This year, the Oscars nominations have shown an astonishing lack of diversity, and, thankfully, people started to talk about it.
Some people, however, probably should never have opened their mouths.
Notably Charlotte Rampling, Julie Delpy and Kristen Stewart.
Rampling and Delpy's comments were patently absurd and so I'm not going to address them here; rather, what I am going to talk about is the insidious nature of Kristen Stewart's stance on diversity.
Stewart fell into the trap of saying what so many clueless people before her have said.
She suggested that if people have a problem with a lack of diversity in Hollywood, then they should stop complaining and do something about it.
‘‘Why don't you do something about it?'' is one of the most frustrating things anyone can say to a marginalised person.
This inane statement not only puts all of the pressure to fix social inequality on to the marginalised person, it also disregards how hard this person has to work to even participate in some industries.
People like Stewart ask why nothing is being done while they ignore all of the work that is going on around them.
Of course people of colour, women, and the LGBTQ community are doing something.
Something is being done every time a marginalised person gives their time and energy to a community that doesn't necessarily acknowledge their narratives or their contributions.
I can guarantee it takes a lot more to be a woman of colour acting in Hollywood than it does to be a wealthy white woman with family connections in the industry.
People are complaining, but they're not sitting around while they're doing it.
People are complaining because they have been working so hard for so long and still their efforts and their achievements go unnoticed.
It's not that there aren't any films featuring African American actors, it's that the Academy doesn't recognise these films as being as significant as yet another Caucasian drama.
And it's not just Hollywood; every industry is sick with a lack of diversity and a lack of recognition for voices that aren't straight and white and (more often than not) male.
In music, so many women are screaming at the top of their lungs about inappropriate behaviour inflicted on them by industry dudes and people are asking ‘‘why didn't you say anything before?''
But the truth is that we have been saying it for years, and it's only when high profile figures take up the cause that anyone listens.
If Kristen Stewart wants something to be done about it, then she could easily use her industry pull and public position to draw attention to lack of diversity, rather than putting the pressure on people who are already under enough strain.
If Kristen Stewart is worried about why people aren't doing anything to combat lack of diversity and discrimination, then maybe she should start doing.
Maybe she shouldn't be involved in Woody Allen's latest whatever-treatise on the creepy older American male.
To be perfectly clear, it is never a marginalised groups' responsibility to fix or change power structures that actively exclude and disadvantage them.
It is not the responsibility of actors and directors of colour to change the academy's deep-seated racism.
No marginalised group can suddenly change the status quo by just doing a little bit more if they don't have support from those with greater privilege.
When privileged people act shocked at a lack of social change when they have never stuck their neck on the line for anyone but themselves, they're really only showing how comfortable they are keeping things the way they are.
●Millie Lovelock is a Dunedin student.
