What's wrong with the oscars?
This article sums up the issue pretty well.
"No winner in any acting category during the last ten years has been Latino, Asian American, or Native American... 94 percent of Academy voters are white."
(Seems like we found the source of the problem.)
Denzel Washington was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor in 2001 for his portrayal of the notorious detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day. However, he was not awarded an Oscar for his portrayal of Malcom X, or for his role as Steve Biko in Cry Freedom.
So... Hollywood likes a black thug, but doesn't like a positive black man.
An Asian woman has never won the Oscar for best leading actress. The last and only time an Asian woman was even nominated for an Oscar for best leading actress was 79 years ago (and she was white-passing and concealed her race).
Let's forget about the Oscars and talk about just films in general.
Straight white men are 31.3% of the American population. In the top 250 highest grossing films, 209 (83.6%) starred a straight white man or had a straight white male voice actor. This means that 31.3% of the US population is receiving 83.6% of the representation.
People of color are 28.6% of the American population. 6.4% of the top 250 highest grossing films star a person of color as the lead role. 2.8% if you remove Will Smith. Furthermore, 16.3% of the American population identifies as Latino/a, but not a single film on this list has a Latino/a protagonist.
How many films feature Asians as leads? That aren’t martial arts films? Barely any.
Why are white people more marketable? How can we change the media's lack of racial representation?
I love this article by Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones. We need to address the issue of institutionalized racism in our society so that everyone is seen as equally beautiful, and whiteness will no longer be the standard of beauty for the next generation.
"No winner in any acting category during the last ten years has been Latino, Asian American, or Native American... 94 percent of Academy voters are white."
(Seems like we found the source of the problem.)
Denzel Washington was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor in 2001 for his portrayal of the notorious detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day. However, he was not awarded an Oscar for his portrayal of Malcom X, or for his role as Steve Biko in Cry Freedom.
So... Hollywood likes a black thug, but doesn't like a positive black man.
An Asian woman has never won the Oscar for best leading actress. The last and only time an Asian woman was even nominated for an Oscar for best leading actress was 79 years ago (and she was white-passing and concealed her race).
Let's forget about the Oscars and talk about just films in general.
Straight white men are 31.3% of the American population. In the top 250 highest grossing films, 209 (83.6%) starred a straight white man or had a straight white male voice actor. This means that 31.3% of the US population is receiving 83.6% of the representation.
People of color are 28.6% of the American population. 6.4% of the top 250 highest grossing films star a person of color as the lead role. 2.8% if you remove Will Smith. Furthermore, 16.3% of the American population identifies as Latino/a, but not a single film on this list has a Latino/a protagonist.
How many films feature Asians as leads? That aren’t martial arts films? Barely any.
Why are white people more marketable? How can we change the media's lack of racial representation?
I love this article by Dr. Camara Phyllis Jones. We need to address the issue of institutionalized racism in our society so that everyone is seen as equally beautiful, and whiteness will no longer be the standard of beauty for the next generation.