isn’t their fault; they are not the ones responsible, the ones who backed film into a corner. The real revulsion of course, should be held for the crusaders who hate us so much, but if the people don’t stand up for what’s right, if those of us who can see what’s going on don’t speak up, are not willing to take the blows, what chance do we have. Diversity for diversities sake is dumb. It just is. Of course we should proudly display diversity in the many cultures and societies in which it exists and obviously we should encourage diversity where it’s lacking, but we shouldn’t patronise entire races to do so or discriminate against others to try and rectify areas where it is perceived to be lacking.
Do minorities really want to get to a point — after SAG we’re probably already there — where any nomination or award they receive will leave them with a feeling of, “Do I deserve this? Am I receiving this because they recognise my talent and hard work or because of the colour of my skin?” I can’t see a scenario where anyone would be happy with that. You want to know that you are being recognised for what you have achieved, not because the awarding body is afraid of being called racist. Having a fair representation of an industry’s ethnic diversity is right, no one should be left out because they aren’t a certain colour. Awarding a black man or woman an award because of what they achieved — if their achievement is better than those of their competitors — is also right. Handing out awards based on ethnicity, ignoring all others, only to save face, is just straight up racist. Arguing that if you’re white you can’t be discriminated against is bull shit, just because for the longest time other races were the ones being mistreated, just because in many areas of life this is still the case, doesn’t mean it can’t happen. It is happening. It happened last weekend. You can’t force diversity. You CAN encourage a fair representation, you can provide equal and fair chances to those of all people regardless of race and religion, but you can’t discriminate against one race while championing another and call it diversity. You can’t look at a crowd of white faces and force a coloured one in with a crow bar. We must, as a society, provide everyone with equal opportunities to succeed and not just look at the end result and try and rectify problems at the finish line.
Unfortunately, none of this stops at awards. Casting is also being plagued with phony equality, becoming a victim of diversity for diversities sake. Time and time again we are seeing the powers at be, look at a film or TV show and think, “This is too white, we need a black face or an Asian face or we’re going to get it in the ass”. I feel bad for minorities in film; I really do, they don’t need my sympathy but they have it because it must be awful to know that too often they are only included to fulfil a quota, to be a physical embodiment of good will to all races. It must be embarrassing. I’m embarrassed. A cast should be assembled based around the need of the character and around the need of the story. Writers should be the ones diversifying their characters — if the story calls for it (not every film has to have a black person in it, just like every film doesn’t have to have a white person in it) — they should be the ones dictating what the characters look like and not producers and not casting directors trying to look good. Taking a finished script about the plight of a farmer in a rural area and going, “This is great but everyone’s white! Make this guy black!” isn’t what is needed. I am sorry, I am from a rural area and it’s pretty homogenous. You can’t force diversity on a story where it doesn’t exist, where it isn’t needed, just for fear of recrimination. Story and character have to be king, unfortunately, they just aren’t any more.
Whatever you think about the Oscar nominations and any wrong doings that might have taken place, what happened at SAG was plain awful. It was embarrassing to everyone involved, patronising to some and discriminatory to others. If awards aren’t going to be handed out on a basis of merit, if they are going to be dictated by what is deemed to be ‘fair’, then we shouldn’t have them anymore. What’s the point? They don’t mean anything if this is the road we are going down. Socialists believe in dividing and sharing the wealth between all, regardless of who earned what. Luckily Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn aren’t the leaders of their respective countries right now, luckily some of us still live in a society where you get what you earn in the world, so why is film being treated like this is otherwise. Why is cinema under siege? Diversity for diversity’s sake is wrong. Equal opportunity and awarding those that succeed is right. Let’s provide those opportunities, let’s not force equality at the finish line. Say no to the blatant patronisation of those in the minority.
Samuel Brace
https://youtu.be/XUGnM460Waw?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published February 6, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
