And the Oscar goes to...

This is the year that the Oscars became truly diverse.  Not symbolically.  Not with tokenism.  But truly, authentically diverse.  So many actors and filmmakers of different colors - and a second female Best Director!  The tide is turning.

But there are battles still to come.  If everyone is going to get her fair share, some people are going to have to give up theirs, and they may not want to.  I may be one of those.  I want to be generous, support what I believe in and know is right; I want to make a difference.  But on my terms.  I don't want to risk anything big or important to me.  I'm not a Tubman.  I'm not proud to admit this, but it's true.  I hold the right ideals, but don't actually want to do very much about them.  Like most people of privilege, I enjoy what I have and don't want to give any of it up.  I just want the brownie point for right thinking, as though that were enough.

I know it's not considered progressive to think in terms of a zero sum game, but certainly for everyone to have enough, those with more than enough are going to have to let go of some of what we have, right?  Is that how the country will become more fair, more equitable, more just?  Is that how the old, old wounds of racism and inequity will heal?  Can they heal?  Surely these wounds were inflicted so long ago, they have scarred over.  Which may take excision to remove.  Which is a more violent process than  healing. 

I don't know.  Equity seems almost more out of reach than ever these days.  For one thing, there are so many of us, and so many are so angry, no doubt partly because of the changes happening all around us.  That anger is fear-based, people afraid of change, afraid of losing what we've got, and that fear makes us brittle and suspicious.  It's discouraging. 

Still, there was the Oscar telecast, which showed the whole world what a fairer world can look like, a world in which talent and skill are rewarded regardless of color and gender.  That's something.  That is something.  After all, with enough drops, the bucket will eventually fill.