Inclusion riders and the forced diversification of the culture.

I am truly torn on this.  What is happening now, the jack-booted forcing of minorities and marginal into the culture, has been a long long long time coming.  But is this the way to do it?  Frances McDormand, who won Best Actress last night for Three Billboards, said this at the end of her speech, “I have two words for you: inclusion rider.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, an inclusion rider is a requirement in contracts that provide for gender and racial diversity.

“2 Broke Girls and Whitney creator Whitney Cummings in a post Sunday night on Twitter: “An inclusion rider is something actors put into their contracts to ensure gender and racial

equality in hiring on movie sets. We should support this for a billion reasons, but if you can’t find a reason to, here’s one: it will make movies better.”

Yeah, ok, but will it?  Because using art to promote political ideas is anathema, it is the quickest way to lose money.  All those gorgeous black women in ball gowns last night looked darned cross, despite their recent elevation to the stratosphere of the culture.  I get it, I really do, but I wasn’t interested in being lectured and blamed and told I was less evolved by people of any color who sell sex and violence for a living – have you seen Empire? , it is mind-bogglingly corrupt and vulgar- so I drifted away.  As did 12% of Oscar’s audience.

Hollywood titans and titanesses may be beautiful, talented and ferociously ambitious, but they just aren’t very smart.