#OscarsSoWhite

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  • #OscarsSoWhite

    With all this #OscarsSoWhite brouhaha going on, I wanted to science the issue, so I did some math:

    African American Academy Award Winners in acting categories since 2000

    Best Actor
    2006 - Forest Whitaker (The Last King Of Scotland)
    2004 - Jamie Foxx (Ali)
    2001 - Denzel Washington (Training Day)
    3/15 = 20%

    Best Actress
    2001 - Halle Berry (Monster's Ball)
    1/15 = 6.5%

    Best Actor In A Supporting Role
    2004 - Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby)
    1/15 = 6.5%

    Best Actress In A Supporting Role
    2006 - Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
    2009 - Mo'Nique (Precious)
    2011 - Octavia Spencer (The Help)
    2013 - Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)
    4/15 = 26.5%

    Win percentage 9/60 = 15%


    African American Academy Award Nominations in acting categories since 2000

    Best Actor - 10 nominations / 75 nominees
    Best Actress - 4 nominations / 75 nominees
    Best Actor In A Supporting Role - 6 nominations / 75 nominees
    Best Actress In A Supporting Role - 9 nominations / 75 nominees

    Nomination percentage 29/300 = 9.5%

    If African Americans make up ~13.2%[1] of the US population, that ~15% win percentage is right on the money, right?

    The 9.5% for nominations is a bit low, but it would seem that African Americans are more likely to win if they do get nominated.

    Is there really an #OscarsSoWhite issue?


    Sources:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...for_Best_Actor
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...r_Best_Actress
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...pporting_Actor
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...orting_Actress
    [1] http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/po...EMP/black.html

  • #2
    Re: #OscarsSoWhite

    I dont know the numbers i just think this is ridiculous... I'm a minority, and if im not invited to any party i either need to work harder or make my own party... Bitching about it is what lazy unimaginative people do... Sorry, got a script to re-write to see if i can ever pay my rent while millionaires argue about award shows...
    "We're going to be rich!" - 1/2 hr COMEDY written/directed/edited by me, I also act in it.
    SUBTITLED
    Episode 1 (Beef pills)
    Episode 2 (African commercial)
    Episode 3 (Brenda's rescue)

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: #OscarsSoWhite

      Originally posted by thornmane View Post
      African American Academy Award Winners in acting categories since 2000

      Win percentage 9/60 = 15%

      African American Academy Award Nominations in acting categories since 2000

      Nomination percentage 29/300 = 9.5%
      Looking at 2010-2015 alone, the win percentage (barring a surprise write-in vote this year) shrinks to 8.3% and nominee percentage shrinks to 5.83%... and it's 0% and 0% when looking at 2014 and 2015 alone.

      So looking at this purely as a statistician, you can see that those numbers are trending away from being representative of the general population.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: #OscarsSoWhite

        Originally posted by thornmane View Post
        With all this #OscarsSoWhite brouhaha going on, I wanted to science the issue, so I did some math:

        African American Academy Award Winners in acting categories since 2000

        Best Actor
        2006 - Forest Whitaker (The Last King Of Scotland)
        2004 - Jamie Foxx (Ali)
        2001 - Denzel Washington (Training Day)
        3/15 = 20%

        Best Actress
        2001 - Halle Berry (Monster's Ball)
        1/15 = 6.5%

        Best Actor In A Supporting Role
        2004 - Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby)
        1/15 = 6.5%

        Best Actress In A Supporting Role
        2006 - Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
        2009 - Mo'Nique (Precious)
        2011 - Octavia Spencer (The Help)
        2013 - Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)
        4/15 = 26.5%

        Win percentage 9/60 = 15%


        African American Academy Award Nominations in acting categories since 2000

        Best Actor - 10 nominations / 75 nominees
        Best Actress - 4 nominations / 75 nominees
        Best Actor In A Supporting Role - 6 nominations / 75 nominees
        Best Actress In A Supporting Role - 9 nominations / 75 nominees

        Nomination percentage 29/300 = 9.5%

        If African Americans make up ~13.2%[1] of the US population, that ~15% win percentage is right on the money, right?

