By TAYLOR MORRIS, Student Reporter
Unless you were living under a rock last year, you probably heard about the racial controversy surrounding the Academy Awards ceremony. Many were upset and not just regular, everyday people, but celebrities spoke out on the issue, as well. Actress, Jada Pinkett Smith, and film director, Spike Lee, went as far as promoting a ban on the Academy Awards ceremony, all together.
According to the Los Angeles Times, for the second year in a row, all white actors and actresses were among the chosen few nominated in the four main categories. The result, of the nominations being racially one sided, caused social media to create a hash tag, #OscarsSoWhite. It also increased the overall concern about the acknowledgment, of people of color, in Hollywood.
Fast forward to 2017, the Academy Awards nomination list is released and it happens to include several actors and actresses that are people of color. Now, did the Oscars feel the need to include people of color due to the immense backlash they received last year or are they actually acknowledging actors and actresses who are people of color, for their talent? Most would hope that it is the latter; however, according to Dr. Cheryl Jenkins, Associate Director of Black Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, it is most likely a combination of the two. According to Jenkins, if people were not making the effort to consciously pay attention to the Academy Award’s nomination process, this year’s nomination line-up perhaps would have been the same as last year. Nonetheless, this unequal treatment toward people of color is nothing new. The overall acknowledgement and accurate representation of people of color in film and television are long overdue.
“The history of film and television is loaded with racial bias, especially the invisibility of minorities and stereotyping,” Dr. Christopher Campbell, Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern Mississippi, said. “Today, I think racism functions on a more subtle and institutional level.”
The truth is that society is comfortable with viewing certain races, in particular roles in television and in film. What would television and film be like without the token races? For example, typically we see African-Americans on a certain spectrum in the entertainment industry. They are either depicted as either sassy, ghetto, living the thug life, poor, oppressed and unintelligent or they are portrayed as well-to-do doctors and lawyers that generally fit in with the white society. These days you generally do not see any African-American middle class families attempting to make an honest living.
“People look at the Cosby Show as evidence of the end of racism,” Campbell said. “Then they looked at Obama‘s election as more evidence. We all would like to live in a world where racism isn’t a factor, but there is far too much evidence to the contrary.”
Dr. Kim M. LeDuff, Chief Diversity Officer and Dean of University College said that television and film depend on stereotypes for character development. “Unfortunately the lack of representation of minority groups from the earliest days, of film and television, led to very simplistic and one-dimensional characterizations of people, of color.” LeDuff said. “There is great diversity when it comes to the representation of whites because white males were the original filmmakers and television executives. What they created was reflective of their own experience and designed to appeal to white audiences.”
These filmmakers and television executives have every right to share and tell their stories, however it is obvious that there is not an equal opportunity for people of color to tell their stories and that is where the problem lies. “The bottom line in all of this is not black or white…it is green,” LeDuff said. “Television and movies are produced to make money. Whatever has the greatest mainstream appeal is going to get produced.”
In Hollywood, a lot is centered on economics. If a production, whether it is television or film, doesn’t have financial security to see it through it will not survive. Maybe it is too difficult for Hollywood to give the green light to seeing more people of color in non-stereotypical roles. It is just easier to take the simpler and safer route by generating more stereotypical characters, for people of color. That is why several people of color, like Tyler Perry who has written, produced and starred in several stage plays, movies and television series, made the decision to go out and create their own content.
As said before, the entertainment industry is obviously racially biased and stereotypical. Jenkins made an interesting point that there are systematic things regarding race, that exist outside of Hollywood and just in society in general, about the notions that people have about people of color, minorities, people across country and the globe. The fact of the matter is that society would have to change first, before Hollywood could truly fall in line. “It’s this sort of systematic idea that if we can start at the root of the issue then maybe it will bubble up and when we get to how we function in our world and in society, those things I think it will automatically change, but anytime soon, no I don’t think so,” Jenkins said. At the end of the day, the entertainment industry caters to what society wants and if what society wants are people of color in the background and representing stereotypical roles, then that is what Hollywood will continue to provide as long as it brings in the big bucks.