Ramblings of a Philly Fictionista: Hollywood and Racism

A little over a year ago, actress Jada Pinkett Smith announced that due to the lack of diversity she and her husband, fellow actor Will Smith, would not be attending nor watching the 2016 Academy Awards.

Shortly after that, actor/director/producer/writer Spike Lee voiced the same determination albeit using a lot more words to describe his feelings.

The issue was the fact that out of the 20 actors nominated, not one of them were African Americans.

Someone even came up with the catchy hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite.

In addition to the Smiths and Lee, British singer Anohni also announced she would not be attending because she had not been invited to perform as Sam Smith and Lady Gaga were even though she had been nominated.

Anohni is both transgender and a person of color.

It didn’t take the internet trolls too long to launch an attack on Pinkett Smith. In fact, they seemed to go after her more than Spike Lee.

Some of these trolls thought that the actress believed that people of color were entitled to think that just because they may have acted in a movie it doesn’t mean they had the right to be nominated; that a nomination should never be considered as a right.

Others deduced that Pinkett Smith was jealous because she wasn’t nominated for her role in Magic Mike XXL.

As usual, the trolls kept swinging the bat, but missing the ball and what a mighty big ball it was.

The point wasn’t just that there weren’t any actors/actress’ of color who had been nominated, but racism is a prevalent issue in Hollywood. This racism doesn’t just extend to African Americans, but other cultures as well.

That’s not the only problem. The industry also suffers from other maladies such: sexism, ageism and the centuries old body image type.

The industry has a nasty habit of portraying women with as much depth as a paper doll as well as overly sexualizing them, hiring younger actresses or actors to play older roles, adding padding to the abnormally svelte to play someone who isn’t the Hollywood’s perfect body type, and giving abled thespians the role of a disabled person.

There were celebrities who spoke out against the problem in their industry. Most notably George Clooney. Hollywood has been very good to him.

He stated, “If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job. Think about how many more African Americans were nominated.”

Ten years ago, in 2007, there was probably more diversity. The nine nominees in the movie, director, actor/actress category were people of color. That was 10 years ago.

Nine years ago it was only three nominees.

Eight years ago there were three nominees.

Seven years ago there were seven nominees.

Six years ago there was one nominee.

Five years ago there were four nominees.

Four years ago there were four nominees.

Three years ago there were four nominees.

Two years ago there was one nominee.

One year ago there was one nominee.

The films themselves and their casts weren’t necessarily diverse; a few of the movies made were almost segregated. Some movies had almost all African American casts and some featured almost all Caucasian casts.

This isn’t how it should be. The world and life is diverse. Different cultures and races do interact with one another. Just not necessarily according to Hollywood.

Wait Mr. Clooney wasn’t done yet. “I would also make the argument, I don't think it's a problem of who you're picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?”

The funny thing about hiring an actor to play a certain role is that it isn’t 100% dependent on the color of their skin. It should be about their ability to convincingly bring that character to life on both the big and small screens.

Here’s a tip: People struggle or suffer from all the same things. They feel pain, joy, happiness and anger the same; they can portray a character struggling with an issue or dealing with a situation regardless as to the color of their skin or even their physical appearance.

So, yeah, it is a problem who you’re picking or in this case who you’re not picking.

Clooney kept going, “There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we're talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it's even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.”

The reason why there aren’t 20, 30 or 40 films of quality is because not all films are made with that in mind. Some are made to make money or appeal to fans of a certain genre.

While the Academy doesn’t have a huge problem with movies that are blockbusters, they apparently don’t see the value of a horror film except in the categories such as sound effects, makeup, etc.

The last horror film to win an Oscar award for best picture was 1991’s Silence of the Lambs. However, this movie was also listed as a thriller, a genre that the Academy is a little more receptive to.

According to movie buffs the only true horror film to win best picture was 1973’s The Exorcist. Once again, for the Academy’s pleasure it’s also categorized as a thriller.

There is also the thought that the Academy Awards can be somewhat elitist and don’t choose certain types of movies so, in that sense, they are not embracing diversity.

In 2016 there were 594 films released and, apparently, the Academy couldn’t find 20, 30 or 40 “quality” films out of that number.

So what actually constitutes a quality film in the minds of the Academy is the real issue because out of 594 films, they could only find nine which makes them seem a little, well, nit-picky.

This is also a clear indication that there will never be true diversity come Oscar time.

