I could have written this up as a Feel-Good Friday post. What is better than a Hollywood liberal who sees the nonsense on the progressive left and says enough is enough? Actor Richard Dreyfuss is such a person who calls it as he sees it. He says people are too fragile.

He’s right. Talking about the new diversity and inclusion requirements for Oscar contention, he told the host of Firing Line with Margaret Hoover that the new requirements “make me vomit.” No one should expect to be catered to.

“It’s an art. 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. What are we risking? Are we really risking hurting people’s feelings? You can’t legislate that,” Dreyfuss told Hoover. “You have to let life be life. I’m sorry, I don’t think there is a minority or majority in the country that has to be catered to like that.”

New standards for diversity and inclusion were announced in 2020. They will take effect for the 2024 Academy Awards. Two of the four requirements must be met in order to submit a film for best picture. “The four standards are described as expanding on-screen representation, themes or narrative; expanding representation among creative leadership and department heads; providing industry access and opportunities to underrepresented demographics; and expanding representation in audience development.”

All this came about during the whole #OscarsSoWhite kerfuffle during recent Academy Award ceremonies. The complaint is self-explanatory. The big awards were going to too many white people, as opposed to more evenly passed out to nominees of color. The hashtag was created in 2015 by activist April Reign in response to the 20 acting nominations for the Academy Awards all being granted to white actors.

Now the time is fast approaching when the new standards will apply. Dreyfuss isn’t down with it. When Hoover asked about it, he let loose.

The anchor stated, “Starting in 2024, films will be required to meet new inclusion standards to be eligible for the Academy Awards for ‘Best Picture.’ They’ll have to have a certain percentage of actors or crew from under-represented racial or ethnic groups.”

She asked, “What do you think of these new inclusion standards for films?”

Not holding back, Dreyfuss declared, “They make me vomit.”

It’s affirmative action for the entertainment industry’s award system, isn’t it? Nominating people for awards based on skin color or ethnicity is wrong, especially in the world of artistic expression. Awards should be given for talent, on merit. Democrats don’t get it. It’s the same thing that is happening in the Biden administration. Joe Biden was determined to make every hire a diversity hire. Look what happened. People are in jobs that they are completely unqualified to do, simply so that Biden could say that person is the first (fill in the blank) to hold the job. It’s no way to run a government or the entertainment industry.

I have been a fan of Richard Dreyfuss for as long as I can remember. He’s been a part of so many great movies. Besides the obvious ones like “Jaws”, “American Graffiti”, and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, I always think of “The Goodbye Girl” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” Speaking of awards, Dreyfuss won an Academy Award for Best Actor for “The Goodbye Girl”, the youngest-ever actor to win that award at the time. He was 30. He was nominated for “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” He’s a classic limousine liberal but doesn’t seem to have fallen into the clutches of the crazy progressive left.

Cue the outrage machine after his interview aired. There is a freak-out going on when Dreyfuss expresses indignation that he’ll not be allowed to play a black man, for example, in a movie. He used the example of Lawrence Olivier’s “Blackface” rendition of Shakespeare’s “Othello” in 1968.

He stated, “Lawrence Olivier was the last White actor to play ‘Othello,’ and he did it in 1965. And he did it in ‘Blackface.’ And he played a Black man brilliantly.”

He conveyed his point with a few rhetorical questions, asking, “Am I being told that I will never have a chance to play a Black man? Is someone else being told that if they’re not Jewish, they shouldn’t play the ‘Merchant of Venice?’ Are we crazy? Do we not know that art is art?”

There are some good examples of the Twitter outrage machine at our sister site, Twitchy.

Yes, Richard, we are definitely telling you that you will never play a black man. What a disappointment. I respected him til I read this.

— Jenny Gattone (@TheWriteJennyG) May 7, 2023

The best part is him actually saying Lawrence Olivier played a Black man “brilliantly.”

Oh really, Mr. Dreyfuss? And what reference points do you have to make that conclusion?

— Jen Brown (@reneseford) May 7, 2023

Really? Laurence Olivier is being dragged now?

Just let the olds pass on already

— TRΞИT VΛИΞGΛS (@trentvanegas) May 7, 2023

Just die already if you can’t get on board with the demands of The Woke.

Those examples are from others in the industry – writers, and producers. Groupthink is demanded of all. Freedom of speech goes only one way.

Another reason to fangirl Dreyfuss is that he is a supporter of bringing back Civics education in schools. I’ve been beating that drum for years. The lack of Civics education is one of the reasons so many American voters are so stupid. Sorry. Not sorry. He said that students being exposed to opposing views is a good thing. There is the Dreyfuss Civics Initiative now. It’s important to teach the next generation how government runs and how to be effective citizens.

The best way to be an effective citizen is to speak out. That’s what Dreyfuss is doing. Good for him.