After posting his thoughts via Twitter regarding the latest Oscar nominations, famous horror author Stephen King received a vast amount of backlash for what he’d stated. Stephen King decided to express his thoughts on considering diversity when assessing the quality of art, and it appears his opinion has prompted some rather negative responses.
In his post, Stephen King noted that he does not believe diversity needs to be accounted for when judging the quality of anything artistic. And after The Academy was already receiving backlash for a lack of diversity for the 2020 Oscar nominees, it’s fair to say that Stephen King chose the wrong time to take a stand.
As he wrote:
“As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue, as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway, did not come up… I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”
After many people felt that the 72 year old author was out of touch with his opinion, he decided to make another response.
“The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts.”
Finally, Stephen King wrote,
“You can’t win awards if you’re shut out of the game.”
One of the more notable reactions to Stephen King’s comments comes from director Ava DuVernay, who wrote:
“When you wake up, meditate, stretch, reach for your phone to check on the world and see a tweet from someone you admire that is so backward and ignorant you want to go back to bed.”
It really is an interesting argument, and you can see Stephen King’s posts and some of their responses down below:
…I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue–as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway–did not come up. That said…
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
The most important thing we can do as artists and creative people is make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, color, or orientation. Right now such people are badly under-represented, and not only in the arts.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
You can't win awards if you're shut out of the game.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) January 14, 2020
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1217103032543932417
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1217176194140868608
https://twitter.com/MorganJerkins/status/1217060644530401280
Sir, respectfully saying you as a white man can’t really say that. You had more advantages and opportunities than a person of color would have. They have been wrongfully held back in so many ways just because of their color skin.
— David Weissman ✡️ (@davidmweissman) January 14, 2020
Sir, respectfully saying you as a white man can’t really say that. You had more advantages and opportunities than a person of color would have. They have been wrongfully held back in so many ways just because of their color skin.
— David Weissman ✡️ (@davidmweissman) January 14, 2020