Biased Oscar Voters? Wait A Second...

It's Oscar season and, as usual, we're getting a bountiful harvest of blog posts complaining about how the Academy voters are a non-diverse group. However, this year at least, there would seem to be a glaring contradiction between the supposed bias that we should expect from this staid institution and the films leading the Oscar race.

Before I continue, let's look at one of the posts. The chart below is from IndieWire. It was posted by Paula Bernstein and it's an easy-to-understand visual rundown of the old boys club membership.

Over at AwardsDaily, Sasha Stone reposted the chart in her piece called 'Yet Another Oscar Diversity Infographic' (yesterday) and said, "Read it and weep, my friends. 94% white. 77% male. And there you have it."

Another blogger at AD, Ryan Adams, posted this chart today in a piece called '2014 Simulated Oscar Ballot: Final Results'

Well, we all know the race is between '12 Years a Slave' and 'Gravity'. I'm not sure this is news. But, back to that glaring contradiction. If the Academy is mostly white and male and we don't like the way they vote (or at least we're willing to suggest in multiple hi-profile incendiary blog entries that we feel there is something to be suspicious about when it comes to the Academy's ability to objectively decide which movies are the best), why then do we celebrate (at AwardsDaily, the very next day no less) the fact that the leading Oscar contenders this year are movies that feature a black man and a (white) woman in the lead roles?

'12 Years a Slave' is about Solomon Northup, who is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor -- a person of color. The movie is directed by Steve McQueen -- another person of color. It was written by John Ridley -- yet another person of color (I should have that on auto-text).

'Gravity' is carried almost completely on Sandra Bullock's shoulders. She is a woman (white, though, admittedly, but still female). The movie is directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who is from Mexico -- which makes him Latino, I believe.

So, while the Academy works out its membership problems, a process that could take some weeks or even years, perhaps we could cut them some slack. If '12 Years a Slave' wins a single Academy Award will there be one blog post apologizing for eviscerating the Academy?

The fact that these guys are mostly older white men may be irritating but it stems from a situation in society that's been in existence for decades. How these guys (and a couple gals) are voting, however, would suggest it matters little. You can't blame them because, in years past, when compared to the total number of movies produced, there haven't been that many good or great movies directed by women (or men of color) that have had people of color in starring roles.

I'm waiting for the blog post that complains that '12 Years a Slave' is directed by yet another man, and, while Sandra Bullock may be a woman she is not a woman of color.

I'm not seeing a bias. A lot of squawking bloggers, yeah, but a bias from the Academy? Not so much.

So, until next year, when the Academy is sure to still be mostly comprised of old stuffy white guys, and we're sure to have this discussion again...