According to a study done by USC, “across 100 top-grossing films of 2012, only 10.8 percent of speaking characters are Black, 4.2 percent are Hispanic, 5 percent are Asian, and 3.6 percent are from other (or mixed race) ethnicities.” Moreover, the remaining 76.3% roles in these films were given to White actors. Whitewashing and misrepresentation needs to stop because, Hollywood and many other forms of media don’t bother with casting POC in movies. Hollywood gets praised for this, and the white actors who are cast for portraying POC, get awards. While people of colour actors get pushed to the curb. It’s easier for film industries to erase POC history, and cast a white person to portray a person of colour.
This misrepresentation isn’t something that filmmakers just started doing. Ever since 1921, hollywood has been pushing POC actors out of roles, and leaving them to reinforce the idea of the stereotypical best friend, or the thug that gets in the way of the white protagonist. When director Ridley Scott was asked about the casting process for his movie Exodus: Gods and Kings, where he blatantly cast white actors to play Egyptian royalty he answered, “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come …show more content…
We are stuck in a circle of white normativity, and need to get out. Go on social media, and speak out about it. Be more critical of movies, and think about the amount of diversity you see on television. Movies and general media, are an important part of how people think, it affects the way people currently talk about POC, and it affects how persons of colour think of themselves. The more diversity on the big screen, the more it helps knock down the negative stereotypes about
This misrepresentation isn’t something that filmmakers just started doing. Ever since 1921, hollywood has been pushing POC actors out of roles, and leaving them to reinforce the idea of the stereotypical best friend, or the thug that gets in the way of the white protagonist. When director Ridley Scott was asked about the casting process for his movie Exodus: Gods and Kings, where he blatantly cast white actors to play Egyptian royalty he answered, “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Mohammad so-and-so from such-and-such. I’m just not going to get it financed. So the question doesn’t even come …show more content…
We are stuck in a circle of white normativity, and need to get out. Go on social media, and speak out about it. Be more critical of movies, and think about the amount of diversity you see on television. Movies and general media, are an important part of how people think, it affects the way people currently talk about POC, and it affects how persons of colour think of themselves. The more diversity on the big screen, the more it helps knock down the negative stereotypes about