Theme Of Racial Discrimination In Hollywood

“The success of ‘Black Panther’ has also been heralded as a strong and unequivocal message to Hollywood, where filmmakers and actors say they have long wrestled with preconceived notions that movies with predominantly black and female characters are financial risks and don’t fare well on the global market” (Izadi). Even though typically minority movies do not do well on the global market, the recent release of “Black Panther” has caused lots of people to join in on the idea of minority dominated movies which suggests that this idea is near its tipping point because there is nearly enough people who are beginning to want to see these movies produced because of the difference in the type of characters. “It’s a movie about what it means to be black in both America and Africa—and, more broadly, in the world. Rather than dodge complicated themes about race and identity, the film grapples head-on with the issues affecting modern-day black life” (Smith). The effect of the director choosing to deal with the issue of minorities in movies head on has caused a spike in the attention of movies like “Black Panther.”

On January 29th, 2016, Kevin D. Williamson a columnist of the National Review, wrote an article titled satirically titled On the Difficulties of the Movie Star. Williamson's argument revolves around the fact that although African Americans make up 12 percent of the US population, they are just six thousandths of a percent of the global population, and Hollywood is surely a “fully global enterprise”. He then reasons that it would be years even decades until an African American be nominated for an Academy Award if they were randomly distributed, just as it would be unlikely for ethnic minorities such as “Ukrainians or Comorians” to be nominated. He then stated that this shows African Americans, like white Americans are “overrepresented in Hollywood”.

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

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

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.

Television still doesn’t completely represent the diversity in America. Roughly three-quarters of film actors were white in 2014. There was only 12.5% African American, 5.3% Asian, and 4.9% Hispanic actors while there was 73.1% white actors. Studies also show the majority of actors are male. According to the annual 100 top grossing films 2007-2014 only 30.2% of speaking or named characters were women, while 73.1% were male whites.

G. Willow Wilson once said that “there's a burden of representation that comes into play when there aren't enough representatives of a certain group in popular culture.” The articles “Opinion: “Black Panther" gives me a personal reason to cheer for a new superhero” by Brandon T. Harden, “Opinion: "Black Panther" and the beauty and strength of black women” by Mary-Jean Nleya of Al Jazeera, and “'Black Panther' inspires more than African Americans” by Dean Obeidallah illustrate why movies such as “Black Panther” have impacted Hollywood and its viewers. Despite the fact that there are some people who do not attend the movie theater and may not care about renown movies such as “Black Panther” or “A Wrinkle In Time”, it is clear that these movies with diverse casts will impact and support accurate and inclusive representation in Hollywood.

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.

There are many talent actors who cannot get a good role in the movie because they are not popular enough to play the main role. Most of the film maker just care about how much money the movie can make for them, so they just need to get the popular actor in order to get a lot of viewers. In the movies, the main character usually is White people since the writers and directors believe that they will get more audience if the main cast is White people. Some people believe that the movie is for entertain, so the writers and directors do not have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters. However, there are three factors that Hollywood writers and directors should take social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters:

However, the Oscars were not all glamour this year, as the complete lack of African American nominations rightfully sparked controversy. While it may not be news that Hollywood is racist, this sure seems like a blatant disregard for civil rights. As a

“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

Hollywood not only shows little to none diverse to race but also gender on screen and behind the scenes. When watching a movie to the end credits most the names that are shown are males. The diverse for gender in Hollywood is low. Females are not given the same opportunity as the males. Article from NPR STAFF (2015) informed that women make up half of the U.S. population but only 6% of the females directed theatrical films in 2013(Hollywood’s Homogeneity section, para.1). Even though the study is old the data has not change. Population in females in Hollywood in front and behind the scenes cannot be compared to the nation. Hollywood is own by males which are keeping positions for women to a minimum. The heads of Hollywood are not willing to be diverse so they can stay in control. Among the ranks of top Hollywood film executives, the

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

Over the years we have seen the same white story told a thousand times that we have become desensitized to it, never expecting anything else. America was a European-White country but it has become one of the most diverse countries in the world, so American isn’t just white anymore. We are at a place in our society where we can and should be talking about race and one of the best ways to do this is through film, but there has been little to no change over the past decades. Films tend to lean toward white backdrops because it is more “relatable”; Noah the 2012 film used an all white cast because they were considered

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.