Following last year's uproar concerning a lack of racial and sexual diversity in its nominees, the Academy Of Motion Pictures Arts And Sciences decided to make procedural changes. The previous two years had seen 20 white acting nominees, which created the pressure for greater diversity.
To facilitate change, the Academy added 683 new members to the already 6687 voting members. The new additions were females, blacks and hispanics. The Academy's strategy was a simple one. Over the years, nominees in the various categories had been overwhelmingly white and male because the voters were overwhelmingly white males. Therefore, adding racial minorities and women to the membership would achieve more diversity in the voting.
Oscar, it turns out, is not only befuddled in his logic, he is a hypocrite as well. Here is the major flaw in the Academy's thinking. The nominees have been overwhelmingly white males because the voters were overwhelmingly white males, meaning the voters had an obvious bias in favor of their own kind, The Academy says that is blatantly unfair, unjust and fundamentally wrong. Adding the 683 new members would level the playing field.That strategy implies that diversity would be achieved because women would vote for women, blacks would vote for blacks, hispanics would vote for hispanics. Problem solved. Except the new strategy allows the same "sin" to continue, which is, every member casts their votes on the basis of their own race and, or gender.
If it is fundamentally wrong for white males to vote exclusively for white males, then reason dictates that it is also wrong for blacks to vote on the basis of race, hispanics to vote on the basis of ethnicity, and women to vote on the basis of gender.
The only criteria for voting should be merit. To replace that with a tacit quota system is to downplay excellence and achievement in favor of numbers.
Oscar, you lose because there are no 12 inch tall metallic voters.
