Oscar-voter Stephen King is getting some heat after a tweet in which he implied that he doesn’t vote for diversity, but, rather, quality when it comes to cinema. These comments come after a tumultuous week in which The Academy has widely been criticized for its predominantly white and male 2020 Oscar nominations.
“For me, the diversity issue — as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway — did not come up,” King wrote. “That said, I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”
Of course, these comments were greeted with scorn by “When They See Us” director Ava DuVernay, calling King’s comments “backward and ignorant.” “When you wake up, meditate, stretch, reach for your phone to check on the world and see a tweet from someone you admire that is so backward and ignorant you want to go back to bed,” DuVernay commented.
Wait, what? So we should give Oscars based on diversity instead of quality?
I don’t see what the big deal is here. King is quite clearly saying that if you vote for someone because of their ethnicity, then you diminish their achievement. He’s simply saying diversity should not be a factor when choosing the best films. Which it shouldn’t.