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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/19/oscars-diversity-boycott-idris-elba-oscars-steel-middle-class
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| And the Oscar boycott award goes to Spike and Jada and Snoop | And the Oscar boycott award goes to Spike and Jada and Snoop |
| (7 months later) | |
| Timing really is everything in showbiz. Idris Elba had hardly finished giving a select audience in parliament his steer on diversity in the media when up popped a sequel in Hollywood. Cynics might prefer to give the weepy stars and their extended list of thankees at the Oscars a miss. This year they can do so with good reason: the boycott by luminaries such as Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith, who will absent themselves over the lack of diversity. | Timing really is everything in showbiz. Idris Elba had hardly finished giving a select audience in parliament his steer on diversity in the media when up popped a sequel in Hollywood. Cynics might prefer to give the weepy stars and their extended list of thankees at the Oscars a miss. This year they can do so with good reason: the boycott by luminaries such as Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith, who will absent themselves over the lack of diversity. |
| The statistics are damning, but in a sense they’re irrelevant. Everyone knows there’s a problem, from Oscars boss Cheryl Boone Issacs – herself an African-American – downwards. She professed herself “heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion”. We have all seen initiatives, programmes and commitments come and go. Everyone’s fed up with it. | The statistics are damning, but in a sense they’re irrelevant. Everyone knows there’s a problem, from Oscars boss Cheryl Boone Issacs – herself an African-American – downwards. She professed herself “heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion”. We have all seen initiatives, programmes and commitments come and go. Everyone’s fed up with it. |
| The stars involved are probably well aware of the stick they are inevitably going to attract and what form it will take, even as they bask in support from A-listers David Oyelowo and Don Cheadle and outriders such as the Rev Al Sharpton (“Hollywood is like the Rocky Mountains: the higher up you get, the whiter it gets”). Not to mention a profanity-strewn message of solidarity from Snoop Dogg. There is a simple answer to all of this, of course. Hollywood could stop talking about change and start (ahem) acting. | The stars involved are probably well aware of the stick they are inevitably going to attract and what form it will take, even as they bask in support from A-listers David Oyelowo and Don Cheadle and outriders such as the Rev Al Sharpton (“Hollywood is like the Rocky Mountains: the higher up you get, the whiter it gets”). Not to mention a profanity-strewn message of solidarity from Snoop Dogg. There is a simple answer to all of this, of course. Hollywood could stop talking about change and start (ahem) acting. |
| The silence of steel cities | The silence of steel cities |
| News of more redundancies in the steel industry resonated with me, for on arrival in the UK in the 1950s my grandad got a job as a steel worker in Sheffield. As everyone knows, foundry work is hard, and it isn’t greatly rewarded. But what he liked about it helps explain why industries like steel are so much more than just economic units. For a recent arrival in Britain, living in a small, isolated Caribbean community in a northern city, the workforce provided a ready-made social environment where he could interact with others. He was able to build relationships and share in the gossip, jokes and laughter, participate in the common culture. | News of more redundancies in the steel industry resonated with me, for on arrival in the UK in the 1950s my grandad got a job as a steel worker in Sheffield. As everyone knows, foundry work is hard, and it isn’t greatly rewarded. But what he liked about it helps explain why industries like steel are so much more than just economic units. For a recent arrival in Britain, living in a small, isolated Caribbean community in a northern city, the workforce provided a ready-made social environment where he could interact with others. He was able to build relationships and share in the gossip, jokes and laughter, participate in the common culture. |
| Environmentalists might not like large-scale works belching smoke and noise, but they are a sign of towns and cities that are alive and active. When these sites close, when silence falls, it blights everything. | Environmentalists might not like large-scale works belching smoke and noise, but they are a sign of towns and cities that are alive and active. When these sites close, when silence falls, it blights everything. |
| My grandad stayed in the north in the 1970s, but my mum and dad moved south from Sheffield to London in the 80s. That was another great migration. They were looking for work of course, but they were looking for something else too: the opportunity to participate and to have a future denied them in the places where they were born. That’s all that most people want. In many parts of Britain, alas, they’re still waiting. | My grandad stayed in the north in the 1970s, but my mum and dad moved south from Sheffield to London in the 80s. That was another great migration. They were looking for work of course, but they were looking for something else too: the opportunity to participate and to have a future denied them in the places where they were born. That’s all that most people want. In many parts of Britain, alas, they’re still waiting. |
| Latte drinker, and proud of it | Latte drinker, and proud of it |
| At least my grandad never had to worry where he was in the perennially fascinating British class system. For some of us, though, things have been more problematic. | At least my grandad never had to worry where he was in the perennially fascinating British class system. For some of us, though, things have been more problematic. |
| Last week, after years of denial and self-deception, I decided to confirm to some supportive friends what they will have suspected for a while anyway. The mask is off. I’m no longer working class: I am now identifying as a member of the metropolitan middle-class community. | Last week, after years of denial and self-deception, I decided to confirm to some supportive friends what they will have suspected for a while anyway. The mask is off. I’m no longer working class: I am now identifying as a member of the metropolitan middle-class community. |
| And don’t talk to me about othering and abuse; my community has been there. “House price obsessive” and “dinner party invitee” – these are just two of the printable examples. But I’ve got a message for all the haters and the trolls. Anyone who shouts “latte drinker” at me on the street can expect to get called out on it. | And don’t talk to me about othering and abuse; my community has been there. “House price obsessive” and “dinner party invitee” – these are just two of the printable examples. But I’ve got a message for all the haters and the trolls. Anyone who shouts “latte drinker” at me on the street can expect to get called out on it. |