Mr. Clooney also left out Asians who are even worse off than Latinos as are American Indians. He totally side-stepped the issue of roles for women over a certain age or performers of a certain body type.

Funny.

Another note worth remembering, people of Spanish descent prefer to be referred to as Latinos and not Hispanics. There are some Spanish cultures who get highly upset when they’re referred to as Hispanics.

Just a thought.

It’s not all the fault of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists. They can’t nominate a film that doesn’t exist. This is the fault of the movie studios that don’t seem to embrace or see the necessity to level the playing field; to show movies with a diverse cast.

Even if a film is made, it depends on how much money the studio is willing to sink into it through distribution. This determines how many people will actually go out to see the movie or even know that it’s there.

A movie that goes to straight to video isn’t likely to even cross the minds of the Academy come Oscar time.

The problem with Mr. Clooney is that he, as well as other actors such as Mark Wahlberg, Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., and Kevin Spacey, yield a lot of power in Hollywood. They can demand to make changes or at least use their influence to make changes.

George Clooney is a director. He owns his own production company. He has the power to make changes. As do the actors named above.

The real question is why hasn’t Clooney done so?

There are six African American nominees this year. One nominee is a Hindu Indian (Dev Patel is nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Lion).

Did the Academy really turn itself around or is it a coincidence?

Depends.

Making a film isn’t as easy as actors learning their lines and someone filming them. Getting a film to a movie theatre can take several years.

Development can take up to three years even more if the project is independent.

Pre-production can take up to four months because they have to determine a budget, arrange/organize production schedules, rewrite scripts, get the film crew, rent sound stages and equipment, casting, and rehearsals among other things.

The actual filming of the movie can take up to 12 weeks or more.

Post-production can take up to six months and involves editing, special effects, music, ads, trailers, etc.

Finally, there’s distribution where more money is spent and finding the right distributor is crucial to the film because that’s how the studios get money back-by the film getting into the theatres.

Basically, it usually takes about four to five years for a movie to hit the theatres.

So the movies that are nominated weren’t necessarily made due to the Academy Awards announcing that there will be more nominations for people of color. The films that have been nominated just fell into the Academy’s lap and it was easy for them to make good on their promise.

The real test will come over a period of time and it will take about five to eight years before people will see whether or not the Academy Awards has turned over a new leaf or whether they do what comes naturally in the entertainment industry, offered up some really convincing lip service.

It’s just not the movie studios that have a problem with diversity. It’s the television studios as well.

Unlike the movie studios, television studios have more of an impact on people because the shows that they offer come into homes every day. Even more so now that you can stream shows onto your laptop, computer or other technical gadgets.

The television studios, in that regard, should take every precaution available to them when deciding what types of images and messages they are sending out through their shows especially with the likelihood that these shows are being viewed by impressionable teens and young children.

In a perfect world, parents would closely monitor the viewing habits of their children. Sad to say, too many children and teens have unlimited access to television shows on multiple channels.

Sure, it’s the parent’s responsibility, but it is also the responsibility of the studios to have more diversity in their casts.

Although many shows will have their token minority, there are other shows that try to have at least some color in their casts. There are several shows with all or mostly African American casts. They are:

Being Mary Jane (BET)

The Quad (BET)

Black-ish (ABC)

Empire (FOX)

Star (FOX)

Tyler Perry's For Better or Worse (OWN)

The Haves and the Have Nots (OWN)

Love Thy Neighbor (OWN)

This is a sad state of affairs. There used to be a lot more shows on that depicted African American life such as Mo’Nique, Girlfriends, Moesha, The Parkers, The Cosby Show, Different World, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Hughley’s, For Your Love, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, Living Single, Martin, Everybody Hates Chris, as well as Malcolm and Eddie.

There have been shows on recently that do have a more diverse cast than others. These are:

Hawaii Five-0 (three Asians, one Latino and one African American)

Rosewood (three African Americans, two Latinas)

Chicago Med (four African Americans, one Asian)

Code Black (one Latino, one Indian, three African Americans)

Quantico (three African Americans, one Arabic, one Latina, one Indian)

Scandal (three African Americans, one Latino)

Chicago Fire (four Latinos, two African Americans)

The Walking Dead (six African Americans, one Latina)

NCIS is a popular show and is going into their 14 season.

However, for the first five seasons it was an all-white cast. It wasn’t until season five that an African American character was introduced-NCIS Director Leon Vance played by Rocky Carroll.

The same season they introduced Leon Vance they also brought on Chilean actress Cote de Pablo to portray Mossad agent Ziva David.

