As I live-tweeted the 88th Academy Awards, I was also watching the backstage cameras for gif making opportunities. The more I watched, I noticed something peculiar. There were so many people of different ethnicities working behind the curtain that it left me wondering: why aren’t there more in front of the camera?
I’m not talking about just black Americans, but also Asians, Hispanics, and other racial identities. People are often shouting that the current representation reflects the racial demographics, but I disagree. Movies are no longer just made and released in their respective countries, so we can’t just look America’s demographics anymore. Movies are released globally, and that excuse can no longer apply. How is it that people love traveling and seeing different cultures, but refuse to see them in film?
This is not the case for every instance, but diversity is lacking and will continue to lack until we step up and say enough is enough.
Chris Rock made the Oscars uncomfortable, and for mostly good reasons, but he was somewhat shortsighted in my opinion. The black community is underrepresented and poorly treated. Knowing this and seeing it doesn’t make you a dreaded liberal or bleeding heart, but it makes you human. But, other minorities that make up our country do not receive enough love either.
We seem to hold tight to our tropes: the Indian cab driver, the Asian math genius, and the sexy Latina.
But wait, you might say, why don’t they watch the films that belong to those countries? Why doesn’t the Indian man star in Bollywood films? When doesn’t the Asian star in a Korean drama? Why doesn’t the Latina star in a telenovela? Why don’t these people search elsewhere for entertainment while I watch my readily available TV show where the whole cast is white with the token minorities?
We need to stop holding to antiquated standards and do better to be more aware. Hollywood maybe liberal, but Ridley Scott should not be complaining about funding a film with an appropriate cast (i.e Exodus: Gods and Kings). If he had cast the film racially accurate without big stars, he never would have gotten funding. Gerard Butler should not be portraying the Egyptian god Osiris and Emma Stone shouldn’t be the first choice for a character of Asian descent.
I've started to scrutinize the shows that I watch more so than I ever have. Is the cast diverse? Are people portrayed well or are they just tropes? This is one of the the reasons that I love ABC's "Quantico." Not only is Priyanka Chopra one of the reasons that this is an amazing TV show, but the rest of cast varied and different as well. It's not often that a show with a POC lead is accompanied by a POC cast as well. They could have easily relied on very basic tropes in terms of story, but this show doesn't.
TV is starting to catch up, but film is still trailing behind as painfully evidenced. We've accomplished many things with gender quality and advocacy of better treatment for female actors in the film world, but not for everyone as a whole.
