Despite Pushback, Wokeness Getting Worse Before It Gets Better

Oscar statuettes are seen backstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, Calif., on March 12, 2023. (Al Seib/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)

Commentary

Ron DeSantis declared that Florida is where “woke goes to die.” He certainly has played a key role in identifying it as a problem and pushing back, fighting it in schools and within big corporations. But has America turned the corner on wokeness, or is it still getting worse before it gets better?

In the latest example that it’s getting worse, this year the Academy of Motion Pictures requirement that movies must meet a minimum level of wokeness in order to qualify for consideration as Best Picture takes effect. As woke as Hollywood has been for years, you are now likely to observe it becoming worse.

In 2020, the Academy implemented its “representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility.” According to the Academy, “The standards are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience.”

There are four categories of diversity requirements, two of which must be met. The first requires that “At least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group,” or “At least 30% of all actors in secondary and more minor roles are from ... underrepresented groups,” or “The main storyline(s), theme or narrative of the film is centered on an underrepresented group(s).”

The cast and crew of "Everything Everywhere All at Once" accepts the award for best picture at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 12, 2023. (Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

Hollywood has been so woke for years now that it is hard to imagine it getting worse. It seems every movie in recent years has an awkwardly inserted minority or LGBT actor in a role which makes no sense or seems forced. My wife and I now play a game to see how long it takes to identify the awkward insert. A recent favorite was Queen Latifah playing the wife of Adam Sandler’s character in the Netflix movie “Hustle.” Before wokeness this casting would have made for a funny “fish out of water” film. But in Hustle, no mention is made of the relationship. Netflix, run by ardent leftist Reed Hastings, is the best at this. Within 15 minutes of another recent Netflix film, the lead character meets a woman who casually introduces her to her wife and two daughters, who then model calling one parent “mom” and the other “mama.” None of it is related in any way to the plot of the film.

While the rules are just now taking effect, it is pretty clear the Academy has effectively been following them for years. The only difference is that they are now out in the open. Just look at the winners over the last seven years:

• 2016 “Moonlight” from black writer and director Barry Jenkins about a black gay man in the inner city (an infamously shocking upset over the likely too white “La La Land”)
• 2017 “The Shape of Water” from Hispanic writer and director Guillermo del Toro
• 2018 “Green Book” about a black musician in the segregated south
• 2019 “Parasite” from Korean writer and director Bong Joon-ho with an exclusively Asian cast
• 2020 “Nomadland” written and directed by Asian female Chloé Zhou
• 2021 “Coda” about a teenage girl with deaf parents played by deaf actors
• 2022 “Everything Everywhere All At Once” co-written and co-directed by Asian Daniel Kwan about an Asian family

Compare these to the best picture winners of the 1990s: The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler’s List, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, and American Beauty. It is unlikely any of these films would have met the criteria of sufficient “underrepresented” actors or a story “centered on an underrepresented group(s).”

How will these types of films be rewarded in the future? Or will they simply not be made? Indeed many of the greatest movies of all time would fail this standard. For instance, best picture award winners The Godfather and The Godfather II would fail it (no, Sicilians are not considered an underrepresented group.) An historical depiction of any event involving white males, say one of the Apollo missions, could not meet this standard unless producers abandoned any attempt at historical accuracy. And, of course, the Academy’s push for “inclusion” only goes one way. It has no problem with an entirely minority, female, or LGBT cast.

A demonstrator carries a placard during a rally to protest a lack of diversity among Oscar nominees near the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, Calif., on Feb. 28, 2016. (David McNew/AFP via Getty Images)

Ironically, Steven Spielberg’s “Schindlers List,” which is a film that demonstrates the horrors associated with separating people based upon immutable characteristics, may not have met the standard. The film starts by depicting German soldiers rounding up men, women and children solely because of their ethnicity. Academy members would be well served by rewatching this film. A society begins walking down a very dangerous path when it starts categorizing people based upon their membership in a certain race, ethnicity, or gender rather than as individuals.

Actor Richard Dreyfuss recently showed the courage to speak out against the new standards, saying they make him want to vomit. “No one should be telling me as an artist that I have to give in to the latest, most current idea of what morality is,” he told PBS. “And I’m sorry, I don’t think that there is a minority or a majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”

Spielberg and other members of the Hollywood elite need to also condemn these rules. We will never truly turn the corner on wokeness until those on the left demonstrate the courage to stand up and denounce it as Dreyfuss has done.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.