Kennell's Use Of White Actors In Film

roles would be lost to Caucasian actors so as to resonate with American audiences. It is

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.

Black women have never “had it easy” or “had it made” when it comes to the entertainment business. Hollywood has always been white-washed when it comes to the direction they wanted to go in terms of actors for their movies. Most roles that are casted are for white women and men, and the black actors/actresses are given whatever is left. It is truly not fair at all. When black women are given the opportunity to embody a traditionally white role, they are nothing short of phenomenal. This makes one wonder why they are still given supporting roles. African-American women have struggled to gain promising roles in Hollywood, which has hurt their acting careers and affected their lives.

In the 2017 media article “How Fair is Hollywood” the main problem is the lack of inclusion that Hollywood has been using throughout their movies . This problem can be solved by having an actor play the role of the corresponding race of his/her character.As noted by Media Mix news in paragraph 1, the author explicitly describes “People have reported frustration with Hollywood’s casting process. That’s because they see non-white actors repeatedly kept out of the spotlight. There is also the phenomenon called “whitewashing,” when roles are written for minorities are given to white actors”. This indicates that people are being displeased by the fact that Hollywood has been doing negative things to put actors to play a  different race from what

roles would be lost to Caucasian actors so as to resonate with American audiences. I think it is

For the last two years, the Oscars have come under fire in the last two years with their lack of nominations of people with color. The Oscars otherwise known as the Academy Awards is an award show to highlight and give praise to the best movies and short films of the year, including in this prestigious awards are the actors and actresses that star in these blockbusters and they are, as well as their movies praised on the highest level for their craft. However what has become under scrutiny is the so-called “White Wash” that has come across the ceremony.

In the past white actors would cast in non-white roles. Ever since the beginning of the film industry, minority roles have been given to white actors/actresses. Some of the most recognized are Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Natalie Wood as Maria in West Side Story. Also, Birth of the Nation, one of the earliest films used blackface on a nonblack actor playing the role of an African-American. Despite the fact that casting decisions like these might have been anticipated during the time of oppression and racial segregation, Hollywood has continued to make casting decisions where white actors/actresses are preferred. Further actors like, Burt Lancaster passing as a Native American in Apache and Mickey Rooney playing the role of a Japanese man.

White people might not take it very well and possibly get the impression that minorities will never amount to anything, nor be a large portion of the population. In the late 1970’s, the hit-movie Roots took the country by storm serving as an icebreaker for minorities getting into the movie industry. It showed the world that a movie consisting of all black actors could still be a very popular movie. Even though it revolved around the concept of slavery, once Roots came out, minorities started to show up more and more in films.

throw the huge movie roles out to black film stars. White people might not take it very well and

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

Historical films are always popular because they tell real stories about us, but for some reason the media changes the stories, casting white people play historical figures like having Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt. This creates a misconception of our own history. White actors get cast as the lead roles, regardless of the intended race, and actors of the correct race receive ensemble or secondary roles so the producers can say, “We’re not whitewashing! Look, there 's one black guy in the background!”. There is no reason to skew our own history, but Chris Rock put it bluntly in his

The representation of minorities in Hollywood has always been sparse and controlled in a way to fit the stereotype of the minority group.Many a time minorities are added to movies (depending on the subject matter of the film) to add color so that the film itself will not be criticized hugely for that aspect.When it comes to black Hollywood actresses it is more likely for the light skinned blacks to be casted rather than their darker counterparts. An example of this is the 2016 film Nina the film is a biopic of Nina Simone's life who was a dark skinned singer and activist in the civil rights movement. For the film they casted Zoe Sladana as Nina which itself can be seen as an issue because of Sladana noticeable lighter skin tone however

Why must color be ignored for actors of color to be treated equally? Color-blind motives are only directed toward people of color. To take away one 's color is to make inherently them white. So equality is only reached once everyone reaches the “White” standard, Thus sustaining white supremacy. So in retrospect is it even possible to achieve equality from this approach? Because even though one may say they are color-blind, it 's impossible not to see color; unless you are color blind but even then you can still see color. Nonetheless, American Theater and the Film industry call themselves using a fair and equal casting method in which they “completely ignore” the actors race

The exclusion of multi-racial performers in musicals is a problem, we certainly have come a long way from minstrelsy but you can say there is still progress to make. When I was speaking to Jeanine Tesori, renowned American composer and music arranger the first thing she said was “there is a difference between color blind casting and color conscious casting.” There's a very fine line between the two which is often confused. Color blind casting is casting a role regardless of race and color conscious casting is acknowledging a race and cast anyway. Jeanine Tesori used an example regarding shakespeare, she said when you cast a black actor in a part in shakespeare “do you have to say this part should be played by an african american? It doesn’t

There are countless numbers of people in the world who are of color, so why are they not on our television screens? Imagine watching your favorite show or movie, and not seeing anyone else of your race, that's the reality for people of color. As a result of this, children are growing up thinking that they are the wrong color and that their naturally dark skin should be lighter. A lot of the population has enough self-hate that they do not need any more of it. Our children to start learning to love themselves instead of hate who they were born as. Twenty-six point nine percent of people of color in the United States alone are actors it is necessary that they start getting roles in television shows and movies, and not just supporting characters