Because the crime rate is zero, the potholes are all fixed and homelessness has been completely eradicated, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio now has time to focus on what really matters to Big Apple taxpayers:
Racial quotas in Hollywood.
Social justice warrior de Blasio took to Twitter last week to lambaste the 2016 Academy Awards nominations, which did not include any black actors or actresses.
"#OscarsSoWhite says it all," de Blasio carped. "(Wife) @Chirlane and I are sick of only one kind of America being celebrated."
Radical race-hustling director Spike Lee is leading a boycott of the awards ceremony scheduled next month in Los Angeles. Actress Jada Pinkett Smith, whose actor/director husband Will Smith was snubbed for his performance in the NFL drama "Concussion," took to Facebook this week to rally "people of color" not to watch or attend the gala event. Director Michael Moore hitched himself to the whiny wagon of 1 percenters. Pressure is mounting on host and comedian Chris Rock to bow out in solidarity.
A panicked Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (who is black), is promising expedited "change" to mollify the grievance mob led by shakedown artist Al Sharpton.
They'll never admit it, but for the guardians of the Academy, "change" means inevitable quota-based admissions to their elite club, where new candidates must traditionally be sponsored by two current members and demonstrate "exceptional achievement in the field of theatrical motion pictures."
The transformation is "not coming as fast as we would like," Isaacs bleated as she vowed to take more aggressive steps to "diversify" as part of the Academy's "A2020" plan.
Is this what "people of color" in the performing arts really want?
Fealty based first and foremost on skin tone and not on talent and ability?
Specially appointed members of the Academy chosen solely because of their race, gender or oppressed status who will be beholden to vote only for fellow tokens from their respective tribes?
What exactly will make the likes of Spike Lee and company happy if not de facto or de jure Oscars quotas and affirmative action points for minority entertainers?
Do they think ghettoized new categories for "Best Black Actor" and "Best Black Actress" constitute progress and equality?
Do they honestly believe that casting doubt on the achievements of all non-white thespians who earn nominations as a result of this politically correct hectoring is good for the profession?
Now, let's call de Blasio and his bean-counting wife out on the red carpet.
If this "diversity"-driven duo is truly "sick" of Hollywood's white cis-hetero-patriarchal oppressors, are they ready to boycott the billions that the entertainment industry pours into New York City until their utopian ideals of manufactured racial parity are achieved?
In an open love letter to Tinseltown in 2014, de Blasio boasted that since 2004, "Hollywood's financial imprint on our city has grown from $5 billion to $7.1 billion." The self-proclaimed warrior against income inequality enthusiastically doubled down on government subsidy programs to the Hollywood elite, vowing to "maintain the policies and practices that spurred this expansion while strategically investing in new projects to grow and diversify the industry."
"Investing," of course, means using the power of government to redistribute the hard-earned tax dollars of lower- and middle-income workers to millionaire and billionaire studio owners in the TV and film industry. On top of the city's subsidies, New York State offers myriad special tax breaks, credits, and rebates worth an estimated $420 million to lure Hollywood to the East Coast.
De Blasio's bowing and scraping bordered on an R-rating. "In New York City, the TV and film industry has a true partner," he gushed, "not to mention a mayor who will always be slightly in awe of the work you do."
Hooked on Hollywood cash, de Blasio's outrage about #OscarsSoWhite is so contrived it bounces like a fake check.
As usual, the left's hashtag warriors are all show and no go.
Michelle Malkin is author of the new book "Who Built That: Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs." Her email address is malkinblog@gmail.com.
