Perhaps because the nation’s politics have become more of a circus, it is unsurprising that the nation’s circus has become more political. We refer, of course, to the Academy Awards show, that inflicted itself on America’s television screens Sunday night.
Culture intrudes on politics, and vice versa. That America’s ever-coarsening culture is infecting its politics is in evidence as Donald Trump proceeds toward the Republican nomination with ad hominem arguments, and with evident admiration for the Ku Klux Klan, and from the Nation of Islam.
Likewise, the Academy’s racially charged ceremony is a demonstration of how America’s ever-coarser politics is spilling into its entertainment culture.
Leading up to the event, the nomination field included no black actors or actresses. One could assume that this is because there was an unusually large number of strong performances by non-black actors. Or one could assume that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is filled with odious racists who want to deprive African-Americans of prestigious awards.
Obviously, the latter assumption prevailed, hence the campaign of backlash and boycott, symbolized on Twitter by the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
The resulting awards ceremony itself was highly offensive, for all of its attempts to defuse the racial animus that pretty much overshadowed any celebration of actors’ talent. M.C. Chris Rock’s shallow conclusion, that Hollywood is beset by a sort of not-quite-as-bad-but-still-bad “sorority racism” did not make the bitterness any less awkward.
Rock did at least make the important point (albeit in the most jarring terms possible) that a lack of black nominees in any given year is at a far remove from the racist depredations in America’s past, and that protests of the sort that have overtaken the Oscars is a luxury only available in a uniquely spoiled, solipsistic culture.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. It isn’t.
One particular joke, apparently an attempt to offend everyone, involved the parading of Asian children who were identified as accountants. One was even given a Jewish surname.
(Get it? Asians are all good at math. Jews are good with money. Ha, ha — not very funny is it?)
This ceremony was divisive and often cringe-worthy, and should have made people angry not for the ersatz political issues it raised but for the purposeful blindness that Hollywood shows about the actual interests of the public. People across the country like movies to entertain them, stimulate them, excite them. They do not want movie stars who lecture and hector them.
Awards ceremonies are supposed to celebrate talent and cultural contributions. They are not supposed to devolve into a forum for pouring out racial grievances. Perhaps this is why the ratings hit an eight-year low, and why the awards are increasingly irrelevant to the public.
