Many parts of the catholic world, including the Caribbean, are getting ready for the mayhem that is Carnaval. However, this year Carnaval might be under threat due to the Scaremonger’s latest release: the coronavirus. If you want to be offended rather than scared, then the latest diversity controversy in filmland might tickle your pickle.
New and Improved Global Bio Threat
Just in case climate change, Boris Johnson as Prime Minister, or the UK out of the EU fails to raise your anxiety levels, there is now a new and improved worldwide threat: the coronavirus. To be precise, 2019-nCoV, as there are several strains of the coronavirus. 2019-nCoV is considered a new strain and it has been said that it originates from bats sold for human consumption at a large food market in Wuhan, China. We tend to blame animals when we are introduced to new, scary viruses such as HIV/AIDS, SARS and Ebola. It is known that the city of Wuhan is home to two virology research labs. One of these two is the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the first biosafety level 4 lab in China. Institutions operating on this level require the highest degree of precautions as these labs are allowed to handle the most dangerous viruses. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been linked to China’s secret bioweapons programme. Where there is smoke there is fire as they say, and it is not at all implausible that the new coronavirus has escaped- or was deliberately released- from this ‘state-of-the-art’ lab. Any suggested link, however, between the emergence of the new coronavirus and the Wuhan Institute of Virology is immediately and quite vehemently dismissed as fake news and conspiracy theory, which, in itself, I find rather suspicious. There seems to be quite a lot of disinformation out there. The Chinese authorities have been repressing a lot of information, while considerably downplaying the seriousness of the case at the early stages, and silenced many whistleblowers.
The Western corporate media appears to be in the known but doesn’t know shit. It just repeats whatever press agencies Reuters or AP have to say and fuck knows which grapevines these ‘respected’ agencies use as their sources. It doesn’t really matter; as long as you are scared, prejudiced against Chinese people, and get that expensive vaccine as soon as it is available, then it has all served its purpose.
Hashtag Oscars So Much To Whine About
As the highlight of the 2019/20 awards calendar, the Academy Awards, informally known as the Oscars, attempted to dazzle us with some not-so diverse Hollywood fairy dust last Sunday. Despite the South Korean film Parasite winning four awards including Best Picture, the Oscars-so-white uproar is back in town. In case you forgot where hashtag-Oscar- so-white came from, it was introduced in 2015 as a sign of protest against the exclusion of Oscar nominations for people of colour. Consequently, several black and brown artists boycotted the 2016 award ceremony. Hollywood made an attempt to do better in the years that followed and many people bought the diversity-washing. For the 2017 awards ceremony, several heavyweights of colour were nominated and actually won golden statutes. The winner of Best Film, Moonlight has an all-black cast and the film deals with LBGT issues killing two diversity birds with one cinematic stone. The year 2018 saw the release of smash hits Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians and the Oscars ceremony of 2019 saw some winners of colour. As we were nearing the end of the decade, Hollywood seemed to be riding the diversity train at a steady pace. It didn’t take much for that train to derail, as at Oscars 2020 it was Oscar-so-white-and-so-male as usual. Joaquin Phoenix addressed the issue of diversity in his acceptance speech at the Baftas earlier this month and even Prince William addressed the lack of diversity in his opening speech at the same award ceremony. But talk is just talk.
Polishing the Turd
When it comes to activism we have the tendency to remain on the surface. In the green movement we campaign for the banning of plastic straws and many jump on that bandwagon, although plastic straws contribute less than 1 per cent to overall pollution. Instead of urging consumers to do their shitty little bit, we could urge companies to use more sustainable alternatives to plastic. But we don’t. In LBGTQXYZ circles we make transgender bathroom usage and non-binary pronouns big issues, so big we want to see them made into law. Other issues such as addressing high HIV-infection rates amongst black gay men in America or high self-harming and suicide rates amongst transgenders worldwide are far more pressing matters, however, they receive little attention. In the arts and entertainment sector, we demand that women, people of colour and other minorities get awards too, yet we don’t really address the sector’s structural sexism, racism and ageism. Most people involved in the Hollyweird Dreamfactory of whichever gender, colour or age, contribute to the unsatisfactory status quo. They are the ones writing, producing, directing and acting in the stories that reinforce patriarchal, sexist, white-supremacist and ageist stereotypes. I have pointed out a couple of times that almost all black actor Oscar wins portray downtrodden or ‘bad’ people: slave, maid, thuggish bent cop, trashy ghetto girl. Black folks seldom win fancy awards for roles in which we appear in power, wise, empowered or graceful. Actresses of any race need to be attractive and appear under 35 to play someone’s wife or mistress or just appear as eye candy for which no serious acting is needed. Unless your name is Meryl Streep, interesting roles for actresses over 40 are hard to come by, despite plenty of botox and plastic surgery. Even a female director doesn’t necessarily mean the telling of a more women-centred story. Kathryn Bigelow, who is the only woman to have ever won a Best Director Academy Award, has been telling male-dominated stories throughout her career. I am not saying a woman always needs to tell a female-focused story. However, if she continues the current path of straight-white-male storytelling rather than deviating from it, not a lot will change on a structural level.
Cha-Cha-Cha Changes!
The last thing I want to resort to is divide-and-rule tactics and I want to make clear that the individual white straight male is not the enemy. Although he might appear top-dog, he is just as much a victim of a fucked-up system. To be the change you want to see in the world is easier said than done. It might seem easier to lean on people with louder voices, who seem to know how equality and inclusion can be served. These voices might be loud but they prefer to address symptoms rather than the root cause of the disease. We can’t change the consistency of the pie by just being allowed a few bites. For real change we could bake an entirely new pie; one that is lush, diverse, inclusive and magical as it would show humanity’s true essence and there would always be enough. Let’s start baking.
top image: bobbyrivers.tv@blogspot.com
Dark Fairy Adventures 
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