Is It 'Racist' for White People to Do Good Work?

No need to be rude. And from what I've seen, the points being made in relation to this matter are much less nuanced and balanced than mine, and seem to come from a staunch white supremacist or a staunch 'woke' militant POV. I think you're all so used to seeing such binary, narrow-minded opinions, that you struggle to recognise a post that is sincerely asking these difficult questions from a non-partisan and genuinely interrogative perspective.

And the fact that you feel obliged to say "It would have been nice to see Davis get a nomination" does imply that you're somewhat salty about Riseborough 'taking her place'.

We all know Blanchett will win anyway.

And right on queue one of the usual politics-thread suspects spectacularly proves my point. This the type of nuance you were hoping for Harvey?

Oh look! More nuance!!

I don’t like being the I Told You So guy, but….

It depends on who you talk to.

Certain parts of the media are still as racist as ever, and continue to pick on Black people, especially Black women in the public eye.

And trans people are especially demonised, and not just by the right-wing/conservative parts of the media, but by many militant feminists, and women's rights and mothers' rights organisations.

Yes, but a significant number of people have complained that Riseborough's nomination had the knock-on effect of 'depriving Black women of the fifth nomination spot' (assuming, as many of us do, that either Viola Davis or Danielle Deadwyler were the next most likely nominees; although I am bemused that Riseborough should be blamed for *both* women missing out on the fifth and final nomination spot). I've seen people argue that the manner in which various white actresses lobbied for Riseborough was a demonstration of 'white privilege', and that none of the various white people, mostly white women, who essentially lobbied for Riseborough, would have done the same for a Black actress. I've also seen it argued that Davis and Deadwyler *deserved* the nomination over Riseborough 'because they campaigned much harder' (i.e. did all the chat show/interview circuits) and the 'studios spent more time/money on their campaigns than they did on Riseborough', as if that should be the test as to whether an actor is or isn't nominated, rather than the merit of the respective performances.

It's curious to see many Black people embrace the capitalist/materialist system (for example, some people have argued that because Beyonce and other POC sold more records than Harry Styles, *that* should be the test for whether they win 'Best Album of the Year'), and regard that as a fairer model for success than the present system.

I do have *some* sympathy for that argument. Record sales and studio lobbying/campaigning, do seem like a more objective and transparent basis for handing out awards, than some 'shadowy guild of individuals [many of whom are presumably still white men] making a choice based on their own personal preferences'. The problem is, these aren't awards for record sales (if they were, what would be the point of the whole nomination process?) or for who campaigned the hardest. They're awards for something that's admittedly more subjective and gut-orientated...

I don't disagree, but your sound arguments simply make a bigger mockery of all those people complaining about 'racism' in this instance.

Consciously or not, they're rooting for the big studios and capitalists who, as you say, are angry that a lesser-known actor in a lesser-known movie was nominated, and they can't make any money out of it.

But that's modern 'progressive' politics for you. Back in the day, progressives like me were proud to distance ourselves from the money men. These days self-identifying 'wokesters' LOVE corporations, and hate small businesses (possibly because they know that larger corporations, like Disney, are closer to their ideal, which is one single socialist entity controlling and dictating everything, which makes it easier to lobby for unifying rules and regulations). For Libertarian Socialists like myself (yes, we do exist. Just look at Noam Chomsky), it's dispiriting seeing so many self-identifying but deluded 'leftists' siding with the powerful execs.

It seems that a dream of a genuinely egalitarian society will continue to be on the back-burner for some time yet, because some people still feel entitled to their piece of the pie, and would rather splinter off into special interest groups than work as one unified whole in order to bring about a genuine change that creates equality for ALL. But I guess that's just my Bernie Bro white male privilege talking... *sigh* *eye-roll*...