Following the hashtag "#oscarssowhite," created to bring attention to the exclusionary and non-representative Hollywood, we might be seeing a little effort to diversify. It's been said that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences invited 683 new members to join...big deal, they're just invitations, right? Wrong! It's the Academy that gets to nominate and vote on films for the Oscars.
The Hollywood Reporter breaks down these numbers explaining how this is the shift in demographic needed to create change. The percentage of males could decrease from 75 percent to 73 percent, while the percentage of whites could drop all the way from 95 percent to 89 percent. The numbers may show a minimal change but this would be a great chance to get more women and people of color into the organization.
According to HuffPost, some of our favorites were among the invitees: stars like John Boyega, Emma Watson and Freida Pinto, along with others who were recently snubbed like Micheal B. Jordan.
Okay, so this may be a small step for man but it's definitely a giant leap into the right direction. Let's not expect for the Academy to turn into the United Nations overnight and acknowledge this as a great effort, but it's way better than Hollywood and filmmakers faking diversity.
This is most commonly done in films by having stereotypical roles for characters of color. For example: the sassy or angry black woman (they've become interchangeable), who barely gets a storyline and everything she says is over-emphasized with neck rolls. Or how about inaccurate casting that is done so often? We'll see Latinos casted as Filipino and sometimes as Black...or if you're Michael Jackson a white man gets to play you. This trend is so unnecessary and disrespectful to both parties involved.
It doesn't stop there. Directors are allowed create stories about people and their culture without having any insight or those specific people represented. All of these elements are upsetting and contribute to the poor representation that stagnates equality.
So with these invitations, maybe we can assume that Hollywood actually cares about its audience, or perhaps they've realized that they have to change with the times. We're living in a new era, where having a blonde and a brunette on screen isn't diversity. Where having a slave narrative every year isn't going to cut it. Diversity goes beyond gender and beyond race and it isn't binary. Diversity is inclusion. It's being able to come together without compromising self or acting like we're all the same.
