Michael Brown: Richard Dreyfuss on Cultural Sensitivity vs. Capitulation.

Cultural Capitulation vs. Cultural Sensitivity

There is a massive difference between cultural capitulation and cultural sensitivity. We should resist the former and practice the latter.

What is Cultural Capitulation?

Cultural capitulation means bowing down to the latest cultural fad, of kowtowing to the most current manifestation of what is PC, of becoming slaves to whatever the societal elites decide is acceptable.

A current example would be the cultural mandate that requires us to give our preferred gender pronouns or to deny biological realities when talking with a trans-identified person. We rightly say no to that mandate for many reasons. (For a listing of relevant articles, go here.)

What is Cultural Sensitivity?

Cultural sensitivity means recognizing what could legitimately offend someone in another culture or be easily misunderstood. This is something we often learn the hard way, especially when traveling to other countries or hosting people from other cultures. There are cultural taboos of which we know nothing until we cross a forbidden line.

The difficult question is to be able to determine when something is a matter of unacceptable cultural capitulation and when it’s a matter of legitimate cultural sensitivity.

Richard Dreyfuss on Artistic Expression

All this can be illustrated in a recent interview on PBS’ Firing Line with the famed actor Richard Dreyfus. He was asked by Margaret Hoover for his views on the new Oscar rules in which a film would not be eligible for best picture unless it met certain requirements for inclusion and representation.

He responded, “They make me vomit.”

How so? “Because,” explained, “this is an art form, it’s also a form of commerce, and it makes money, but it’s an art. And no one should be telling me, as an artist, that I have to give in to the latest most current idea of what morality is.”

He continued, “And what are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that. And you have to let life be life.

“And,” he said, “I’m sorry, I don’t think there’s a minority or a majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”

So, the Jaws actor opined, you have to let art be art without worrying about meeting some kind of hiring quota. You need to hire the best people who can do the best job. That’s what art and creativity require.

Otherwise, to bring in an argument that Dreyfuss did not raise, you could require the NBA to draft more White basketball players or Silicon Valley to employ less Asians. Ability and success would now become secondary to skin color or ethnicity.

Of course, to some extent, there are quotas like this that exist. Hollywood is not the first to go in this direction. But to say, “Your film cannot be considered for the best picture Oscar because you didn’t meet our quota,” is to put stifling limits on artistic expression.

Dreyfuss wouldn’t have it for a minute, also saying that we can’t be required to walk on eggshells because it might offend a certain portion of Americans. In a similar spirit, Cindy Adams wrote in a 2022 op-ed piece for the New York Post, “Wokeness is killing everything, including comedy.”

But Dreyfuss didn’t stop there. He pointed out that Lawrence Olivier was the last White man to play Othello, doing so in Blackface in 1968 – and doing it very well. He asked, “Am I being told that I will never have a chance to