SCOTUS Decision On Affirmative Action Might Affect The Oscars
As the Supreme Court deliberates the future of affirmative action in college admissions, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) should be wary. The highest court of the United States will hear oral arguments in two parallel cases—one against the private Harvard University, the other against the public University of North Carolina—on October 31, 2022, with an expected ruling sometime next year.
To outsiders, the decisions of SCOTUS regarding academic affirmative action would seem to have little direct legal bearing on the film Academy, nor on its soon-to-be-imposed inclusion standards on the Oscar Best Picture race, beginning with the 2024 ceremony. However, this might not be the case. As seen from recent decisions on abortion and gun rights, Supreme Court action can trigger cultural clashes that derail society. In this case, any broad court pronouncement against race-based standards could sweep the Academy’s diversity program into chaos.
Lately, AMPAS has been more like a modern, socially concerned institution over the past few years and less like an industry auxiliary. Formerly based on merit and a corrupt buddy system, admission is now publicly based on a holistic, college-like approach that takes achievement and identity into account. A membership, movie community, and film material that are somehow more diverse than before are anticipated to result from the combination. As a result, one is given status by the Academy and its outreach activities, as well as by affiliated and similarly oriented systems at companies, guilds, film schools, festivals, and other organizations, in part, based on identification. Achievement and talent are factors, but, like modern-day college admissions, there are many other considerations at hand.
As mentioned earlier, the Best Picture race and film inclusion will now be codified under a set of standards that require the producers of hundreds of films to file copious quantities of confidential information on the race, sexual orientation, and disability status of cast and crew. These requirements contain several numerical quotas, which have long been prohibited in college admissions. Once the standards are implemented, problems will unavoidably arise. One common argument involving this topic is that many qualified Asian Americans claim they are denied admission to universities in favor of meeting the quota of African American admissions despite being more qualified. Regardless, admitting some people means excluding others in any field that is limited.
Only time will tell whether racial and gender quotas are, ultimately, good for the movies. However, it is worth noting that SCOTUS decisions on racial preference cases demand attention. Such decisions will trigger angry debates online and on the cable television circuit. It seems only logical that the Oscars would get swept into the discourse.