On the eve of the Academy Awards, it’s important to note that the Academy members vote for the winners by ballot – it’s not, say, the people of Idaho or some “white power” group or something.
While a lot of campaigning goes on behind the scenes – pick up a print edition of Variety in the fall sometime, if you can still find it and you’ll see all the jockeying that goes on – the votes are what they are, not unlike elections.
As well, as we know from past awards, many of the nominations tend to focus on the classic, dramatic roles (sans Marisa Tomei winning for “My Cousin Vinny,” which is still mystifying nearly two decades later). Meryl Streep, as an example, gets nominated for nearly everything she does (and in many cases, rightfully so).
So, what’s the point of this short Oscars rant? If no people of color were nominated for awards for what some believe were really great performances or great films (see below), that’s on “the liberal, Hollywood elite” – thousands of filmmakers and workers in “the biz” – choosing NOT to vote for those cast members, filmmakers, etc.
I want everyone to think about this for a moment …
Many of these people who snubbed all of these creative people of color are the same people who play a large role in financing most of the most powerful Democrats in public office (see the bumbling Ed Markey, as an example, who rakes in tons of Hollywood cash and always has; you may see him in a crowd shot tonight clapping from the audience, he’s always there…); they are the same people who shame, judge, and openly ridicule people with “traditional values” or anyone who does not adhere to their values (in a nation where we’re supposed to be tolerant of one another, regardless of one believes); they are also the same people who want to throw money at every problem and call everyone else “greedy” for not wanting to pay more taxes until it comes to protecting their tax breaks, their business, their pursestrings; etc.
I personally can’t judge any of the films that were or were not nominated; the only nominated film I saw last year was “The Force Awakens.” But there are no diversity quotas for the Oscars; it is what it is. However, if believe “the Academy are all a bunch of racists,” step out of your own political box and look a bit deeper and see just how much control these people have over public policy, the nation’s culture, and everything else.