It’s not enough that the “browning of America,” as NPR put it, has been accompanied by the browning of previously white entertainment characters and “woke” films that wane at the box office. Now greater political correctness will reign behind the camera, too, with New York’s new “TV diversity bill.” Don’t expect greater ideological diversity, however — the kind mandated is purely superficial.
As Variety reports:
New York state [sic] has adopted a landmark TV diversity law that will provide production tax incentives to companies that hire women and people of color for writing and directing jobs.
The bill championed by the Writers Guild of America, East and Directors Guild of America calls for incentives of up to 30% of an individual’s salary so long as the person lives in New York. The credit would be capped at $150,000 in salaries and fees per person, and $50,000 per episode. The state has set aside $5 million for the program.
The bill has been circulating around Albany for several years. It was vetoed last year by Gov. Andrew Cuomo because of what he said were concerns about how the credit would be calculated. This time around Cuomo said he secured commitment from the legislature to study the “underutilization” of women and people of color as writers and directors.
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Yet is this by definition a problem? After all, there’s “underutilization” of whites in basketball, women in the NFL, and dwarves most everywhere. And there’s certainly “underutilization” of conservatives among writers and directors.
The discriminatory N.Y. bill “passed over the summer with bipartisan support in the State Senate and Assembly,” the Wrap added. “It was championed by both the Writers Guild of America East and Director’s Guild. More than 400 TV and film writers, including John Oliver, Amy Schumer, Samantha Bee and Ilana Glazer came out in support of the bill.”
The problem with the theory of “underutilization” is that it’s based on a fallacy (when it’s not driven by pure hatred): that groups would be equally represented across fields were it not for unjust discrimination.
Yet as Professor Walter E. Williams has pointed out, there has never been a time or place in world history where this was so — and negative discrimination is not to blame.
Among the many examples he provides are that though “Jews are less than 2 percent of the world’s population, 203, or 22.5 percent, of the Nobel Prizes [have been] … awarded to Jews,” and at times 84 percent of NBA players have come from just 13 percent of the population: blacks.
Yet it’s no surprise that N.Y.’s government is encouraging unjust discrimination. Government has historically been more discriminatory than the private sector because, unconstrained by profit imperatives, it isn’t as concerned with policies negatively affecting the bottom line; this is what discriminatory measures generally do, too.
That said, today’s “woke” entertainment private sector may be an exception. It has long been creating unpalatable politically correct fare, such as the new Batwoman TV series. Featuring an openly lesbian Batwoman, it has been panned by everyman critics, with one dubbing it “Emasculation: The TV Show.”
Another example is The Rise of Skywalker; owing to its political correctness, say many critics and fans, the new Star Wars film is killing off the franchise (one can only hope).
Yet this is unsurprising and a consequence of identity politics priorities supplanting focus on merit, a phenomenon the N.Y. law only serves to exacerbate. Yet lying at the heart of this is something far deeper: disconnection from moral reality.
There isn’t value-free entertainment anymore than there’s value-free education or parenting. In fact, man’s stories have sent moral messages from prehistory to the age of the Greek classics and beyond. But what should those messages reflect?
Well, if morality came in a jar, on the ingredients label would be “virtues.” These are “good moral habits” that have been discovered — meaning, they reflect Truth, which already existed. Examples are charity, chastity, courage, diligence, hope, faith, prudence, fortitude, kindness, honesty, justice, temperance, forgiveness, and humility.
Yet as I pointed out in the 2016 essay “Where Have You Gone, George Washington? Killing Our Heroes,” we have gradually ceased portraying virtue in entertainment and thus “have robbed the young of needed role models.” We also have divided ourselves.
One beautiful thing about virtues is that since they’re universals, they’re unitive. No matter your race, creed, or color, virtuousness is a prerequisite for being a good person and, as Greek philosopher Aristotle noted, achieving happiness. Thus is virtue-reflecting entertainment for everyone.
Yet what happens when a civilization descends into relativism and ceases believing in Truth, in moral universals? That great unitive and civilizing factor is then gone. The only thing then left to use as a yardstick for messaging is emotion — what feels right.
Consequently, there’s then a tendency to believe that every group needs its own tailor-made entertainment. You show blacks, women, Hispanics, etc. what feels right to them — or, at least, what the social engineers in charge (generally white libs) feel feels right to them. You assign entertainment “positions” based on quota.
This is why Ben Franklin warned, “Passion governs and she never governs wisely.” Yet today’s relativistic politicians don’t have principle, only passion — and in particular, the passion for power.
Photo: Mike_Kiev/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The New American for more than a decade. He has also written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily, American Thinker, and many other print and online publications. In addition, he has contributed to college textbooks published by Gale-Cengage Learning, has appeared on television, and is a frequent guest on radio.
