Butterflies at the Crossroads

In the wake of #OscarsSoWhite, director J.J. Abrams is taking steps to diversify the film industry. From now on any lists of writers, directors, actors, etc. to be considered for a project at Bad Robot Productions should be “at the very least representative of the country we live in.” That’s exciting stuff, and I wonder how he intends to make it happen. For his company to match the U.S. in demographics, half the employees would have to be women. Roughly 64% would be non-Hispanic white, 16% would be Latino, 12% would be black, 5% would be Asian, and 3% would be something else. (Would Bad Robot have to fire all but 4% of their gay employees?) It doesn’t take a mathematical genius to see that following this recipe won’t make the Oscars any less white. But it might make fewer stellar movies – because the people making them would be chosen on some other basis than their talent or expertise.