        The 9.5% for nominations is a bit low, but it would seem that African Americans are more likely to win if they do get nominated.

        Is there really an #OscarsSoWhite issue?


        Sources:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...for_Best_Actor
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...r_Best_Actress
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...pporting_Actor
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academ...orting_Actress
        [1] http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/po...EMP/black.html

        Actually...

        1) If 2% of the academy is black, isn't a 9.5% winning average high?

        2) There's more colors in the rainbow than *black* and white

        3) Since when is color a requirement to win an Oscar?

        4) Isn't it possible, and even likely, that the *performances* had a role in this?

        5) Where are all the black films that certain outspoken folks could be making, and can afford to make?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: #OscarsSoWhite

          Originally posted by thornmane View Post
          If African Americans make up ~13.2%[1] of the US population, that ~15% win percentage is right on the money, right?

          The 9.5% for nominations is a bit low, but it would seem that African Americans are more likely to win if they do get nominated.

          Is there really an #OscarsSoWhite issue?
          You're looking at this issue the wrong way. It's not about hitting some magic number with nominations or wins in any given year. It's about the fact that there were many worthy black nominees this year that were largely ignored.

          For "Beasts of No Nation", Idris Elba was nominated for:
          -Screen Actor's Guild (the top predictor of Oscar Actor nominees)
          -Golden Globe Award
          -BAFTA
          -Independent Spirit Award

          "Straight Outta Compton" was nominated for:
          -Producer's Guild Award (the top predictor of Oscar Picture nominees)
          -Writer's Guild Award
          -Screen Actor's Guild (ensemble cast)
          -AFI Top 10 Pictures of the Year (actually, not a nomination, but a win)

          What does this mean? It means that Elba and SOC received widespread stamps of quality form the industry. Yet the Academy did not see fit to nominate him for Supporting Actor or SOC for Best Picture. Making it notably out of sync with all the precursors. This doesn't even take into account acclaimed turns by non-black ethnic actors such as Oscar Isaac and Benicio del Toro.

          It's easy to say they just missed the cut, or that there wasn't enough support. It's easy to make up all kinds of excuses. But when you have a membership that is 94% white (crazy figure -- only slightly less diverse than the KKK), it's definitely possible another factor is at play. Not racism. Simply a bias towards movies that reflect what you look like. With characters you are more empathetic towards.

          I don't believe in any kind of quota for nominees of color. I do believe that as it stands today, the Academy is incredibly homogeneous and not reflective of the diverse images and themes coming out of Hollywood movies. In other words, I think it is out of touch.

          I think the best solution for this problem is to purge the rolls of members who have been inactive in the industry for a long time. I frankly think that they (mostly consisting of older males) tend to prioritize movies that focus on older white males over any other type of perspective. And frankly, because they come from a different time, can be narrow-minded when it comes to the roles for which they reward people of color (slaves, maids, etc.). It's not like there isn't a precedent for this type of move -- Gregory Peck did it back in the 60s when the Academy faced a similar problem of lacking relevancy.

          Making this change would help make the Academy more ethnically diverse (and thus more representative of the industry). It would also make it more gender-diverse and younger. Which means that we will have an Academy that is more likely to see the worth of films like SOC or Creed; that is more likely to nominate movies for Best Picture that feature female leads (Carol should definitely have been in there); and that is more likely to see the value of genres it has historically been biased against, such as Sci-Fi and Fantasy (resulting in egregious snubs like The Dark Knight and Christopher Nolan for directing Inception). And that is good for the industry as a whole.

          As it stands right now, the Academy is a very monolithic industry with narrow tastes that represent the preferences of older rich white guys, to the detriment of everyone else.
          "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: #OscarsSoWhite

            Originally posted by nativeson View Post
            There's more colors in the rainbow than *black* and white
            I was thinking of mentioning that as well, as this controversy isn't limited to the exclusion of black performers, and that other non-white races are similarly statistically underrepresented, especially Hispanics when looking at the U.S. population.

