Diversity Of Film : Today 's American Society

All of this proves that Hollywood is not doing a good job in making up for the blatantly racist films of the twentieth century. Hollywood needs to do more to reverse the stereotypes of early film because such stereotypes are still seen today along with their respective repercussions.

Diversity in films is important because representation matters. Viewers are drawn to shows with ethnically diverse lead cast members. Mostly all viewers love to watch shows that reflect and relate to their own experiences. Reddigari, a freelance writer, also expresses the question of why we lack diversity in films. “Hollywood has been producing inspiring films intended to capture the beauty, joy and sorrow in everyday life. As much as we love our favorite movies, we can’t help but notice that many of them fail to capture the life experiences of all moviegoers, leaving the voices of millions of Americans from diverse backgrounds underrepresented” (This Tumblr Shows the Startling Lack of Diversity in Film). Diversity in films is an important topic in society because it represents equality and people of color to look up to.

There are many things I want to learn and get to the bottom of while researching this topic. My main question is, “Why is this happening?” Honestly, I cannot even believe this topic is actually still an issue. When thinking of movie directors, producers, etc. I would assume them to be a group of progressive and inclusive people because the artist community generally is. So, how have these people let this happen? I would also like to look in to how this misrepresentation affects the minorities of America. There could possibly be underlying psychological turmoil in minorities which causes them to feel less capable. This brings me to wonder if there is any underlying racial bias in everyone because of who is glorified in in movies and shows. In order to answer such questions, I will research to find if any psychologist have done any studies on the effects of television and film on our subconscious in terms of the representation of minorities. I am also curious how other diverse countries such as Canada’s television and film look. I will compare the United States to these diverse counties in my research in order to provide a more global view.

The University of Southern California discovered that filmmakers have made little progress in casting more non-white characters. Even though the United States is becoming more diverse in culture Hollywood has not change from its roots. From (Sanathanam and Crigger, 2015) research the top 100 films in 2014 up to 75% of the characters were Caucasian. 17 of the top movies in 2014 featured non-white lead or co-lead actors (Out of 30,000 Hollywood film characters, here’s how many weren’t white section, para 1). Informs that Hollywood is not in a rush to change their ways to avoid diversity for Caucasians to share the fame with other ethnic groups. Hollywood is mindset is to keep Caucasians superior.

African American Portrayal in Hollywood All throughout the twentieth Century, minorities have made huge steps towards self-sufficiency and balance in American culture. These advances are a piece of our identity as Americans, yet it appears they have not completely invaded the aggregate entire of American culture. African Americans for decades had to endure insidious and egregious suffering, as well as being oppressed. It is upsetting that African Americans are still being portrayed on screen through the racial ideologies of white directors. In Hollywood, they are still portraying African Americans as Stereotypical, unequal, and domestic individuals.

Back in the 1800’s, when calculating the population, African Americans were counted as 3/5 of a person (Antonia, p2). One would think that in the past two hundred years people’s beliefs would have changed a little bit, but the general white public are stuck into believing the common stereotypes commonly portrayed in movies. In films and television shows blacks are almost always portrayed as murderers, robbers, rapists, pretty much anything negative, like American History X, for example. Two black men are shown breaking into a white man’s car. People see this, and in turn believe that all black men will try and steal their car; as stupid as it may seem, it is true, and as a result, film

Diversity and representation has been in an increased demand over the past few years. Even children's TV producers and creators are taking notice by including LGBT and all sorts of ethnic characters in their shows. However, it seems that Hollywood has yet to take note.

As I reflect on my identity, I notice that many shows that I regularly watch contain a cast made up of predominantly white actors/actresses. Furthermore, I believe that many shows in general consist of a dominant white cast. As we’ve seen, the amount of white representation in media compared to the white population is

By analyzing the statistics of movies and music produced by people of color, maybe one day people will learn that diversity is part of the change there needs to be in the world. The color of someone’s skin does not define their talent, or box office stats, and whitewashing shall one day be an affair of the past. Whitewashing has been entwined into the very fabric of the American film franchise. “Whitewashing describes the habit of casting white actors to play non white character often to shoehorn in star, sometimes out of racial insensitivity, invariably to the detriment of people and especially actors of color”, as told

The discussion of diversity in Hollywood is very important. Some people will claim that there is a diversity issue throughout Hollywood and a lack of representation for minorities, while others will argue that there is a wide spectrum of diversity, therefore destroying the idea that there is an issue. There are more shows and films that revolve around straight, healthy Caucasians than shows and films that revolve around LGBT members, people who have to live with disabilities, and people of color. Hollywood has suffered substantially from a lack of showing a great deal of diversity.

From “The Jazz Singer”, released in 1927, to “The Social Network, released in 2010, Hollywood loves to keep up it’s themes of whitewashing! For anyone who doesn 't know, whitewashing occurs when a character should be one race, but is portrayed by another. Throughout film and television there are numerous examples of this being portrayed. However, not many people understand why whitewashing is bad or even notice that it 's happening. Whitewashing takes opportunities away from people of color, alters people 's perception of history, and ultimately promotes racism.

White society has been dictating how minorities have been being represented in the media for quite some time now. By having this control this has allowed stereotypes and assumptions about minorities to commonly be shown in mainstream media. The consequences of doing such has only furthered the idea of racism and the overall response to whiteness in White society. By seeing how minorities are represented this has allowed White Americans to continue viewing them as invisible, or not accepting racism still exists altogether. Minorities are continuously fighting to dispel these stereotypes and false assumptions, but always face the challenge of getting White Americans to see the clear issue with how they are being depicted in the media. Bill Cosby’s The Cosby Show is a great example of how White Americans looked beyond the color of their skin to accept the Huxtable family unconsciously into White society due to how they were being represented. While on the other hand, they failed to properly show Native Americans on the contrary side of being stereotyped as savages, poor, and unpromising. By looking at these two minorities, one can build understanding to how White society are has framed their idea of whiteness on how the media has represented the two races.

Last year there was a huge debacle with many African American actors protesting the Oscars. The issue was a lack of diversity involving the nominations for awards. Only white actors and actresses were nominated for the top four awards, sadly for the second year in a row. Because of this, the hashtag #oscarssowhite gained popularity, and was seen all across social media. Granted, the Oscars is movie nominations, but TV and movies play hand and hand with being film entertainment. Also, there were plenty of television actors that had their fair share to say about the Oscars being too white and it just makes you think is it just the Oscars or is television is too white? In my opinion, diversity is not shown widely enough on screen, and the main

“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

Genre is a reflection of society. Film noir is a genre that has a distinctive relationship with the American society from 1941 - 1958 because it reflects America’s fears and concerns from when they experienced major upheaval after The Great Depression and during World War I. In particular, the unstable atmosphere from the aftermath of World War 1 as Bruce Crowther, author of the book ‘Film Noir: Reflections in a Dark Mirror’, elaborates on how Film Noir films produce “a dark quality that derived as much from the character's depiction as from the cinematographer’s art.” These dark moods are transparent through the key features of the femme fatale, the film techniques and the impact of the Hay’s code on American film and American society.