It was not the mix-up that marred the announcement of the year's best picture that will forever taint the 89th Academy Awards. In fact, all things considered, it will be the least of the snafus anyone might care to remember deep into the future of the Oscars, if there is still such a future to even look forward to. The way things are going, the Oscars is no longer what the Oscars is all about. It has become something else.
Perhaps the signs of demise started farther back. Not being truly Oscars watchers, it is difficult to be clear about that. But by last year, things have become really apparent - that there is a conscious effort by certain sectors of the American public, and not just in the entertainment industry, to reconfigure what America is all about, including its institutions, of which the Oscars is one of the more popular.
In last year's Oscars, there was a ripple of palpable dissent about the Awards being too racist for being "too white." Throughout its history, people, not just in America but all over the world, were of the belief that the Oscars was all about excellence in the art and science of movie-making. Last year, for the first time, color was introduced into the Oscars. And by that we do not mean Technicolor.
Suspiciously as a direct result, this year the Oscars was no longer "too white." Whether that was by accommodation and design, we do not know. What we know is that while the "non-whites" who won this time were truly deserving of their awards, it can no longer be held certain whether they did win on that account or were only made to win in order not to appear "too white." That is what happens when you start introducing a meaning that was not there in the beginning.
Apart from race, religion, too, has been introduced into the Oscars. The best supporting actor has been invariably described as the first Muslim so honored by the Academy. Okay, the fact that he is Muslim is acceptable as an aside. But that is not why it is being rubbed in in all the accounts of his winning. The emphasis is all part of the anti-Trump narrative that laced the entire Oscars night. The destruction of the Oscars is just a precursor to the destruction of America.
An Iranian filmmaker who won the foreign film category did not show up to receive the award in protest against Trump's ban against seven countries with terror links. But he still wanted his award and had someone receive it for him. He also had a message read for him to the American people. In it, he insisted foreigners had the superior right to enter America than the Americans to determine who gets in and who is kept out. The American (?) audience erupted in thunderous applause.