I attended a TEDx event in which one of the speakers used an inclusion rider. She wouldn’t particulate unless the curators included a diverse set of other speakers. The resulting programming was some of the most interesting, broad, an unusual content I’ve had the pleasure of watching. There were teenagers, a Native American musician, more women presenters than I’ve ever experienced, people of color, gender non-conforming folks and many others who spoke. I was blown away. It took me a while to realize that the presenter with the inclusion rider had stretched the programming folks. We all benefited, greatly.
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The most likely reason so few have adopted it is their legal departments have told them in no uncertain terms that quotas are illegal.
They are also immoral, racist, sexist and logically incoherent.
Using racism and sexism to fight perceived racism and sexism is childish and idiotic.
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Let's not get too hung up on whether Needed Change (with a capital "N" and "C) is happening because it was mandated, or because, under the threat of mandate individuals, studios, whatever simply decided to change.
Does it matter?
So long as we continue to believe that some Conspiracy to Oppress exists (rather than just laziness, inexperience with diverse populations or something else) then we won't be having a civil conversation but an argument.
I applaud those who have created a Mandate, and those who have, Mandate or no, implemented Change. The best part of this is the Stamp - the fact that Studios first were wary, and now embrace it is, while typical, still great.
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When Frances McDormand put that statue down and said "I got two words for you!" I thought for sure she was going to say "Browser History."
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@Victoria Joyce
"Wood chipper"?
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I think it's time we admitted to ourselves that "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbings, Missouri", simply wasn't very good. Too many unbelievable plot devices, too histrionic, too many loose ends. Peter Dinklage's character was about the only sympathetic major character, and all the major characters were white, with the three black people in the movie barely getting any dialogue.
Aside from that, the inclusion rider idea is a little odd. Suppose a production company signed one that required their hires be representative of the nation. For every hundred people they hired, 51 must be female, 49 must be male; if they hire 1,000 then 1 must be non-binary. 72 of the hundred must be white, 12 must be black, 5 must be Asian, 1 must be Native American, 3 must be at least two different races, 6 must be some other race, and 16 of all of them must also identify as Hispanic.
That would be pretty difficult to arrange, if not impossible. It would make it extremely difficult to produce a film about specific ethnic groups, without hiring tons of extraneous white people that wouldn't be filmed.
I think it's better to have production companies just make an effort to be more inclusive, and that obviously this is already happening. Making specific quotas will not be easy, and will wind up discriminating against people anyway.
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An inclusion rider is just a “woke” way of demanding the ability to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, etc.
And it is remarkably illiberal, at least when it comes to film crews. What you see on the screen is a matter of artistic vision. If you think a role calls for a black actor, then you’re not being unfair to Russell Crowe by casting Denzel Washington. But if you tell a lighting director that he can’t have the job he’s qualified for because he’s not gay or a woman, that’s a bit different.
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@Theodore Barnes But the lighting director can reasonably find plenty of other work. The point of these inclusion riders is exactly that...to INCLUDE everyone. There is room for everyone to sit at the Dinner Table of Life; we just have to scoot over and slide around so we can all fit. Once we're all together, you'll see how nice it is when everyone has a place.
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@Theodore Barnes If you haven't notice, discrimination has been rampant in Hollywood for decades. It's just that if you were male, heterosexual, ostensibly Caucasian-looking, it was easy to not notice. For one, there is a long history of casting white actors as minorities, some examples: Andy Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Ingrid Bergman in The Inn of the 6th Happiness, Emma Stone in Aloha.
Also, people often have fixed ideas about what a role should look like even though in the end, it may not make a difference. This is exemplified especially by Shakespeare, who meant for his plays to be reflective of the times and society they were performed in. For example, I have seen a Miami Vice-inspired version of Much Ado About Nothing, Coriolanus with a woman in the lead role, and even a version of Macbeth with the genders reverse. BTW, this was all in the late 1990s, not anything recently. In the end, the changes highlighted the humanity of the characters beyond what they were supposed to be or look like, a goal I think Shakespeare would have thought worthy. (Check out the films Titus and Richard III for cross-time Shakespeare as well.)
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The road to mediocrity is paved with good intentions.
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Perfect justice is impossible -- a knife that cuts both ways.
If employers aren't made to hire more women, they won't.
If employers are made to hire more women, better qualified men (if any) get the dirty end of the stick.
There's probably a happy medium in there somewhere, but if it's ever reached, it'll be dumb luck.
There's really no great solution to this very real problem.
Welcome to planet Earth, eh?
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And how does "a certain percentage this ethnicity, a certain percentage that ethnicity" lead to greater artistic freedom?
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@Len Arends
And how exactly are "Crazy Rich Asians" and "Girls Trip" diverse?
"Inclusion. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
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A quota by any other name, smells just as ... well, "sweet" isn't the word, now is it?
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