Does the term "whitewashing" have a completely different meaning than I thought it did? Have I been Vizzini-ing myself all this time?
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The political biases are pretty blatant. (Mad Max IMO mostly made the best film list because of the radical feminist cred, which is a stupid reason, even though the film is pretty good. Especially since as a feminist I happen to really dislike that type of extremely sexist "feminism" that's in Mad Max.)
What is the extremely sexist feminism that is in Mad Max?
An interesting topic, with a lot of moving parts. Some of this, I've seen as a tendency for films with strong performances by black, asian or hispanic actors to be genre films. The Oscars are notorious for only rewarding dramatic films while ignoring anything else of value.
Also, sometimes there are just not strong enough performances in a year. Idris Elba is one of my favorite actors, but Beasts of No Nation wasn't his strongest performance, it was just solid. Compare that to Forest Whitaker in Last King of Scotland, and Whitaker was a force of nature. At the same time, Whitaker in Ghost Dog was strong enough to enter the conversation, but never a peep was uttered, because it was a genre film. Lots of variables.
This years Golden Globes also opened my eyes a little toward some of the grudges and favoritism that permeates Hollywood. Mel Gibson has worked harder to better himself personally after his racist rant than most historical figures showcasing scumbag behavior. He got himself sober, reapplied himself to work and community, and generally turned his personal life around. But at the Globes, it was reported that no one would even talk to him for fear of endangering their own careers by association. It made me wonder how much anger/racism/grudge holding, is happening behind the scenes.
I'm sure there are racists in positions of power holding some sway over proceedings like the Oscars, but the sheer number of eligible voters would be enough to counteract most of that effect.
I've lost my train of thought. Quick, to the Batmobile!
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Awards in everything are so overrated, I don't care what field it is. Film, Sport, Writing, Newscasting, dog shows...Who cares if some panel of idiots decides who was the best at pretending to be a cowboy? Wouldn't a better metric of whether Hollywood is racist be calculating the ratio of leading roles/prominent jobs for different races at major studios? Is Creed any less of a successful/good movie because MBJ didn't get nominated for an award he wouldn't have won anyway? Is Johnny Gaudreau's career going to change one bit because he didn't win the Calder? I would almost gaurantee that both he and Jarome being the humble hardworking guys they are don't give two ####s about not winning the Calder/Hart Trophies.
Pinkett Smith is just plugging for her husband and Spike is a race baiting ######, it's pretty insulting to actual victims of racism for them to banging on about nominations at the World's Biggest Circle Jerk.
Also Idris Elba as James Bond would be seriously awesome, I hope that happens.
Hollywood is notorious for whitewashing, so it shouldn't be surprised that minorities are underrepresented at major award show circlejerks. The problem isn't that Creed or Straight Outta Compton failed to garner nominations (the former especially was not worthy of any), the problem is that the aforementioned whitewashing restricts the odds of minorites even appearing in Oscar bait worthy roles in the first place.
I do think Michael B Jordan should have been nominated for Creed, just has he should have been a couple of years ago for Fruitvale Station.
Yes, but Michael B. Jordan addressed this exact type of comment, in a recent interview (I can't remember the article right now). Why is the role for a young black actor - not just a young actor!! It's the distinction that nobody seems to see!
This is somewhat a self-defeating argument. If the black experience is truly different because of discrimination, then for a movie to be realistic (if it's set in modern USA) it is logical that it must acknowlege that different experience, and thus blacks would not be able to fill "generic" roles.
This is effectively a no-win for Hollywood because if it goes with race-blind casting, it can be accused of covering up racism and pretending it doesn't exist.
When did the last Asian or Hispanic person win an Oscar or get nominated? Why don't they have their own twitter protests?
I think (I had to check actors/actresses manually) the only Asian person to win an acting award post-2000 was Rinko Kikuchi (2006, Babel). The only other Asian nominated was Ken Wantanabe (2003, The Last Samurai).
Past that, I think you have to go back to the 80s (Haing S Ngor) for the last nomination/win.
I didn't hear about the Idris Elba casting. I'm not happy with that one and that's probably because I always envisioned Roland as sort of a worn out Clint Eastwood and there was the white/black dichotomy with the Man in Black being his enemy.
since 2000 there have been 80 actors (including this year) nominated for best actors
10 have been black
10/80 = . . . 12.5%
3 winners have been black
3/16 = . . . 18.75%
Now if we are going off the 6% number from BLS (http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm+) it would appear that even including this year black actors have been massively over represented. If we are going off of the demographics as a whole (13.2% black) then it is right around the correct range for both nominations and winners.
On the set of a Charlie Rose-esque talk show titled The Charlene Boyeur Show, the host, played by Paget Brewster, interviews film director Peter Allison Montcrief, played by Cross, who has produced what he is calling Better Roots, which “takes on the most disgraceful chapter in American history: the showing of Roots.”
In clips from the fictional miniseries that follow, we see a highly-sanitized version of American slavery—or as the director insists it be called, “helping”—complete with lemonade breaks and hugs. Montcrief describes the film as something you can show in any classroom across the country, “and those kids are going to walk out of there feeling good about themselves, feeling good about their ancestors, feeling great about me and good about America.”
The entertainment industry used to be far more exploitative towards blacks than it is now and a lot of that progress was made because black entertainers vocally demanded a better deal. There are a lot of blacks in the middle and bottom of the industry, but very few, at the top (Quincy Jones? Oprah?). Despite being over represented in media, black entertainers are still fighting to reach that mountain top and I see these kinds of statements as being representative of that struggle.
since 2000 there have been 80 actors (including this year) nominated for best actors
10 have been black
10/80 = . . . 12.5%
3 winners have been black
3/16 = . . . 18.75%
Now if we are going off the 6% number from BLS (http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat11.htm+) it would appear that even including this year black actors have been massively over represented. If we are going off of the demographics as a whole (13.2% black) then it is right around the correct range for both nominations and winners.
Asians and hispanics are by far the most underrepresented at this point.
Asians (including Indian people) are largely fit into a few specific roles. Hispanics are largely just not included in acting roles unless they look more or less caucasian or are playing a South American historical figure.
Virtually every Asian actor either plays a new immigrant or some nerdy/tech guy. Hispanics, which now compose about 17% of the total population of the USA, either have to look like Bencio Del Toro or don't get acting roles other than bit parts.
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