Are the Kennedy Center Honors Biased?
That’s the question on the front of the Washington Post‘s Sunday Arts section, which for some misguided reason is published on Saturdays (but that’s a subject for another day!) The article gives the backstory on the profanity-laced conversation three weeks ago between Kennedy Center President Micheal Kaiser and National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Chairman Felix Sanchez. Kaiser, it turns out, actually did the dialing; but he was returning Sanchez’s phone call — and presumably the two years of letters that preceded it — inquiring why Latino artists were consistently “shut out” of the prestigious prize.
Besides the examining the question posed in the headline, the story explains how Sanchez’s September dustup with Kaiser is part of a wider campaign by Hispanic arts advocates to call attention to the lack of diversity in the arts and in awards programs meant to celebrate the country’s biggest contributors to US cultural life. The story says:
While the Kennedy Center is the target now, the effort is part of a systematic campaign in recent years by allies in a coalition called the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda to highlight the relative exclusion of Latinos from many forums, including the Sunday morning political talk shows, prime-time television and federal employment.
“We hope that this will be a watershed moment that will enlighten all these other awards shows that they can be equally subject to this kind of scrutiny,” Sanchez says.
It’s a lengthy but interesting read that you can find here.
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