Short Tweet, Long Story

Stephen King, one of the most popular and respected writers of our times, whose books have sold in more than 350 million copies worldwide and who published 61 novels up to date — does not tweet much. Since December 2013 when he joined Twitter, he has posted only about 4000 times, which equals approximately two tweets a day. Far from setting records. Nonetheless, a tweet from him recently went viral. On January 14th, the ‘’King of Horror’’ tweeted:

“I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.”

The author’s comments came amidst intensive (as is the case every year) discussion, known online as ‘#OscarsSoWhite’ in regards to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences choosing to nominate white and male candidates over well, anyone else. This disproportion is especially visible in acting categories — this year the sole Oscar nominee of colour in all acting categories is Cynthia Erivo. King, who admittedly is only allowed to nominate in three categories (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay) exemplifies a wider trend; that of producers, directors and writers who do not, in words of Erivo “make sure it reflects the world that we live in”.

Perhaps not unsurprisingly, King received a backlash of (mostly) angry feelings. Ava DuVernay, the writer and director of Netflix’s “When They See Us,” criticised King, calling his words “backwards and ignorant”. Author of The New York Times’ bestselling essay collection, Roxane Gay, expressed her “painful” feelings evoked by the tweet.

They were not alone in their discontent regarding King’s tweet (even though he later stated clearly that he wholeheartedly supports equality of opportunity). Diversity is a challenging task to implement. Arts Council England is yet to publish its annual report on this issue; the data shown in the report from last year does not exactly instil optimism. Clive Nwonka, a fellow in film studies at the London School of Economics wrote in The Guardian that “black and minority ethnic workers represent just 4.4% of the sector’s workforce”, adding that the call for diversity has shifted over the past twenty years from a “conceptual base” to “seeing economic growth as the primary justification for policy action”.

On the other receiving end, there are universities. The Oscars are the end goal for a lot of the film industry — universities are the start. According to the BBC, Black students make up only 8% of the UK university population, with most candidates based in “less prestigious institutions”. A study conducted in 2014 showed that applicants with a skin colour other than white were less likely to be offered the place; however; they were also much more likely to apply for the most competitive courses. There are huge regional differences coming into play, too — roughly 97% students in Northern Ireland are white, whereas in London it is less than 50%.

Diversity is especially important in arts-focused institutions. Wisdom Baty — an urban based artist from Chicago said in an article: “Most artists I learned about rarely looked like me. These artists and art styles were far removed from my everyday living experiences. Even when introduced to higher level art history classes in college, I noticed that there were little historical references to cultures outside of Europe”.

She continues: “Access to instruction, access to points of view, and transparency to critically analyze these points of view are three major concerns for arts education today.”

Philona Odwin from UAL’s Student Services team which provides the Advice Service, Counselling, Health Advice and Chaplaincy Service and the Disability Service adds that “[The university] is about creativity. Diversity, by its very nature, makes it much more interesting. It exposes more and more students to meeting their mates from different cultures and backgrounds.”

Diversity is easy in theory, and much more complex in practice. “We frankly do not have many cases of students who feel they don’t fit culturally. The main issue are finances. Overseas students are unfortunately often disadvantaged in that field” claims Ms. Odwin.

The example of Erivo herself — who, if she won, would be the youngest (at 33) person to grab an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony) shows that we quite successfully have overcome outright discrimination. However, the much more complex task, that of actual groundwork of providing everyone with equality of opportunity, has not yet really begun.