Similarities Between Black Men And American History X And Television Shows Blacks

“White Americans will be a minority by 2045, maybe sooner. It makes good business sense for companies to diversify their workforce.” (Newsone, 2017). Lee brings up an important point. America is not ‘white America’; it is a melting pot of cultures and languages and ethnicities that are growing and expanding--and according to Lee--eventually outnumbering their white counterparts. Hollywood is currently not diversifying as fast as America is, and that’s a problem. During the years that the UCLA conducted a diversity report, and found during the years surveyed--2012 and 2013--audiences were more fond of shows that depicted moderate diversity. (Hollywood Report, 2017) According to co-author of the report, Ana-Christina Ramone, “audiences, regardless of race, are clamoring for more diverse content. The problem then does not lie with the masses watching television, it lies with the producers, directors, studio heads, and other department chairs, that ignore minority actors in favor of sticking to the same song and dance of white people, white people, white people. Although it is shown that studios benefit from diversity, there is a lack of motivation to change

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

First, it is important to note that black films do not necessarily need to have black directors. Arguably, one of the most comedic black films is none other than Coming to America featuring Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. Directed by the same individual that made the iconic college fraternity movie Animal

In today’s movies after all the integration and quest to level out the superiority, the social dominance of the white folks is still present in the film industry. For example, in the movie The Bodyguard, Whitney Huston and Kevin Costner live together in perfect harmony, despite their racial differences. In todays movies when they want to show tension between the races the Africans Americans are generally grouped with criminal behavior while on the

balanced, realistic depictions of blacks in America The film is about a Chicago family who

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

It is well known that many black individuals aren’t that prominent within the entertainment industry and those who are have a very short life cycle. Innumerable movies and televised programs will introduce black individuals

Being a black actor wasn’t easy. Sidney Poitier had to work twice as hard for the roles and make sure every performance was perfect, However he did stand for what he believed in, and only took roles in which he could envision his own sense of self. Whenever a press conference was held the reporters would grill him about current events that had to do with the black population. Usually the

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

Having a white actors cast in roles based on skin color is an interesting topic and occasionally a touchy topic. Kennell mentions using white actors in movies such as “Aloha”, “Gods of Egypt” and “Pan,” all movies that are terrible movies. These movies are not terrible due to the choice in actors but due to the scripts, production, direction and almost every aspect. Personally if I were Kennell I would just be glad that these terrible movies did not drown the careers of lesser known actors of color. The actors that are in these movies are “big name” actors that will draw in a crowd to see a terrible movie even though the movie itself is terrible. Hollywoods constant stream of B or C grade movies needs to end. Acting roles in top tier

be done has seemingly been done before (*cough* Sharknado). After watching Get Out and eagerly convincing everyone I knew to go see it (including you!), I found that my requests were met with concern as many said ‘oh, I do not like scary movies.’ It is unfortunate that so many would forgo seeing the movie in light of someone’s preconceived idea of what a horror movie is. The entire genre is compartmentalized into a one size fits all description and what arises out of this generalization is an entire group of people who miss out on seeing a good film and instead see some sequel, prequel, reboot, spinoff, remake of a franchise film that only feeds into big studio cinema.

Based on Dr. Ruiz’s lecture, he describes cultural capital according to Baert as, “Habitus involves a scheme of tendencies. These tendencies generate people’s practices, improvisations, attitudes, or bodily movements (Lecture, Ruiz, 02/23/2016). Cultural capital was evident in Cox’s article that exposes how predominately white the Academy Awards it. He addresses how white actors and often praised for their performances, whereas black actors are hardly recognized. Although, there has been recognition of black actors in the past, like Lupita Nyong’o, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, and Forest Whitaker, a cultural dominance of white claims the majority of the Oscars year after year. To further illustrate this point, Cox has exposed how some film directors and producers favor well-known white actors, even if the actor himself does not fit the role culturally. An example of this is Ridley Scott who casted a white actor in favor of “Mohammand so-and-so from such-and-such” (Cox, 2). This all falls back on who can generate the most revenue based on their film. However, there are some exceptions to this trend. Recent films such as Creed and Straight Outta Compton, which included predominately non-white actors, performed well at the box office. Whereas other films like Selma stood no chance next to those where high-profile white actors governed the scene.

Films have the power to both influence and reflect society. The stereotypes prevalent throughout American culture are reflected in most films. While the United States is becoming an increasingly diverse country, this diversity is not portrayed within American cinema. Minority figures often occupy

“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

Imagine being an Iranian actor in the year 2010. Disney had just started casting for the new Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film. Excitement is in the air as the auditions for the lead role begins. Everything seems to be going well, until Disney makes their casting choice, Jake Gyllenhaal. A film taking place in the Middle East just got a white actor for the lead role, leaving everyone of color who auditioned behind in the dust. This is but one example of star power usurping someone of color from their rightful roles. Simply put, this is a practice in Hollywood that stretches as far as the dawn of film in the United States, it is known as whitewashing. Racism has been a problem in Hollywood for a long time now, whitewashing is just the next evolution of racism.