Even so, Vance is not a central character to the show; he isn’t in every episode. The actress who portrayed Ziva David chose not to continue on the show in 2013.

The good news is that with the exodus of actor Michael Weatherly (Tony DiNozzo) in 2016 changes were made to the cast that now include an African American and a Latino.

The bad news is that it took them 13 years to add some diversity to their cast.

More bad news is that the African American character, Clayton Reeves, looks like he will be recurring and not necessarily a regular character.

Another major disappointment is the show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit which has had 18 years to demonstrate diversity in, not only their cast, but their victims and criminals as well.

They have not.

The show has, over the years, dabbled in diversity with ethnic characters such as a female African American detective Monique Jeffries who only lasted the first two seasons, a female African American medical examiner Melinda Warner who has been switched on and off between being a regular cast member and being a recurring cast member since season two, an Asian and gay FBI Special Agent Dr. George Huang who lasted from season two until season 12, Latino detective Nick Amaro who lasted three seasons, and a newer edition is a Latino prosecutor Rafael Barba since season 14.

In 2000 the show put their official token in place, the African American detective Odafin Tutuola and the character is still on the today, but is dramatically underused.

The character is one of the best on television and is a perfectly complex depiction of an urban police officer who has seen too much thus becoming a little jaded.

For years the show featured Detective Elliot Stabler as the typical alpha male which is a staple in television shows. The new frontrunner, main character, of the show is white female detective Olivia Benson.

The show didn’t necessarily decide to change the leading role to either appeal to female viewers or breathe new life into the show; they were forced to when the actor who played Stabler left the show.

Although the show seems to be, at times, pretty diverse it’s not especially for a show that is set in and about New York City which has a population of 25.1% African Americans, 11.8% Asians, 0.6% American Indians, and 25.5% Latinos.

It is a problem when television studios bleach shows that are set in New York City to make it look like only white people live there.

Currently, on television there are 12 shows that are set in New York. Out of that number most of them use the white alpha male and a token minority.

Even the ones who have a couple of cast members who are people of color, too often they are not the main character; that is still the alpha male.

These minority characters are hardly ever as fully developed as their white counterparts and are not given consideration for the same amount of storylines.

These problems with diversity aren’t just with television shows on network or cable TV, but with original shows that are featured on Amazon, Hulu and Netflix.

All is not lost, however.

In the last couple of years the trend has been slowly changing.

On USA’s Major Crimes (and its predecessor The Closer) the lead character is a female and not some young, hot female either. The female lead on this show, Captain Sharon Raydor, is an older woman.

FOX’s Rosewood features an African American male as the central figure, Dr. Beaumont Rosewood. Dr. Rosewood’s partner is a Latina female detective, Annalise Villa.

Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal have the main characters’ as women. Although the main character in Grey’s Anatomy is a white woman and the other two shows have an African American woman as the focal point, it’s important to note that all three of these shows are featured on ABC who seems to be more ahead of this trend than other television stations.

The studio also has Dr. Ken a show featuring an Asian man as the main character, Black-ish a show about an African American family, Conviction’s main character is also a female, Quantico’s main character is an Indian female, American Housewife’s main character is a female, and Fresh Off the Boat features an almost all Asian cast.

FOX television studios have shows like Empire, Star, Rosewood, and the upcoming 24:Legacy that have African Americans as their main characters. Empire and Star are almost entirely made up with African American casts.

However, the rest of the shows rely on the tired old formula of featuring a white alpha male who although may be human they can perform death defying acts that they can just walk away from.

Cable stations such as AMC, USA, HBO and Showtime also all fail to understand that there’s a big, beautiful diverse world out there filled with wonderful characters and incredible stories to tell.

Many of these people will be minorities, women over the age of 30, people with physical and emotional disabilities, and, yes, God-forbid, wear a size large than a 6.

Perhaps if the television and movie studios can embrace this belief the awards’ shows will have a bigger selection to choose from than just the typically random white characters that really aren’t having experiences that are specific to their race.

So how did the Academy Awards actually do one year later?

Not so good because they had to be told to do it and it really didn’t have to come to that.

Hollywood and the Academy must also gain some common ground. There has be a happy medium between the type of movies Hollywood makes that gets them the money they want and making more of the quality films that generally will earn an Oscar at the same time while assembling a diverse cast to do the film.

However, unless the change happens throughout Hollywood, real change will be a long time coming if it comes at all.