According to Reuters, Hollywood multi-millionaire black actors Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith are boycotting the February 2016 Oscar awards ceremony , “in protest over the absence of nominated actors of color, in any of the 20 acting categories,” ie Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
The Smiths and the well-known black Hollywood film maker Spike Lee, who is also boycotting the ceremony, allege that the lack of diversity of nominated actors and actresses is a result of the lack of diversity in the membership of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in the Hollywood film industry itself.
In other words, if there were fewer white men and women of privilege in the Academy and more black, brown, yellow and red men and women of “under privilege”, more men and women of color would be nominated and hence win such coveted Academy Awards.
The Smith/Lee boycott of the Academy Awards show, because Will Smith was denied a nomination for Best Actor for his leading role in the film, “Concussion”, is a perfect example of how American liberals and the black community are trying to transform American society from a meritocracy to race-based and ethnic-based society, under the guise of “diversity”.
The term “diversity” usually means a range of things. It is normally a positive concept. As in, a newspaper contains a diversity of views, as opposed to a single viewpoint. The implication is that a range or diversity of views is preferable.
For many of us on the right, “diversity” has become a politically correct and dirty word.
Because for American liberals and the American black community, “diversity” does not mean to them a range of views, or multiple and different people, it really means, “race-based entitlement and preference.” It is not a means, but an end in itself.
To these same liberals and black community, the absence of “diversity”, also means racial discrimination
And through this theoretical context, I believe we can best understand the actions of the Smiths and Lee and the Hollywood liberals who support them.
Because what Will, Jada Smith and Spike Lee, and countless liberal fellow Hollywood and media travelers,( say hello, CBC ) want in this limited Academy Awards context, are awards, not based on artistic achievement and merit, but based on race-based and ethnic-based quotas.
Or put another way, for the Smiths, Lee and the Hollywood liberals, the lack of success of American black actors, is not due to lack of merit, but due to lack of diversity or racial discrimination.
So let us test these theories by looking at the actual actors and actresses nominated for three different award ceremonies.
The following is a list of the 20 nominees in each of the three major award ceremonies: the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors’ Guild.
Mitch Wolfe: The Playful Contrarian 