Hollywood: Truly a Land of Opportunity?
From white actors portraying black men in classics, such as Othello, or even from white actress playing dark skinned women, such as Mariane Pearl, white actors portraying people of color in american films has been a tradition in Hollywood. Hollywood has historically made the decision to cast white actors instead of letting minorities play their own roles. While Hollywood is known for being a white industry, over the past years more noise, such as the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite (8), has been made about the lack of diversity in their films. The problem, known as whitewashing, is being called out more and demanding a transition of the industry. Whitewashing takes away opportunities from minorities, misrepresents …show more content…
Throughout the country’s history, minorities have seen America as a place of opportunity. This is why in recent years, the topic of whitewashing has been brought up again and again. “Minorities make up more than 36 percent of the U.S. population but represented only 10 percent of lead characters in movies and sat in 12 percent of director’s chairs in 2011, the last year for which data is available.” (5) And yet, even with this data on file, the problem hasn’t been fixed. The commotion stirred up around the lack of representation of minorities has been ignored by many directors, or if the people see minority representation, it is stereotypical. For example, Johnny Depp’s take on a Native America in the movie The Lone Ranger or Max Minghella as Divya Narendra in the Social Network. “Achieving greater diversity in film and television is about more than just putting non-white faces on the screen, Shukla said. How the entertainment industry portrays these characters is just as important.” (7) Hollywood is ignoring that diversity is more than adding in random characters of color with no purpose. The old tradition of whitewashing is also not helping the Hollywood financially, like they claim. “A recent UCLA study found that even though racial and gender diversity in television remains appallingly low, more diverse shows bring higher audiences while less diverse ones struggle.” (4) For example, Jane the Virgin is about a girl of
From white actors portraying black men in classics, such as Othello, or even from white actress playing dark skinned women, such as Mariane Pearl, white actors portraying people of color in american films has been a tradition in Hollywood. Hollywood has historically made the decision to cast white actors instead of letting minorities play their own roles. While Hollywood is known for being a white industry, over the past years more noise, such as the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite (8), has been made about the lack of diversity in their films. The problem, known as whitewashing, is being called out more and demanding a transition of the industry. Whitewashing takes away opportunities from minorities, misrepresents …show more content…
Throughout the country’s history, minorities have seen America as a place of opportunity. This is why in recent years, the topic of whitewashing has been brought up again and again. “Minorities make up more than 36 percent of the U.S. population but represented only 10 percent of lead characters in movies and sat in 12 percent of director’s chairs in 2011, the last year for which data is available.” (5) And yet, even with this data on file, the problem hasn’t been fixed. The commotion stirred up around the lack of representation of minorities has been ignored by many directors, or if the people see minority representation, it is stereotypical. For example, Johnny Depp’s take on a Native America in the movie The Lone Ranger or Max Minghella as Divya Narendra in the Social Network. “Achieving greater diversity in film and television is about more than just putting non-white faces on the screen, Shukla said. How the entertainment industry portrays these characters is just as important.” (7) Hollywood is ignoring that diversity is more than adding in random characters of color with no purpose. The old tradition of whitewashing is also not helping the Hollywood financially, like they claim. “A recent UCLA study found that even though racial and gender diversity in television remains appallingly low, more diverse shows bring higher audiences while less diverse ones struggle.” (4) For example, Jane the Virgin is about a girl of