Could there be Institutional Racism in Hollywood?
Only six Black women have won Oscars since 1939. More than 350 white actors and actresses have been nominated for Best Actress and Best Actor compared to just 21 Black actors. Black achievements are mainly invisible to the Academy and aren't taken seriously, this is shown in the occurrence when Babe the Pig won an Oscar before Denzel Washington.
Concerning the Oscars of 2011 Samuel Jackson wrote to a Times reporter, "It's obvious there's not ONE Black male actor in Hollywood that's able to read a teleprompter, or that's 'hip enuf,' for the new academy demographic!" Jackson wrote. "In the Hollywood I saw tonite, I don't exist nor does Denzel, Eddie, Will, Jamie, or even a young comer like Anthony Mackie!"
The discrimination in Hollywood isn't going unnoticed by the black actors who aren't able to shine.Forest Whitaker believes that blacks in the movie business have “moved a long way, but we’re not at a destination point.” “In the early 2000's,” states a piece in The Hollywood Reporter, “blacks played 15% of roles in film and TV. Today, it has fallen to 13% … and black directors make up only 4% of the Directors Guild of America.” Whitaker's argument is backed up with the statistics from The Hollywood Reporter. Whitaker begs the question of whether blacks are shut out of the film and television industry or if they're not making enough progress in the industry to get noticed.
And it's not just Oscars that instill Institutional Racism, for releases of Thor and The Hunger Games people have shot down the movies because of prominent black actors.
Twitter comments regarding the race of Rue in the Hunger Games read, "'Why does Rue have to be black, not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie' as well as "Kk call me racist but when I found out Rue was black her death wasn't as sad." The fans along with the producers are shooting down movies all because of the race of certain characters. In Thor fans didn't take to the race of the Nordic God played by Idris Elba, they believed him being black went against being a Nordic God.
Source: http://racismstillexists.tumblr.com/post/28816737901/representations-of-black-people-in-film
Concerning the Oscars of 2011 Samuel Jackson wrote to a Times reporter, "It's obvious there's not ONE Black male actor in Hollywood that's able to read a teleprompter, or that's 'hip enuf,' for the new academy demographic!" Jackson wrote. "In the Hollywood I saw tonite, I don't exist nor does Denzel, Eddie, Will, Jamie, or even a young comer like Anthony Mackie!"
The discrimination in Hollywood isn't going unnoticed by the black actors who aren't able to shine.Forest Whitaker believes that blacks in the movie business have “moved a long way, but we’re not at a destination point.” “In the early 2000's,” states a piece in The Hollywood Reporter, “blacks played 15% of roles in film and TV. Today, it has fallen to 13% … and black directors make up only 4% of the Directors Guild of America.” Whitaker's argument is backed up with the statistics from The Hollywood Reporter. Whitaker begs the question of whether blacks are shut out of the film and television industry or if they're not making enough progress in the industry to get noticed.
And it's not just Oscars that instill Institutional Racism, for releases of Thor and The Hunger Games people have shot down the movies because of prominent black actors.
Twitter comments regarding the race of Rue in the Hunger Games read, "'Why does Rue have to be black, not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie' as well as "Kk call me racist but when I found out Rue was black her death wasn't as sad." The fans along with the producers are shooting down movies all because of the race of certain characters. In Thor fans didn't take to the race of the Nordic God played by Idris Elba, they believed him being black went against being a Nordic God.
Source: http://racismstillexists.tumblr.com/post/28816737901/representations-of-black-people-in-film
"Red Tails" a movie based on the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII was produced and funded by George Lucas, producer of Star Wars. He couldn't receive funding from Hollywood because they stated, "'No. We don't know how to market a movie like this.' " referring to the all black cast of the movie. The movie cost around $58 million, more than an average mainly black cast movie would have. Lucas has been on multiple talk shows explaining that "the movies been held up for release since 1942."
Source: http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/3f/1143f03c4d11e197b6123138165f92/file/Red-tails-poster-section.jpg.scaled1000.jpg
Below is the trailer and cast interviews for the release of "Red Tails."
Source: http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/3f/1143f03c4d11e197b6123138165f92/file/Red-tails-poster-section.jpg.scaled1000.jpg
Below is the trailer and cast interviews for the release of "Red Tails."
Most people don't want to believe a show as happy and cheerful as "Glee" could be racist but if you really look into it the whole show is filled with racism. The two Asian characters, Tina and Mike, have the same last name Chang, of all of the Asian last names they happen to have the same and they're not even related. The smart mouth Latina who is always down for a fight and is a cheerleader is named Santana Lopez, they couldn't get a more Hispanic name. There is also a Jewish boy named Jacob Ben Israel, is that suppose to be funny? Next there's an Irish exchange student who everyone believes is a Leprechaun. The show is blatantly stereotypical and racist. The Jewish girl wants to get a nose job to look like the white girls, the Asian boy is getting daily drug testing after getting an A-, the black girl who's always singing gospel, the gay boy with a great fashion sense, the fiery, underprivileged Latina, and the blonde cheerleader who is so dumb she has a negative GPA. The show revolves around these stereotypes, even having full episodes based on them and yet no one complains because they think it teaches a lesson and its suppose to be funny and not racist.
Source: http://stereotypesonline.com/blog/glee-cast-version-somebody-to-love-justin-bieber/
Source: http://stereotypesonline.com/blog/glee-cast-version-somebody-to-love-justin-bieber/
Many people have questioned why so many talented Black, Latino and Asian actors are passed over by Hollywood. " It seems that not a year goes by where this debate isn't had, and i think its a worthy debate" said Andrew Wallenstein. the latest argument is the controversy around Angelina Jolie playing queen of the Nile in Cleopatra: a life. people argued that Cleopatra was Greek and not dark skinned. one man argued that this is no different than the old cowboy movies where the white cowboy kisses the Indian girl, but the Indian girl isn't really Indian, her character is played by a white actress wearing makeup. Craig Detweiler, director of the center of entertainment, media and culture at Pepperdine university, said Hollywood has "a long and painful history of misrepresentation." Maddox-simms said "personally, in my films i want the best talent, no matter what the color." i couldn't agree more, Hollywood needs to stop concentrating on skin color and having a full white cast and more on producing a good film. i think black and white people are equally capable of starring in successful films, now we need Hollywood to believe. "It is typically believed that black film, minus a Tyler Perry, will not bring in the box office receipts that a film with an A-list star would." It is simply unfair that we are convinced a white film will sell better than a black film, we must give equal opportunity to all people that deserve it, no matter what the skin color.
Below is a video of black actors giving their opinion on how black people are treated in Hollywood.
when the public found out that the characters of Cinna, Rue and Thresh were to be played by black actors there was an uproar with the fans. Despite the fact that both Thresh and Rue were described as dark skinned in the book many people were still shocked at who was actually filling the roles. Brnshoff said "despite certain character descriptions being spelled out in the book, people typically project themselves onto a character in order to emphasize with that person." "for a white person reading a book, they're very rarely going to go, I'm just assuming this is a black character if he or she isn't marked as such." Most people see themselves in characters and if that person is white then that is how they most likely see the character. Hollywood sees it as " the more people who identify with a character , the more tickets a movie might sell." There are plenty of instances where white actors take minority roles.
This is a video clip of the television show "what would you do?". On this particular episode they had a coffee server be especially rude and loud with the customers to try an see how people would react and if anyone would speak up. But this is not the problem with the episode, the problem is that they chose a colored woman to play the part of the rude obnoxious server. Most people feel that this is a stereotype and that it is giving Colored people a