With People of Color (POC) cleaning up at the Emmy's last month, one has to wonder why this inclusion is not carrying over into the film industry.
Well, for one, there's white washing. It's hard to reward minority actors for their work in film if they are not being given work. Over the last eight decades, which marked the development of the film industry, so many traditionally minority characters have been recast as Caucasian with little to no complaints from white America.
But when Michael B, Jordan, or John Bodega are cast as Johnny Storm or a storm trooper, "the silent majority" gets real loud on social media. This is all while neglecting the dozens of Middle Eastern, Indian, Asian, Native American and Black actors who have been robbed of work because directors opted to do a modern version of black face, or rewrite a literary role as a white person in the film version of a story. And this white washing, which began as black faced minstrels exaggerating and mocking black behavior and features, still continues in less overt, less condescending, but equally dangerous ways.
So how is it dangerous?
1) It takes away from representation and identity development for young movie goers.
Children need to see faces which look like them. When directors put paint on a face, or constantly cast someone that does not look like minority, children in a role connected to their stories, (for example, casting Tom Cruise as The Last Samarai, or William Mapother as Jason Thomas, a black sergeant in World Trade Center), you diminish children's capacity to see themselves as important, heroic, or worthy of the spotlight. But maybe that's the point, isn't it?
2) White washing is hypocritical and only works one way, as such it is only beneficial to one group of actors...pretty sure you can guess which group.
The practice of race blind casting could be more accepted if it went both ways, but how often is a black person or Asian cast as a white character and simply painted or made to grow their hair out like Jake Gyllenhal in Prince of Persia? Remember how bat shit crazy people went at the idea of Idris Alba being James Bond, a fictional character with a fictional plot who has been played by an array of different actors since its inception in 1962? Where was this uproar from the majority of movie buffs when Matt Damon was being cast in The Great Wall? Minorities mentioned it was ridiculous, but as usual minorities were ignored and in traditional Hollywood fashion, the show went on. .
3) White washing reinforces privilege and entitlement.
Making white actors all-important, even in stories which do not belong to them, feeds an already centuries long teaching of superiority and entitlement. In a 2015 report, the BBC said, "The practice of casting white actors in non-white roles is still prevalent in Hollywood – despite widespread condemnation and protest." Reading this is more harrowing today than most other days, as it is "Columbus Day" 2017: a day that only serves to remind us the whole history of America has been white washed to some extent.
4) As America's turbulent racial history shows, white washing does not foster inclusion.
It is important to show faces of all hues, sizes, and shapes so humans are socialized into seeing all others as human and worthwhile, and that inclusion of all is normal. Any journalist or media student who is even half literate will tell you the media, part of which is the film industry, is not only there to entertain, but also educates and informs. So films help socialize a society and create social norms. If films do not include ethnic minorities (actual people, not caricatures or stereotypes) the film industry becomes part of the problem and perpetuates exclusion and the idea that certain races matter less or are more problematic.
5) White washing robs minorities of the already small numbers of roles open to them.
In relation to acting roles, there are significantly fewer roles for minorities. Minorities don't get cast as the All American jock or head cheerleader all that often, so what is the point of taking the roles for people of color and giving them to white actors who can find work in anything from a Campbell's ad to an #oscarssowhite award shoe in? So when Katniss Everdeen, a literary figure with olive skin and dark hair is being cast, and the casting call specifically asks for "Caucasian women between 15 and 20" , olive skinned mixed race and ethnic women are pushed out of the running before the race even starts. But isn't that historically how America has set itself up? Exclude some people from the beginning with codes, exclusion acts and reservations. So yeah, maybe the film industry's exclusion acts and white washing is just art imitating life. Maybe Hollywood wants to maintain its version of what is normal, familiar and comfortable to them and in modern America as as a whole.
And the stats show they are doing just that.
No progress after years of complaints...
The Hollywood Diversity Report from UCLA published six months ago found that in 2013 94% of people in the executive ranks of the film studios , making executive decisions were white. Darnell Hunt, sociologist and lead author of the 2017 study told the LA Times that even four years after the report first came into being much has not changed. “Television is looking up; it’s moving in the right direction (a more diverse direction). Film however, that hasn’t really progressed.”
Even Jeffery Mio, author of Multicultural Psychology: Understanding Our Diverse Communities, stated in a 2015 BBC article on white washing that "these casting practices have more to do with people in the Los Angeles film industry just hiring people who are familiar. “
So while some argue Hollywood casts as it does because " minorities don't sell" ; Denzel Washington, Will Smith , Viola Davis, Oprah Winfrey, Jackie Chan, Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, Dev Patel, Jason Momoa, Frida Pinto and the success of several other minority leading actors actually show that minorities can sell on the big screen if given a chance to have more representation. Even from an animated standpoint who can argue that Moana, Tiana and Jasmine did not sell ?
When speaking on the topic of hiring more actors that authentically represent both the character being portrayed and the diversity of America, one opposing argument is that race cannot be used as a determining factor for getting an acting job. In recent interviews it has been said that laws insist that an actor's race not be part of the qualifications for a job. “SAG-AFTRA doesn’t advocate for the hiring of one person over another or one group over another, said David White. So this is why Johnny Depp was deeply tanned and cast as Tonto in the Lone Ranger, instead of a native American actor, 'cause they could not say Tonto needs to be Native American.
OK.
So where was David White when they were calling for only Caucasian wannabe Katniss Everdeen's to audition for the Hunger Games?
Why are characters who are not racially identified in scripts assumed to be white in Hollywood?
Again it seems Hollywood's race blindness only works to benefit the majority.
Luckily there are actors like Ed Skrien (of Deadpool and Game of Thrones fame) who are willing to step down from a role if their casting is perceived to perpetuate a lack of inclusivity. Mere weeks ago Skrien stepped down from his job as a character with Japanese heritage in the upcoming Hellboy follow up, saying " Representation of ethnic diversity is important." He deemed the decision one he made based on his morals and hoped that he had set an example.
So do we buddy.
