Academy Members whine about the New Voting Rules

More interesting info about the Academy's changes.

Now that diversity seems to be at the forefront, some of the voters are hurt, victimized and shocked at the overhaul. Yes, my friends, white privilege is flooding out in these responses to the new initiative.

THR has some of these responses from the older white Academy voters. I'll share a few with you:

"It's trying to clear the decks so the show can go on in February without people screaming," vented Sam Weisman, 68, of the directors branch. "As a member who has stepped partially away from the industry, it feels like someone like me is being victimized. I'm in the mentoring phase of my life — I teach — so I'm now supposed to not be relevant, even though I'm being as relevant, in working with young artists, as people who have current credits are. And, by the way, I've contributed a lot of time to the Academy as a judge for the Nicholl Fellowships and the Student Academy Awards. So basically they're saying that I don't matter anymore. It seems like this is a hastily put-together reaction to a firestorm."

Tab Hunter, 84, a member of the actors branch, concurred, calling the announcement "bullshit." He elaborated, "Obviously, it's a thinly-veiled ploy to kick out older white contributors — the backbone of the industry — to make way for younger, 'politically-correct' voters. The Academy should not cave in to media hype and change the rules without talking to or getting votes from all members first."

Documentary branch member Arnold Schwartzman, an Oscar winner for 1982's Genocide, was aggrieved on behalf of his fellow members. "I'm quite angry," he said. "I'm all right, I've got my Oscar. But what about all of those people that were elected to the Academy because they are skilled, but who never got an Oscar nomination?" He continued, "I just resent being characterized by some people as a racist. We judge films on the merits. There were some great films with white people that didn't get in that I was upset about. Race had nothing to do with any of it."

As you can see, this change has called many in question and their responses are very telling. All I ask is that people think about why this happened and why there are drastic measures going down. If folks were keen of this issue, we wouldn't be at this point of action. So, I say "Lick it up, and deal."

The times are a'changing