Stephen King calls out Oscars 2020, says they are "rigged" in favour of "white folks"

Stephen King recently, in a guest editorial for the Washington Post, talked about how the Oscar Awards 2020 are rigged for the benefit of the “white folks”. In his article, Stephen King also talked about the backlash he received for one of his recent tweets that talked about quality over diversity. Read on to know more details about this Stephen King article.

King talks about racism at the Oscars 2020

Stephen King is one of the most celebrated horror fantasy writers in the world. But recently, in one of his guest editorials for a leading publication, Stephen King talked about the Oscars 2020 being racist. He famously made this statement, “The response reflects my overall attitude that, as with justice, judgments of creative excellence should be blind. But that would be the case in a perfect world, one where the game isn’t rigged in favour of the white folks.”

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Stephen King started his editorial by giving clarification to his tweet that stated, “I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong.” In his clarification of this tweet, the Carrie writer said that the most important thing we can do as artists or creative people is to make sure everyone has the same fair shot, regardless of sex, colour, or orientation. He concluded his clarification by stating that nobody can win if you are being shut out of the game.

Stephen King then went on to explain his point by mentioning the Netflix miniseries When They See Us. The Netflix series focuses on the wrongful conviction of the Central Park Five in the famous female jogger rape case due to racist individuals being present in the judicial system. Stephen King then took jabs the voting system of the Academy that only included 32 percent female voters and only 16 percent minority members in total.

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Stephen King in this article also talked about how the Oscars 2020 nominations namely The Irishman, Ford v Ferrari, Joker, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood all have white leads. He then went on to explain how in one of his adaptations, Idris Alba played the role of a gunslinger and was chosen regardless of his skin colour. King then said that his response to choosing Idris Alba reflects on his overall attitude that creative excellence should be blind. But this would be the case in a perfect world where the game is not rigged in favour of the white folks, Stephen King concluded.

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Image courtesy: Stephen King Instagram, The Academy Instagram