Summary: Diversity In America

For all of its existence, the United State of America has suffered with its representation of minorities in media. From minstrel shows to The Birth of a Nation, diversity in media has been almost non-existent until the latter half of the twentieth century. Although there have been some bright spots like There Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston and the works of Langston Hughes, most media have been almost exclusively from a white, oftentimes male, viewpoint. According to a 2016 diversity report done by the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA, minorities are underrepresented 3 to 1 among film leads, 5 to 1 in film writers, and 3 to 1 among film directors. This surprising, as the same reports states that America’s increasingly diverse audiences prefer diverse casts and films, pointing to the fact that diverse films had higher median global box office receipts.

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.

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.

A Nielsen report found African-Americans favor programming with diverse casts. According to the report, African-Americans watch 37 percent more television than other demographics, and their consumption proclivities are equally influential. Every year for the past half-decade, the average white American has bought a ticket to fewer films than the average black, Hispanic or Asian moviegoer, industry data shows. Though 37 percent of the U.S. population, minorities bought 46 percent of the $1.2 billion in tickets sold in the United States last year.

Ever since the integration of television and movies there has been a problem with the whitewashing of American entertainment. From cartoons to live action features, producers and casting staff seem to have trouble creating a feature that is diverse and culturally appropriate enough to accurately portray America. The diversity of film and television is not important just because it gives all actors equal worth, but because it also shows the world how we view Americans who are people of color. Diversity on television is important for breaking stereotypes and typecasting, great representation of America and viewers want to see television that they can relate to. America is one of the most diverse countries in the world yet, its citizens still struggle with stereotypes.

We all have visited the cinema once or twice in our lives to see just released movies with family or friends. Some rather watch romantic movies, others action or horror. There are so many different movies out there, each appealing to different people, but there’s one thing most movies seem to have in common: the main cast consists mainly out of white actors. There are barely any movies with a diverse main cast. Even when the character in the movie is a non-white person, there is a white person playing that role.

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

Racial stereotypes in films have typically reflected societies reality. How individuals are able to come to understand what it means to be a black in America is shaped by the social construct of cultural identity. As both reality and social construct shifts, so does Black representation in film. What has not shifted is the fact that we are still living in a white dominated society, where much of the narrative belongs to and is determined by Rich, White Males and where black stereotypes still exist and are continually reinforced in films. Hollywood has typically followed this trend through the use of white directors, discussions of diversity, or even in its selection of Oscar nominees (Donnelly 2016). As a result, many “mainstream” films look to target young males and females, for example, films like The Avengers or the Twilight vampire series. Taking all of this into account, Black film has transcended over time to change the way African Americans are viewed and take control of their own narrative. However as independent Black films seek to influence this change and look to challenge the dominate of White Hollywood, directors of Black films have may find themselves controlling the conversation by either doing the work of talking to a black audience or are looking to talk to general (mainly White) audience about black issues.

Hollywood has been poisoned by racism to a point where it is unacceptable. For years, the entertainment industry has treated colored actors in an unjustifiable way and consistently put them in discriminatory situations. The racial bias and unfairness present in Hollywood have been seen through factors such as Oscar nominations and casting, as well as the actions of filmmakers.

Peplow notes that when it comes to Hollywood there is no greater evidence than demonstrable success and unless something was a success in the past there is a slim chance that Hollywood is willing to change (Syn, 1). But in it’s one sided views, Hollywood does not see that minorities/women are unable to show their potential for success if no options are available. But when they are given such opportunity the nature of Hollywood bypasses it as a fluke. For example, Professor Martha Lauzen of San Diego State University notes that the success of a film is hinged on the box office return compared to its budget and that when similar budgets are presented to men and women returns are extremely similar (Lang, 1). This idea also translates to minorities, as Dr.Hunt notes that films with a larger amount of minority involvement had the greatest average box office return of around $96 million, which contrasts films with lack of minority involvement that posted lower box office returns of around $41 million (Hunt and Ramon, 54). A major example of a successful film with minorities/women is the Fast and Furious film series, which has ranked in over $700 million dollars worldwide. Hollywood’s main goal is to make money and it has been proven that

Why does the trend of white-washing not disappear in Hollywood despite the controversy and public outrage it causes? To simply answer the question, it is the appeal to the white audience. The U.S., for instance, has grown to become a nation of diverse ethnic backgrounds. According to KFF.org, 12%, 16%, and 6% of U.S. population are of black, Hispanic, and Asian ethnicity, respectively. In total, approximately 40% of U.S. population is of a non-white background. Yet, the white population remains to occupy the majority, more than 60%, of U.S. population. Hence it is without the doubt that Hollywood remains to target their movies on a white audience. In addition, many actors and actresses of Hollywood are of Western ethnicity. Among those are renowned actors or actresses like Tom Cruise, Tilda Swinton, Matt Damon, and Scarlett Johansson. These actors/actresses have fame and popularity. For producers of the movies, it may be more than obvious to use popular actors/actresses to “sell” their movies. Especially in this capitalistic society, and the centre of the entertainment industry, making movies that “sell” is more paramount than making movies of art. Behind all of this, however, has inevitably been some racial ties between the white actors/actresses and the white

Researchers at USC studied 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014, and analyzed the race and ethnicity of more than 30,000 characters to reveal diversity in films. The findings showed that filmmakers have made little progress in featuring characters other than white racial and ethnic identities.

A recent study done by the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies showed the lack of diversity within Hollywood by examining all the films released, television programs on broadcast, cable, or digital networks, as well as the actors, writers, directors, and producers within the industry. Ethnic minorities make up about 40% of the American population but still remain underrepresented in all forms of entertainment. The study also discovered that more than 50% of moviegoers in the past two years were minorities. In television, minorities only claimed about 7% of lead roles in broadcast television (“NEW! 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report”). With half the American population consisting of different ethnicities, American television should accurately and proportionately portray the American people, yet some are having trouble doing so. Some television networks have catered to their diverse audience by casting actors of different ethnicities as the lead of a show, or by centering an entire show around a unique culture. Most have found this to be beneficial with an increase in ratings and in profits through their sponsors. The organizations, the Florida Family Association (FFA) and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) represent two different positions on diversity within Hollywood and how the American people should be portrayed in the television industry.

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