Hollywood’s Biggest Problem Is Itself

It’s a hypocrisy Hollywood can’t address, and are not asked about by the slobbering entertainment media. But they should be.

As for this year’s nominees being almost exclusively white, I honestly couldn’t care less. (Though I do laugh at headlines like “SAG Awards Recognize Mostly White Actors After Oscars Diversity Backlash” from the Hollywood Reporter.)

There are only so many nominations to go around, usually just 5 per category. What those complaining fail to cite is anyone who was nominated who shouldn’t have been. Whining about someone who wasn’t nominated simply to “diversify” the field carries no weight when you can’t point to someone who was nominated as a result of their skin color.

The mere argument that someone should have been nominated to diversify the field is condescending beyond belief, and racist (“they can’t compete on talent alone, so we must make special accommodations for them”). The years Denzel Washington won his Oscars he won because he gave amazing performances. He’s a Grammy away from completing the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). His shelves aren’t overrun with trophies because he’s black or they decided to throw him a bone, it’s because he’s amazingly talented. But to insist on quota’s or token nominations simply to make sure the nominees are different colors of people would cheapen his accomplishments. He EARNED those awards, just as the nominees this year earned their shot.

A couple of years ago, when #OscarsSoWhite became a trendy cause of the moment, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences changed their membership rules to make it “less white” and younger. They celebrated themselves as champions of diversity and progressive thought, and just a couple of years later nothing changed. Maybe the problem isn’t who is voting, maybe the problem is deeper than that.

As with most things, if they really wanted to change they’d put their money where their mouth is. When studios are willing to put up $90 million to make Bad Boys 3 but only $17 million to make a movie about Harriet Tubman, maybe that’s the problem?

Cynthia Erivo, who plays Harriet Tubman, is nominated for best actress, but the movie, according to critics, isn’t all that great. According to the critical consensus at Rotten Tomatoes, “Harriet serves as a sincere tribute to a pivotal figure in American history -- albeit one undermined by its frustratingly formulaic approach.” A bigger budget might’ve attracted a better director, better supporting cast, higher production quality, and a better movie worthy of nominations beyond that for its star.

But Hollywood isn’t willing to change where they put their money or what they market.

Liberals in Hollywood argue that market forces dictate where the money goes; you have to have a return on your investment, after all. That’s true. But maybe there’s little return on some investments because the investment was so small in the first place?

The reason the investment doesn’t happen has to do with what Hollywood thinks of the American people, not the American people themselves. Good movies attract audiences, poorly produced ones don’t.

Everyone in the audiences at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards, especially the actors and directors, could, if they wanted, get any story they wanted told made into a movie simply by committing to it. If they wanted to change Hollywood and get a “black movie” made all they have to do is change themselves, just a little. They’d have to take a smaller paycheck, but they could do it. They don’t.

It’s not the public denying minority actors better roles in better movies, and it’s not the system for voting for the awards denying deserving actors their just rewards, it’s the people wrongly judging the public as racist doing it. Which means they are racists.