Elon Musk has criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Oscars’ diversity rules, saying that awards should be based on merit and not representation.
“This is messed up,” he wrote on his social media platform, X, on Sunday night. “Should just be who is best, not best with an asterisk!”
Why It Matters
Since his inauguration, Donald Trump has pushed to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within the government, vowing that hiring would be based on merit only and would thus implement “colorblind equality.” In his order, the president called federal DEI programs an “immense public waste and shameful discrimination.”
Musk, who together with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been tapped by the Trump administration to shrink the size of the government and realign it with the president’s values, has been at the forefront of efforts to dismantle diversity efforts across federal agencies. DEI policies have long been a point of contention for conservatives, who have made it a target of their war on “woke.” Back in 2023, the Tesla CEO dubbed DEI programs as “propaganda words for racism, sexism, and other -isms.”
What to Know
On Sunday, Musk shared a post published by X celebrity Mario Nawfal that included the Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards for Best Picture nominees.
According to these rules, “at least one of the lead actors or significant supporting actors submitted for Oscar consideration is from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group in a specific country or territory of production.”
At least 30 percent of all actors “not submitted for Oscar consideration” must be from at least two underrepresented groups, which may include “women; racial or ethnic group; LGBTQ+; and people with cognitive or physical disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing.” The main storyline, theme or narrative of a film nominated at the Oscar must also be centered on one of these groups.
Elon Musk speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center on February 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
While Nawfal presented the discovery of these rules as something of a scoop, the Academy introduced these standards in 2020 to promote equitable representation in Hollywood. The Academy’s efforts to become more diverse followed years of controversy around representation at the awards, which culminated in the #OscarSoWhite hashtag of 2015 and 2016, when the nominations were composed exclusively of white actors.
In the history of the Oscars, which held their first ceremony in 1929, only 24 performances by Black actors and actresses have won awards, including Hattie McDaniel for her role in Gone with the Wind (1939), Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field (1963), Denzel Washington for Glory (1989) and Training Day (2001), Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost (1990), Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers (2023).
What People Are Saying
Meredith Shea, the academy’s chief membership, impact and industry officer, told The New York Times last year: “The goal is not to exclude. It’s not to tell people what stories to tell, how to tell them, who to hire or how to cast. We just want everyone to have the widest lens possible throughout the filmmaking process. Are you at least having discussions about bringing people in who have been historically shut out?”
Director Spike Lee, who was asked for his thoughts on the Academy’s representation and inclusion standards, told Variety in 2020: “A lot of loopholes. Hire a white publicist. I need to sit down with somebody from the Academy. Look, I think their heart is in the right place. I will say that. But the battlefield for me is the rarefied air of the gatekeepers. These are the people, individuals who decide what we’re making and what we’re not making, who’s going to write it, who’s going to direct it, who’s going to produce it, who’s a star in this. In speaking about the subject, I always go to Lin-Manuel’s “Hamilton” — You got to be in the motherf—ing room. You got to be in the room where it happens.”
Actor Richard Dreyfuss told PBS in 2023 that he thought the 2020 Academy rules were “patronizing” and “thoughtless”. “They make me vomit,” he said.
What’s Next
In the Academy Awards’ history, there have been a total of 13,445 nominees; only 6 percent were people of color and 17 percent were women, as reported by ABC 7.
While diversity has improved in the past decade, the data indicates there’s still a long way to go before there is full gender and racial representation at the Oscars.
