According to a piece published in the Washington Post, even though “it seemed we were talking about diversity about every five minutes at the Oscars,” that was still not enough.

Why?

“All night long, the show’s jokes focused almost entirely on the problem as it pertains to black people . . . there was a lack of diversity in the lack of diversity,” Jessica Contrera wrote.

So, basically, the Oscars — which I thought were supposed to be about, like, movies and stuff — have to discuss the obstacles that every single marginalized group has faced. Okay, Contrera, that sounds sweet . . . but how in the hell would that even be possible? I mean, even if you took every single second of the existing ceremony to do that, it still wouldn’t be enough time to include everyone. Perhaps she is suggesting we make it even longer?

Elsewhere in her piece, Contrera stated that she had a particular problem with a joke that Chris Rock made about a group of Asian kids he had brought on stage: “If anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids.”

In fact, she was so upset about this joke that her article was actually called “If the Oscars were all about diversity, why the crude Asian joke?”

#share#Um. Maybe because Chris Rock is a comedian, and that’s what comedians do. They make jokes — sometimes even ones that wouldn’t be appropriate for social-justice rallies, because they are not performing at social-justice rallies.

It’s pretty clear that people like Contrera see the world through a lens of looking for something to be offended by. This, of course, will ultimately discourage the kind of discussions needed for progress because it makes people afraid of accidentally or unintentionally saying something wrong.

#related#I guess Contrera is not totally wrong, though. I was offended by the Oscars too, but that was because it was so boring I had to turn it off. How in the world could a gathering of the supposedly best entertainers in the biz manage to be so boring that I’d have to turn it off?

I’m not sure, but perhaps it managed by being entirely about agendas and hardly about entertainment. Sure, film is often commentary on society, which means that some discussion of cultural issues is appropriate. But when we’ve got people complaining that even a ceremony where “it seemed like we were talking about diversity about every five minutes” isn’t enough?

Maybe — just maybe — we’re taking it a bit too far.