#OscarsSoWhite: But who is to blame?

It was the Hollywood time of the year again in February: the Oscars. Cameras flashed. Celebrities smiled. People waited with bated breath for Jennifer Lawrence to fall over her dress. Again.

It was once again a night to remember - though this time for different reasons. On the surface everything was as usual, but below, controversy bubbled. The issue? For the second year running in both actor and actress categories, all 20 nominations were white. The lack of diversity in the Oscars is once again a heated topic, and has caused some celebrities to boycott the Oscars, including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. Chris Rock, the 2016 Oscars host (who is black), opened the Oscars pointing out that “if they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job.”

So, we recognize that the Oscars may have a problem with a lack of diversity, but is it a trend across the whole industry? It does seem to be so. According to one study, the film industry today still functions as a “straight, white, boys club”. This conclusion was drawn after they analyzed more than 11,000 speaking characters, 10,000 people working behind the scenes and 414 stories produced by 10 different companies.

The results? They found that over 50% of the stories featured no asian characters, and 22% featured no Black or African American characters. This shows the unbalanced representation onstage for actors of different races, which also adversely affects the Oscars. Less roles for Asian actors means less chance for Asian nominees at the Oscars. Representation on stage for different races is also important, as having a majority of the roles reserved white actors is not an accurate representation of our society. This lack of representation means minorities rarely see those of their race on the big screen (and if they do, they’re often playing tired stereotypes like the black comedic sidekick or the ambiguously Asian martial arts master). As a consequence, this causes fewer minorities to become interested in pursuing acting, which only feeds the cycle of under representation.

Rather than only pointing our fingers towards the Oscars on the issue, we should also consider the rest of the movie industry. When directors cast actors, there is so much more opportunity for white actors, especially with widespread whitewashing for lead roles. Whitewashing is when white actors are able to play characters of other races, like Emma Stone (who is caucasian) being cast as Allison Ng, part Hawaiian and part Chinese, or Ben Affleck (who is caucasian) being cast as Antonio J. Mendez, who is Latino.

The rationale for this is that white actors (and white men in particular) sell movies, because many are more recognizable and more celebrated. Of course, this is true to an extent, but it doesn’t mean that non-white leads aren’t also able to sell movies. They simply need to be given the chance to play lead roles in the first place. With new potential audience markets opening up, both domestically and internationally, the industry should no longer be the white man’s domain. And yet, the movie industry today is still reluctant (and perhaps a little scared) to change, worried that the audiences will not be able to accept non-white actors as leads, which will affect the most important factor: profits.

For change, the movie industry needs a little push from audiences, to hear that diversity is what want people want to see. This push seemed to be there this year during the Oscars, with movements like #OscarsSoWhite managing to bring change, with the Academy promising to review its members, increasing race representation and the number of women. This is a step, and hopefully the first of many, towards greater diversity in the Oscars.

To bring across permanent change to the whole of the film industry, however, the issue needs to be directly addressed, so boycotting the Oscars is not a long term solution. Instead, we should focus our attention towards the film industry and directors, where diversity is important for much needed talent and creativity. Moreover, a profit seeking industry will respond to calls for diversity as long as we truly use the leverage we have as consumers and favor content that is inclusive and diverse. We cannot demand change simply when fruits of our apathy confront us in blinding flashes of white: on the Oscar stage. We cannot blame the Academy and casting directors for the lack of racial diversity, if, in the end, they are simply responding to our own implicit biases.

Image source:

Lewis, H (editor). (2016, February 1). Injustice in the Oscars [digital image]. Retrieved May 16, 2016, from http://ehsthunderbolt.com/2584/perspectives/injustice-in-the-oscars/.