It’s All Black and White
It’s the night of the year that showcases the best films released the year before, and where the glamourous people that star in them gather inside The Dolby Theatre in the hope of walking away with a golden statue shaped like a naked, frowning, bald man. Seriously…have you ever looked closely at an Oscar?
I for one love Hollywood awards season, although to be honest it’s mostly the red carpet style segments that I like. Still, I’ve found that many people get into the Oscars’ spirit; betting on what will win Best Picture or celebrating when Leo finally won Best Actor. More recently however, the Oscar’s have been plagued by controversy surrounding one certain topic; diversity, specifically the Academy’s alleged lack of it.
This year’s announcement of Academy Award nominations ignited debates as to why, for the second year in a row, there were no black actors amongst the nominees. Last year, the public’s reaction to the lack of diversity in nominations was encapsulated by the Twitter tag #OscarsSoWhite. This year was no different as the tag was dusted off and once again splashed across most social media sites.
So, was this reaction justified?
I mean, a lot of work goes into selecting nominees for Academy Awards. In order for a film to even be considered for Best Picture it must first satisfy a set of criteria. So, even though all of the nominated films met this specific criteria, and the actors in the films performed well (at least in my opinion), why are people reacting in this way?
The answer, in one word, is opportunity.
Although some or all of the performances of those white actors nominated may have been exceptional, could a black actor have performed better? Were black actors even given the chance to fill those roles in which the white nominees held?
History indicates that for roles that are considered race-neutral, white actors are chosen by default. White actors are given the opportunity to go for huge leading roles and secure them, where a person of colour with the same acting ability could have easily been cast in the same role. Similarly, this whitewashing of culture is exemplified in instances where white actors are selected for roles that were originally black. Comedian, Aziz Ansari, sums up the typical whitewash situation in an episode from his series ‘Master of None’ called “Indians on TV”:
As a consequence of black actors not being chosen to star in race-neutral roles, they end up starring mostly in roles in which a black person HAD to be cast. In the past this practice has been exemplified by Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela in the film ‘Mandela’, Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines in ‘The Butler’, and the majority of leading actors in ‘Straight Outta Compton’ (interesting to note that none of these actors or films were nominated for Best Performance or Best Picture Academy Awards). Nikesh Shukla, British blogger and creator of the Shukla Test, explains that this practice of blacks-play-blacks is the result of white people thinking that “people of colour only have ethnic experiences” and not universal ones.
Although black actors’ depictions of black characters have won awards in the past — Morgan Freeman picking up Best Supporting Actor for ‘Million Dollar Baby’ or Halle Berry winning Best Actress for ‘Monster’s Ball’ — what about those black actors who won out against a white actor for a role? Well, in fact, Denzel Washington is the only black actor to win Best Actor for a role that could have been played by a white actor; a LAPD detective in the 2001 Thriller/Drama film ‘Training Day’.
So, historically, black actors are cast into black roles, and white actors are cast into white roles, race-neutral roles, and as I mentioned earlier, black roles. Seriously, it’s astonishing how many cases there have been throughout cinematic history where roles that were characteristically non-white were played by white actors. It really reiterates the notion of opportunity in that white actors have their pick of roles to audition for, whereas black actors….well, not so much.
However, all hope is not lost! In recent years there has been a diversification in the roles that non-white actors play, most notably in the television sphere. Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling for example are both Indian writers slash actors who star in popular comedic television series’. Ansari’s role diversification began with his role as Tom Haverford in NBC’s ‘Parks and Recreation’, a role which he states “was not a role that was purely based on an ethnic stereotype”. Ansari has constantly said that the roles he plays are “done as me a comedian, not me as an Indian guy”. The character of Tom is a sarcastic and underachieving government official, with great dress sense and horrible flirting skills — see, this role could totally have been played by a white guy. As for Mindy Kaling, she is the protagonist of her own show ‘The Mindy Project’ where she plays an obstetrician/gynaecologist living in New York City, attempting to balance her personal and professional life. Mindy’s character is a romantically frustrated 30-something woman with a love for Beyoncé and donuts, not the usual role for young Indian actresses to play — and that’s awesome! Ansari and Kaling are just two of the many non-white actors breaking down the boundaries in which they were previously trapped in due to their ethnicity. Rather than waiting for opportunities to arise, they are making opportunities for themselves through showcasing their talents as writers, actors, directors, and so on.
It is important to strive for equal opportunity and equity, and as a society it is our job to ensure there is a diverse representation of gender and race. Everyone deserves to have media characters or images they can identify with as it is part of how we understand ourselves. On the reverse side, it also allows us to understand those who are different from us, but does so in an entertaining, safe environment. Ultimately, there is no downside to diversification in cinema and television, and it is time to see a change.
Originally published at The Isthmus.
