Objectivity is definitely important in screenwriting. The best writer should get the job, period. I'm not talking about objectivity in the finished product, but rather the decision of who writes, produces, directs, acts... it should be the person who is best at filling the role. Everything else is arbitrary.

I'm not railing against affirmative action at all, though I honestly could and would feel quite comfortable that I was in the right for doing so. Thomas Sowell, black man, definitely agrees. If you want to hit up youtube and listen to him dismantle affirmative action in less than 3 minutes there are plenty of examples.

I didn't present a false dichotomy of "talent or race". You're projecting and flailing like an infant. What I actually said was that race should not even be a factor in the equation. The only thing that should matter is the written words on the page. It should be ENTIRELY based on writing talent. And the notion that I am remotely privileged by my whiteness is a crock of shit. I grew up amidst the gangs and poverty. I've been shot and shot at. My brother was killed in a drive by shooting. My son is mixed. My wife is African. Not African American, African. Black. So I don't appreciate the insinuation that I'm some closet fucking racist because I disagree. I don't appreciate the downvotes, because I bring a different perspective to the table. That's not what they are for. Downvoting is for comments that don't add anything to the conversation. As far as I could tell, there was no conversation prior to me commenting. There was a fucking circlejerk, echo chamber of ignorance and whining.

So with all due respect, I don't appreciate the white privilege patrol telling me that I'm some uppity ass white guy from the suburbs, who has no place speaking about the plight of blacks.. or that I have no idea what it is like to be a minority. The only fucking white kids in my school were related to me. And for what it's worth, the police didn't do me any favors either. Poverty and injustice didn't skip over me, like passover.

My wife and I do not teach our children that their skin color represents a barrier to entry, or a life of added hardship. We teach them that luck is the marriage of preparation and opportunity, and that whatever they choose to be or choose to do, they damn well better be the best at it. With that said, I thank you kindly for your response and I would greatly appreciate if you cease misrepresenting and spinning the things I said.

People cant see what color you are through an email or writing. That's what I said. That's what I meant. That is all that I meant. Anything you add to that, or try to take from it apart from that and only that, is a misrepresentation and a falsehood. Period. End of. Fin.

Privilege. Hah. Good one guy. Literally every single day, writers are pounding away at subjects that they have absolutely zero intimate personal knowledge of. The difference between a decent writer and a brilliant one, is that the brilliant writer doesn't need to have lived through it to experience it. If you want a white guy to be sympathetic to the plight of minorities, certainly that presupposes that people are capable of putting themselves in that position and having empathy. But if it is only possible for a minority to have that experience, then I'm honestly not sure why it would bother you so much that we are so incapable. You can't have it both ways. So please be intellectually honest.

So which is it? Should we check our privilege and be more sensitive and understanding, thus you accept that such a thing is possible(and by proxy, that we could also do justice in writing about the subject)... or should you cut whitey some slack, because we're all racist oppressors and we just can't help ourselves because empathy is lost on us?

Just be consistent. The thing about being human is that we all have the same desires to be loved and accepted, respected and understood. We all love our children. We all share the same feelings and emotions. These aren't one thing for black and another for white. My wife laughs when she hears people in America complain about racism. She was black in South Africa under apartheid. Segregation, privilege, rape and murder aren't anecdotal to her. They aren't slogans for angry entitled assholes to her.