Boycotting the Oscars
Here's one I was toying with a couple of years ago...
It appears a load of black people, or the term I've heard, "people of colour" are furious due to under-representation at the Oscars compared to white people.
Maybe it is a case that I do talk from a position of white privilege, but I don't feel privileged when one group of people seek special representation against my group of people based not on the great things they've done, but based on their particular classification.
The thing I would say we should be arguing about, is that there should be more diversity in our mainstream - and Im not just talking about ethinicity here.
The response to the oscars to call for a boycott, only furthers in my mind, to segregate further. It is a form of positive discrimination. It doesn't recognise our common and our shared humanity. It doesn't recognise that we all have strengths and weaknesses. It doesn't look at our merits, but actually does the very thing that we all should be fighting against, judging and classifying someone based on the colour of their skin, their gender, their sexuality.
We're not perfect. But fighting racism with racism is wrong. Taking the lead from Charlotte Rampling, we don't know why there weren't more black people represented at the Oscars. Is the problem actually the film industry? Were there not enough stand out performances? Are the Oscars institutionally racist? Or are they just looking for a problem that doesn't exist as they themselves focus on the colour of peoples skin?
It appears a load of black people, or the term I've heard, "people of colour" are furious due to under-representation at the Oscars compared to white people.
Maybe it is a case that I do talk from a position of white privilege, but I don't feel privileged when one group of people seek special representation against my group of people based not on the great things they've done, but based on their particular classification.
The thing I would say we should be arguing about, is that there should be more diversity in our mainstream - and Im not just talking about ethinicity here.
The response to the oscars to call for a boycott, only furthers in my mind, to segregate further. It is a form of positive discrimination. It doesn't recognise our common and our shared humanity. It doesn't recognise that we all have strengths and weaknesses. It doesn't look at our merits, but actually does the very thing that we all should be fighting against, judging and classifying someone based on the colour of their skin, their gender, their sexuality.
We're not perfect. But fighting racism with racism is wrong. Taking the lead from Charlotte Rampling, we don't know why there weren't more black people represented at the Oscars. Is the problem actually the film industry? Were there not enough stand out performances? Are the Oscars institutionally racist? Or are they just looking for a problem that doesn't exist as they themselves focus on the colour of peoples skin?
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