When thinking about the top names in mainstream music of today, the list is quite lengthy and equally as diverse. From Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to Pitbull and Drake, different backgrounds and ethnicities are embraced in the music industry; no single demographic takes particular precedence over the charts. When it comes to the American film industry, we have yet to aggregate and truly embrace the richness of people who are, quite frankly, not white. Think of a couple of your favorite blockbusters and television series. How many of them have a non-white lead actor or actress? And no, Christian Bale pretending to be Egyptian does not count.
During the 67th annual Emmy Awards, Viola Davis became the first black woman to be awarded the title of outstanding lead actress in a drama series. While everyone cheered and clapped for the history being made, I found myself baffled, wondering why it has taken this long. Being the superstar she is, Davis went on to deliver a thought-provoking speech that left the likes of Kerry Washington and Taraji P. Henson in tears. Though the presence, or lack of, minorities in the film industry is an issue that needs to be addressed, Davis boiled it down to women of color in particular. In the short time she had to articulate her thank you's and leave a lasting effect on the sea of celebrities, she began with a quote by Harriet Tubman:
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“In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line.”
So let’s break it down. No matter how hard Tubman tries to hop that fence separating her from the white women’s flourishing fields, even with their arms outstretched, she just can not get over. Davis finds herself in the same position. But rather than longing for freedom and basic human rights, she longs for the same respect, recognition and opportunities that her white female colleagues of equal skill seem to receive without hesitation. To put it in perspective, among the list of the 500 top grossing box office films, there are only six that cast a woman of color as the protagonist. Among Hollywood’s top 20 highest earning actresses, a grand total of zero of these women are non-white. Underrepresentation is an understatement. Davis continued to say that,
“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”
Even in 2015, movie makers would rather see well-known and revered white actresses playing the roles of another race than cast someone of the appropriate race, perpetuating limited opportunities for non-white women. This practice was common in the early days of film, for example; in 1959, Susan Kohner, a biracial woman of half-Mexican heritage, won a Golden Globe for her role in Douglas Sirk’s "Imitation of Life." Though her acting skill did not fall short, the role of her character was supposed to be that of a black woman. Fast forward more than five decades later and white women continue to be cast as African women or Asian women in films such as "Aloha" or "Exodus: Gods and King."
Davis is one among hundreds of women of color who continue to make history as times begin to change. It is about time their awe-inspiring zeal and phenomenal mastery of acting is as highly regarded and valuable to Hollywood as household names like Jennifer Lawrence and Kristen Stewart. There is no denying that with shows like "How To Get Away With Murder," "Scandal," and "Orange Is The New Black," women of all minorities have begun to climb that fence, but I’ll hold off for a standing ovation until all women have an equal chance to thrive in those luscious green fields together.
