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?
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).”
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.
- 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
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.
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.
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.
