Hollywood Continues Its Racial Navel Gazing with #ArtisansSoWhite

Arbitrarily peppering minorities into roles where they’ve been absent proves laughably condescending. Yet that continues to be Hollywood’s solution to its racial navel-gazing. From Variety:

Americans are reminded in daily headlines that the nation’s original sin of racism is far from expunged. In Hollywood’s own backyard, that reminder came earlier this year in the form of the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, which turned a spotlight on the glaring lack of recognition and opportunities for minority performers.

What #OscarsSoWhite did not address, though, is the racial divide that exists for people of color working in entertainment crafts such as art direction, costume design, editing, sound, and cinematography.

For a business that often prides itself on progressive values, it’s a telling point that discrimination and racism are facts of life for minorities in so-called below-the-line jobs…

The evidence provided for this “discrimination and racism” take two forms, raw numbers and anecdotes. We’re meant to accept on its face that a disproportionate number of white artisans working in Hollywood indicates racism. After all, a couple people once overheard prejudicial comments in passing. So there’s clearly widespread discrimination at play.

As was the case with the #OscarsSoWhite nonsense, this new complaint proves utterly ridiculous. Why would we presume that a demographically proportionate number of minorities actually want to be Hollywood artisans? Even if we could safely make that assumption, why would we go on to presume that they held the requisite talent and experience to justify a hire? Such questions aren’t raised by Variety. All that matters is that white people prevail in a given area, therefore racism.