Stephen King clarifies controversial Twitter remarks about film talent and diversity: 'The Oscars are still rigged in favor of white people'

Author Stephen King has expounded on his thoughts about considering diversity when voting in the Academy.

 

In previous tweets, King said Oscar nominations should be based on quality alone and not diversity for diversity's sake.

What's a brief history here?

On Jan. 14, King, a member of the Academy, tweeted that he would not "consider diversity" when voting in the Academy.

He wrote, "As a writer, I am allowed to nominate in just 3 categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay. For me, the diversity issue—as it applies to individual actors and directors, anyway—did not come up. That said ... I would never consider diversity in matters of art. Only quality. It seems to me that to do otherwise would be wrong."

Naturally, leftists tore the beloved writer to shreds for his opinion.

Great. So what's he saying now?

King further explained the remarks in a Monday op-ed in the Washington Post titled, "The Oscars are still rigged in favor of white people."

“The subject was the Academy Awards," he wrote of his previous tweets. "I also said, in essence, that those judging creative excellence should be blind to questions of race, gender or sexual orientation."

King pointed out, "Creative excellence comes from every walk, color, creed, gender and sexual orientation, and it's made richer and bolder and more exciting by diversity, but it's defined by being excellent."

"Judging anyone's work by any other standard is insulting and — worse — it undermines those hard-won moments when excellence from a diverse source is rewarded (against, it seems, all the odds) by leaving such recognition vulnerable to being dismissed as politically correct," the best-selling author added.

“I did not say that was the case today, because nothing could be further from the truth," he continued. “Nor did I say that films, novels, plays and music focusing on diversity and/or inequality cannot be works of creative genius. They can be, and often are. Ava DuVernay's 2019 Netflix miniseries, 'When They See Us,' about the wrongful convictions of the Central Park Five, is a splendid case in point."

King pointed out that the nominees for this year's Academy Awards simply "less-than-diverse," canceling out any notion of a "perfect world."

“We don't live in that perfect world, and this year's less-than-diverse Academy Awards nominations once more prove it," King concluded. “Maybe someday we will. I can dream, can't I? After all, I make stuff up for a living."

The 92nd Annual Academy Awards will air live on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. E.T. on ABC.