Anything Goes : Problem Solved by Arturo Bandini

There is some confusion about the Oscars and "diversity" that is resulting in some misguided hand-wringing. An Academy award (Oscar) is a PRIVATE film industry award given by a PRIVATE film industry group, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It is given to a variety of talents, from actors to technicians. The Academy isn't a part of the government and is not public - it is not supported by taxpayer money. Therefore, they have no responsibility to the public to try to give awards to any particular race, sex or nationality. Nor are they responsible for promoting "diversity," whatever that is, in the film industry through it's award choices. They don't have to ensure that a certain number of, say, Best Actress awards go to African-American actors, that Asians are properly represented amongst the Best Sound awardees, or that a population-appropriate percentage of trans-gendered American Samoans get technical achievement Oscars for their mantlepieces. Saying they do is like saying Ebony magazine must feature whites on 50% of their covers, that Taco Bell must serve Haggis, or that Cat Fancy is anti-dog because there aren't enough articles on Dachshunds. If you are unhappy with the Academy write them a letter. If you don't like the Academy Awards show don't look at it. If a film's cast or crew doesn't fill your personal quota of blacks, whites, Canadians or fill-in-the-blank, (which seems like a strange way to approach entertainment), don't watch it. If you want more "diversity" (whatever that means) in films or think they are, by definition, somehow better than non-diverse films (whatever they are) then you may produce one at any time. No one is being stopped from doing so. This isn't to deny the strengths we, as a country, enjoy from our diversity (the normal definition). It's to explain how not minding your own business is making you unhappy.