Stephen King responds to criticism of his ‘ignorant’ comments about diversity in art: The game is ‘rigged in favour of white folks’

Author criticises ‘less-than-diverse Academy Awards nominations’

Stephen King on 13 November 2013 in Paris, France. (KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP via Getty Images)

Stephen King has addressed his own controversial comments about diversity in art in a new op-ed.

The author faced criticism earlier this month after tweeting that he “would never consider diversity in matters of art”. His remarks were criticised by many including Ava DuVernay, who deemed them “backward and ignorant”.

King was speaking the day after the 2020 Oscars nominations were announced – and denounced for their lack of diversity.

King himself is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which oversees the ceremony. As a writer – as he reminded people on Twitter – he can “nominate in just three categories: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Screenplay”.

In his op-ed, which was published by The Washington Post, King writes that “lines of belief are drawn with indelible ink, and if you step over them — wittingly or otherwise — you find yourself in the social-media version of the stocks and subject to a barrage of electronic turnips and cabbages” before acknowledging that he ”stepped over one of those lines recently, by saying something on Twitter that [he] mistakenly thought was noncontroversial”.

The writer goes on to argue that in an ideal setting, “as with justice, judgments of creative excellence should be blind”.

“But that would be the case in a perfect world, one where the game isn’t rigged in favour of the white folks,” he continues, adding a few lines later: “We don’t live in that perfect world, and this year’s less-than-diverse Academy Awards nominations once more prove it.”

King also praises DuVernay’s 2019 series When They See Us about the Central Park Five’s wrongful convictions, calling it “splendid”, as well as Greta Gerwig and her film Little Women.