Academy Awardss

Movies and entertainment outlets speak volumes about the current state of a nation’s culture. Cinematic creations in the United States allow small voices to be heard and controversial issues to be addressed. However, a repetitive and monumental issue continues to be addressed, yet continues to persist in our 21st century culture, racial inequalities. Since the inception of the United States, black men and women alike have been disenfranchised at the hands of the “white man” in America. Instead of continuing the conversation today, the issue is continually silenced referencing the successes and achievements of the Civil Rights Movement in the 20th century. Nonetheless, an unfortunate reality looms upon this great land; racially based systems and structures continue to exist in 2015 the in United States. This paper synthesizes three films focused on racial inequalities in different time periods. Separate but Equal (1991), Selma (2015), and Crash (2005) illustrate how influential the Civil War amendments are, while serving as an uncanny reminder of how the racial prejudices during the 20th century continue to exist in our great nation today. Needless to say our nation has made great strides, but still has a long way to go.

As soon as I read the prompt for this journal, the recent movie Get Out immediately popped into my head. As an avid cinephile, I was quick anxiously awaiting the release of the film. The wait was well worth it, as Jordan Peele’s Get Out exceeded all of my expectations and is certainly one of my favorite movies for the time being. What makes this movie so tremendous is the portrayal of race. Media is extremely influential in our beliefs, and film is no exception. Get Out approaches the sensitive topic of racism in current society, but with an extremely unique twist that provokes thoughtfulness. It is difficult to fully explain without completely spoiling the film, but the way the struggle between race and class is portrayed is both horrifying and eye-opening.

In 2013, Latinos accounted for only 4.9% of the roles in the top 100 films of the year. From the beginning, Hollywood had always been dominated by white men and women. However, as time progressed there was a very slight change in cultural and ethnic diversity. Though it is more likely now than ever to find a Latino or Latina in a Hollywood film, their roles are often small, stereotypical, and almost entirely unimportant. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get any role in any Hollywood film regardless of ethnicity, Latinos have to endure playing a harshly demeaning role. Latino men are often cast as comedic relief and play gardeners, janitors, or thugs. Latino women are often cast as maids or mistresses. Aside from this, when women are cast as mistresses they are often submissive to their white male partners, meaning that not only are these roles ethnically demeaning, but also sexist. Along with Latino female sexualisation, though, Latino men are also heavily sexualized. Both Latino women and men have to deal with the exploitation of their culture for stereotypical roles in a movie. However, these are only some of the vicious patterns that attribute to the everlasting ethnic misrepresentation in the biggest part of mass media, Hollywood.

American actor Anthony Mackie once said “There are a lot of limitations and stigmas that are placed on young actors, specifically young black actors.” You have probably seen black male actors play the leading role of a drug addict, drug dealer, abusive husband or a even a thief. Although they do get a chance to be displayed on the media, they more often than ever are represented or viewed as the antagonist. Why? Because they are set up according to certain limitations in which they must obey. The lack of accurate representation on black actors in the media today is the result of prejudice and racism occurring in society. Racism and prejudice which are demonstrated in the films directed by Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever.

This is the second straight year in which not a single person of color was nominated for an acting Oscar. Jada Pinkett took it upon herself to bring people’s attention to the lack of diversity in the Oscars and in Hollywood, in a video posted on her face book page. Diversity can be defined as the inclusion of different types of people, race, or cultures in a group or organization. United States of America is a country full of different diverse group of people, races (Black white), culture, and religion. An organization’s success and competitiveness depends upon its ability to embrace diversity and realize the benefits. For example, if workplace diversity issues are handled well in an organization, benefits are reported. Also, according to a broadcast on NPR, Mcevers says, “Right, I mean, one of the findings of your Hollywood diversity reports at UCLA is that movies with more diverse cast tend to make more

Trying to fix a diversity problem doesn’t have an instant solution. The Academy is facing this and dealing with the racial representation in the Oscar Awards as it has become a huge problem in Hollywood. Ira Deutchman, a member of the Academy, has stated “Like many Academy members, I was embarrassed and disappointed when this year’s Oscar nominees were announced, but I wasn't shocked. After all, no season passes without several scathing articles about the lack of diversity in Hollywood, both on the screen and in executive suites. On the other hand, when fingers were pointed at the membership of the Academy as the cause of the problem, I bristled at the implications”(Deutchman). As stated, the audience even including the Academy Members are baffled by the Oscar’s nominees. Racial representation is a huge problem in

I have chosen the issue of “miss/underrepresentation of minorities in American television and film.” As America has changed over the years to become much more accepting and inclusive, American media seems to be a bit behind. There are countless instances in which characters from a book or graphic novel has been white-washed once they make it to the big screen. Some may argue these choices are made because the actor is very strong at their craft or they are a star and will bring in the big bucks in theaters. While this may be true, it completely discredits not only the original art and meaning of the work but also the community of talented non-white artist in America. I want to delve deep into the reason this can be happening in a generally

