Hollywood’s Diversity Quotas for Oscar Nominees Draw Attention From Justice Department’s Civil Rights Unit

The head of the Department of Justice’s civil rights division is signaling that the Trump administration may look into Hollywood’s race and sex quotas for hiring.In a post on X, Tom Fitton, who heads a conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, wrote that the DOJ should “ask the Hollywood studios and the Oscars about their race, sex and other discrimination in hiring for movies.”The assistant attorney general in charge of the civil rights division, Harmeet Dhillon, responded, “We would be happy to receive leads about this.”She added that the investigation is “probably most suited” for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Mr. Fitton re-shared a post from March 2024 about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ criteria for movies to qualify for the “Best Picture” award at the Oscars. In 2020, the Academy rolled out a series of “representation and inclusion standards” for movies to qualify for the “Best Picture” category. The standards were supposed to “encourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience,” the Academy said.The chief executive of the Academy, Dawn Hudson, said, “The aperture must widen to reflect our diverse global population in both the creation of motion pictures and in the audiences who connect with them. The Academy is committed to playing a vital role in helping make this a reality.”To meet those goals, the Academy said it would begin requiring that films meet two out of four diversity standards if producers hope to be nominated for or receive an Academy Award.For on-screen representation, movies have to have “at least” one of the lead actors or “significant supporting actors” be from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, or the storyline must be “centered on an underrepresented group.”The guidelines state that the groups can include women, the LGBT community, people with cognitive or physical disabilities, or racial or ethnic groups such as people who are African American, East Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and “Latina/e/o/x.” The Academy includes other standards such as “industry access and opportunities.” For the film to qualify for that criterion, the “distribution or financing company” must have apprenticeships or internships for “underrepresented groups.”Another standard to qualify is for film companies to hire “in-house senior executives” or consultants “belonging to at least two underrepresented groups.” Alternatively, movies can qualify if “at least six” of the technical positions are from an “underrepresented group,” or if “30 percent of the film’s crew is from at least two underrepresented groups.”In President Trump’s first week in office, he issued an executive order directing federal agencies to develop “recommendations” to “encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”The Trump administration has launched a series of investigations into colleges and companies over DEI policies. On Thursday, Ms. Dhillon said the civil rights division had opened an investigation into the University of California over its DEI practices. The administration has also pressured media companies to drop diversity policies. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, launched an investigation into Disney and ABC for allegedly “promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination.”Diversity quotas in Hollywood, which became popular after the death of George Floyd in 2020, have already garnered the attention of regulatory agencies. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that the FCC informed Paramount Global that it would need to commit to ending its DEI policies if it wanted the commission to approve its merger with Skydance Media. The same week the Journal reported the FCC’s condition for Paramount, one of its subsidiaries, CBS Studios, announced that it would settle a lawsuit brought by a white scriptwriter, Brian Beneker, who alleged he was denied a staff writer job due to an “illegal policy of race and sex balancing.”Paramount executives also said the studio would no “longer set or use aspirational numerical goals related to the race, ethnicity, sex, or gender of hires.”The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Hollywood’s Diversity Quotas for Oscar Nominees Draw Attention From Justice Department’s Civil Rights Unit

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