Fox News’ Tucker Carlson says ‘Moonlight’ only won Best Picture because of political correctness – ThinkProgress

The cast of Moonlight accepts the Academy Award for Best Picture. CREDIT: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

Best Picture Oscar winner Moonlight is a critically-acclaimed exploration of black and queer identities. Its at once a coming of age drama, a film about the intersections of race and class, a love story, andabove allthe story of a black man grappling with his sexual orientation over the course of his life. Its hard to summarize all that the movie entails. But according to Fox & Friends Tucker Carlson, its only a winning film because of political correctness.

It was forgone, Carlson said of La La Lands short-lived victory on Sunday night. Moonlight had to win because you knew what the film was about. And thats part of the problem with Hollywood.

Carlson explained that the second you feel a political imperative it destroys your art, calling the celebration of Moonlight overbearing and pompous and boorish.

As the Washington Posts Abby Phillip pointed out, Carlson didnt indicate if hed actually seen the movie, which also won Best Adapted Screenplay and earned Mahershala Ali his own award for Best Supporting Actor. His comments align with the old adage Celebrities should stay out of politics. Hollywood, the argument goes, has one purpose: entertainment. When it wades into political territory, theyve gone too fardoing a job they werent asked to do.

Carlsons statement is patently false. If the honor rewarded political correctnessa euphemism for minorities inclusionperhaps people of color wouldnt have been erased for decades by the Hollywood establishment and LGBTQ people wouldve been celebrated instead of overshadowed by white, cis men who portrayed them onscreen.

Instead, only 32 African Americans, 10 Latinos, and eight openly gay people won Academy Awards as of 2016a small fraction of the 2,900 winners since the first ceremony in 1929. They may have deserved accolades, but non-white and LGBTQ people have been losing for generations.

Underlying Carlsons comments is the notion that artists particularly black artistsshould be quiet. They dont have a right to produce something that pushes boundaries and audiences and then celebrate what theyve created, even though they are historically ignored by the Academy and the entertainment industry writ large. They are arrogant beneficiaries of affirmative action driving the industry.

Whats most troubling about Carlsons argument, though, is the inherent assumption that black and queer experiences arent a standard. To be black and queer is to live on the margins. They are experiences that only exist in the realm of politics, where others try to assert themselves and be heard. They arent mainstream or deserving.

No matter. The cast of Moonlight should bask in their groundbreaking victory. Were basking in the light with them.

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Fox News' Tucker Carlson says 'Moonlight' only won Best Picture because of political correctness - ThinkProgress