Oscar season is officially upon us. But while lots of people are buzzing to watch the nominated performances before the show and form opinions about who is going to win this year, some are already disappointed with nominations. People on twitter have been using the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite since the nominees were announced to express their disappointment over the lack of diversity. This is stemming from the fact that in the categories for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress are made up of only White actors.
This hashtag has been around since last years' Oscars, and it’s being used to talk about the lack of diversity in the Oscars. People on twitter are using it to vie for movies like "Straight Outta Compton," which only received one nomination for Best Original Screenplay, or for performances by Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan.
Will Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith shared her disappointment on Facebook and Twitter, expressing her thoughts on the diversity problem in Hollywood and the disappointment she feels in how people of color are being treated.
The #OscarsSoWhite hashtag is the best way to lead this discussion of an age-old problem in Hollywood. While a lot of these tweets seem to focus on the Oscar snubs, there is room for this hashtag to open up the bigger conversation of the lack of diversity in Hollywood. In both film and television, there is a distinct lack of diversity among lead actors. Over 70 percent of actors in films are White, with around 13 percent being Black, and five percent of actors were Hispanic or Asian.
There is an apparent lack of diversified actors in Hollywood, but this isn’t completely an Oscars problem. At its root, this is a casting problem. Most movies outright feature a predominantly white cast of actors. The choice to not nominate any actors of color is a problem, but it also stems from the diversity problem in Hollywood.
Not to mention that the Oscars favor prestige over anything else. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens'" two new leads are a woman (Daisy Ridley) and a Black man (John Boyega). Oscar Isaac, another actor in "Star Wars," is Hispanic. And this movie has made billions of dollars since its December release. "Straight Outta Compton" was another well-received movie with a diverse cast. Diversity can and does do well at the box office. Yet, the lack of diversity in Hollywood is still evident and pronounced with the Oscars.
This hashtag gave way to more and more conversations about diversity in film. There is no question that actors of color can do just as good of a job as white actors. But there are questions of why they aren’t being given the chance show this. Is it that these actors are not being cast in “Oscar-worthy” roles? Or that the Oscar voting system is too antiquated to recognize success in its various forms? Either way, #OscarsSoWhite is not a perfect, but an important way to get the conversation started on the pointed lack of diversity in Hollywood.