            Oh, and that's another thing. The Oscars are not limited to voting for Americans in acting categories, so using the U.S. black population alone is a misleading statistic, although not to be dismissed totally since the Academy is primarily an American organization.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: #OscarsSoWhite

              This is a great year -- and there have been others -- where not every performance can be nominated. It doesn't mean anything was whitewashed. Critically acclaimed and popular performances fail to get the nod every year. A more practical approach than ostracizing yourself by making demands, is making more diverse films and getting more diverse membership in the academy. Creating more product, creating studios that provide more jobs. That's the way to go, IMO.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                Originally posted by nativeson View Post
                A more practical approach than ostracizing yourself by making demands, is making more diverse films and getting more diverse membership in the academy. Creating more product, creating studios that provide more jobs. That's the way to go, IMO.
                I don't understand your point -- people are making demands that the Academy become more diverse and that Hollywood make more diverse films. And many of them are trying to make those films themselves through the independent route, one of the reasons the Spirit Awards' nominees tend to be more diverse.
                "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                  "A more practical approach than...demanding" means *don't* demand. Instead, take your $100 million production company and make Oscar caliber films with diverse filmmakers and cast -- to get them into the academy and evolve the membership. Simply stomping your feet from the sidelines gives you the wrong kind of attention. Make it happen. Be a leader by *doing (more, obviously),* not demanding.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                    It's hard of me to get mad at the academy for this. They watch moves and decide what speaks most to them. Since it's mostly old white people, their choices affect that.

                    The energy should just be focused on getting more people from different backgrounds involved in the industry. We raise the diversity of the people making movies, more of them become part of the academy, the more the nominations reflect that.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                      Originally posted by UpandComing View Post
                      It's about the fact that there were many worthy black nominees this year that were largely ignored.
                      Which of the nominated actors you feel did a worse acting job than Idris Elba in Beasts?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                        who said any group's representation in the awards (or in Hollywood at large) should only be reflective of their representation in the population at large?

                        for 100 years, these groups were vastly underrepresented, recognized, or compensated. until those past sins are even begun to be remedied on a systemic level, trying to justify small recent gains with "stats" is just band-aiding the problem

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                          .
                          Last edited by bruinwriter; 07-21-2016, 10:13 PM.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                            Originally posted by nativeson View Post
                            "A more practical approach than...demanding" means *don't* demand. Instead, take your $100 million production company and make Oscar caliber films with diverse filmmakers and cast -- to get them into the academy and evolve the membership. Simply stomping your feet from the sidelines gives you the wrong kind of attention. Make it happen. Be a leader by *doing (more, obviously),* not demanding.
                            Of course people need to do certain things themselves. But change won't come only from doing things themselves. It also comes from people who run certain systems making changes to the system directly.

                            Your argument's like saying: "Yes, there are segregated restaurants. Don't demand that the restaurants be desegregated. Start your own damn restaurants!" As if that's the only thing that will accomplish systemic change. Meaningful change requires multiple forms of attack.
                            Last edited by UpandComing; 01-21-2016, 02:25 PM.
                            "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: #OscarsSoWhite

                              Originally posted by thornmane View Post
                              Which of the nominated actors you feel did a worse acting job than Idris Elba in Beasts?
                              I've seen Creed, The Revenant, and Spotlight among the nominees. I thought Sly Stallone's nom was completely deserved, and I was ecstatic about Tom Hardy's unexpected but worthy nomination.

                              As for Mark Ruffalo -- he did a decent job in Spotlight, but I don't consider it a standout performance (ditto that for Rachel McAdams). He tried to make it unique by playing socially-awkward, but it was more of an ensemble film. Which is why I wasn't surprised when he wasn't nominated for the Screen Actor's Guild, Golden Globes, or Spirit Awards.
                              "I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork.-- Peter De Vries

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