30 white semi-finalists for a $50,000 scholarship were going to withdraw en masse in protest of the obvious lack of diversity in the line up, after failed negotiations, and now the prize has been cancelled, in a bid to stop that from occurring. Wow. A MESS https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/sep/21/rob-guest-endowment-cancels-lucrative-theatre-prize-over-diversity-controversy
And the scholarship committee then lied about the reason for cancelling the prize, as if these people weren't going to speak about it??? Whew.
Struggling to make sense of their logic here. "It's going to look bad for us if these shortlistees reject us publicly for doing a terrible job, hm, better just cancel the whole thing before they can". Just... Wow.
Shoutout to these legends standing up in solidarity for their brown and black peers though. It would have been so easy for them to just accept it, try to get that money and go. Real action often requires a sacrifice.
How many times does this have to keep happening, and across how many industries, before real systemic effort is made at changing it? Aren't you tired of it? Whiteness is a lie even 'white' people are starting to see through. Give it up already.