However, their acting careers are quite different; therefore, I will explore how in Hollywood film industry there is still a strong color bias. First of all, I will give an introduction about how skin color has being given privileges within Afro-American community, and then I will analyze how this affects on Hollywood film

There has been many controversies about the lack of diversity in Hollywood and one of the most recent one was the 2016 Oscars. The Oscars is an award show that showcase the best people in front and behind the camera. Unfortunately there was barely any diversity in the nominations this year since most nominators were white, even though there was many diverse films that were considered Oscar worthy. With that being said,people protested that there needs to be more diversity in these categories and some actors agreeing by using the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite in social media. To make things worse, the Academy Awards members are majority older white males which brought to the attention from the protesters that in order to have diversity into the awards, the members itself needs to represent of all races so, it can be considered a fair choice. Which make sense to why throughout history of the Oscars there was always a discrepancy of diversity in the nominations since 1929 because only a very small percentage of minorities actors have received an award compared to the white actors that dominated the Oscars with a high percentage of winners. This created tension in Hollywood that the Oscars are marginalizing itself as a all white program and that there needs to be changes.

The 2016 Oscar nominations sparked a heated debate over why the show had only white nominees and prompted the academy to address the lack of diversity. However, it is imperative to note that the event only represents what is happening in Hollywood and the filming studios. If the industry does not give opportunities to the minorities to shine, they are not likely to appear in the Oscars. As several leaders in the sector of complained, the minority rarely get chances to work in front of the camera, which defines their presence at the award shows and not just the Oscars. Nonetheless, it is a diversity issue that deserves attention and should be remedied. It is a source of difference, especially in a country that prides itself as a multicultural nation. The Oscars should embrace the diversity that reflects the entirety of the nation and simply the majority. Moreover, such an action would demonstrate to be beneficial not only to the United States but also the Oscar Academy, which will be able to assess a wider pool of talent in the industry and ensure that the voice of everyone gets

The Oscar-winning best picture -- extensively prefigured, especially by white liberals, for proceeding an honest discussion of race in the United States -- is, in fact, a holdup in the crucial project of forcing white America to come to terms the reality of race and racism, white supremacy and white privilege.

One of the most prevalent racial issues in America today is the representation gap: in all realms of society, from politics to music, there is scarcity of minorities in the public eye. As there has been in other industries with a significant representation gap, Broadway is being pushed to diversify. This is for two primary reasons: a social one, increasing representation of minorities and therefore decreasing ignorance based racism in society, and an economic one, drawing in new, bigger audiences by making productions more relatable to a more people. This has resulted in in movements towards non-traditional and color-blind casting, or casting which disregards the traditional race unless it is essential to the script.

For instance, in Hollywood, it took 74 years before, Halle Berry, an African American actress, won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Before her, other stars won the award, but never in the best actress category. However, Berry’s triumph also represented the lack of representative roles that women of color received in the arts. She won the award for portraying a harlot – a limited representation of a black woman’s talent (Murch 2003). Berry’s accomplishment represents how black actresses must work quadruple as hard compared to white actors along with black men to be recognized. In Oprah Winfrey’s “Master Class,” African-American actress Cicely Tyson described black women’s struggle as, “white men are at the top of the chain, next are white women, following are black men, and black women complete the bottom of the chain.” Tyson’s statement speaks volumes on the gender and racial discrimination faced by black women. Despite the country’s inequality, black women repeatedly defy the odds by contributing their greatness to American

The Oscars is an annual American award ceremony hosted by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science in recognition of the excellence in cinematic achievements within the film industry (as decided by the voting members). For the second year in a row, when the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science announced its Oscar nominees, only white actors and actresses were among the handful selected for the top categories. Resulting in the reinvigoration of the social media hash tag “Oscar So White”. Since then, there has an uprising amongst the Hollywood community about the lack of diversity in the industry. Many celebrities such as, Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee, are even boycotting the Award show this year.

“Oscars So White” a phrase that began trending on social media sites after the 2016 Academy Awards announce their nominees for Best Actor and Best Actress, it was predominately white for a second year in a row. The movie industry is no stranger to controversy and since its inception it’s constantly been guilty of underrepresenting ethnic people. It’s evident that film is a type of mass media that has a certifiable amount of power to influence audience’s views, yet this platform constantly disregards the need for diversity in favor of stereotypes. Movies such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Scarface (1983), and Pan (2015) are all guilty of this. The depiction of non-American characters in Hollywood movies are constructed around racial