#OscarsSoWhite

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

I'm going to boycott the 100m athletics at the next Olympics, all the runners are black, and, like, how is that promoting diversity? Why are no white, hispanic or Asian guys given any medals? Seems pretty racist to me. We need a quota system.

[UpandComing]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

I'm going to boycott the 100m athletics at the next Olympics, all the runners are black, and, like, how is that promoting diversity? Why are no white, hispanic or Asian guys given any medals? Seems pretty racist to me. We need a quota system.

That's a dumb analogy. Athletes are chosen for teams based on raw skill. The process for choosing members of the Academy is a much more subjective process involving sponsorship by existing members.

[Captain Jack Sparrow]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

That's a dumb analogy. Athletes are chosen for teams based on raw skill. The process for choosing members of the Academy is a much more subjective process involving sponsorship by existing members.

It's not dumb because filmmaking also takes skill. Maybe there's more white people skilled in some of those areas, that doesn't mean we start giving awards to meet some sort of quota rather than on merit. If you don't win, blaming it on lack of diversity in the absence of any real evidence and snubbing ceremonies is just pathetic.

[UpandComing]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

It's not dumb because filmmaking also takes skill. Maybe there's more white people skilled in some of those areas, that doesn't mean we start giving awards to meet some sort of quota rather than on merit. If you don't win, blaming it on lack of diversity in the absence of any real evidence and snubbing ceremonies is just pathetic.

1. There is no official "boycott". There is just a handful of people, 3 at last count (Spike, Jada, and Will) who have said they will not be attending in protest. And none of them have encouraged other people to do the same.

2. The people who are unhappy about the slate of all-white nominees are not so much unhappy about that fact as they are about the fact that there were a number of worthy minority nominees that got snubbed. And that those snubs may very likely be due to bias on the part of the Academy. Bias is hard to prove, of course. But an Academy that is 94% white makes it that much more likely that it is a factor. As it would if the Academy were 94% black and there no white nominees.

3. Saying that people get nominated for Oscars for "merit" alone is laughable. It is one of the most political awards shows there is, with "campaigns" starting months in advance, studios spending tons of money to promote their candidates, and candidates going out of their way to glad-hand voters at swanky in-person events. But even taking merit into account, based on Straight Outta Compton and Idris Elba's prior track records with critics and awards bodies, they were shoo-ins for nominations. So saying they just didn't make the cut because they "weren't good enough" is silly and also something you can't actually prove.

[kintnerboy]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

Okay, so this is a very funny development in the world of #OscarsSoWhite.

Next year's Best Picture Oscar winner, Birth Of A Nation (I'm calling it, yet I don't feel like I'm out on a limb here), sold at Sundance for a record amount of money the other day.

Netflix actually offered 2.5 million dollars more than the winning bid, but were turned down, in an unacknowledged acknowledgement of the fear of an anti-Netflix AMPAS bias.

One of the film's stars, Gabrielle Union, is involved in a disgusting, classless public feud with Stacy Dash, who made some inflammatory racial comments on the Fox And Friends news show recently.

The end result here is that Rupert Murdoch paid Stacy Dash to go on his news network and spout racist opinions, and then Rupert Murdoch's film company outbid everybody for the slave rebellion movie (which is sure to gross 100M+ and clean up at next year's awards). He's working both sides of the fence and proving that the only color that matters is green.

Old white men win again!

[tuukka]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

Sorry if someone already asked this, but:

How many scripts have you written, where the lead character, or a major supporting character NEEDS to be played by a black person. Or a Hispanic, or a woman, etc.

You're a writer. You can fight this. But do you?

My latest script has a female lead (Very difficult, if not impossible to change into a male), and one of the five main players is Asian (Again very difficult to change).

[UnequalProductions]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

I'm going to boycott the 100m athletics at the next Olympics, all the runners are black, and, like, how is that promoting diversity? Why are no white, hispanic or Asian guys given any medals? Seems pretty racist to me. We need a quota system.

I'm kinda hoping this is trolling.

So we should put all these movies together, fire the the starting pistol, and which ever one finishes first is the winner.

I mean, get out the checklist of "great movie" and go down the sheet, marking all the boxes and just see which one gets the best score. There's your best picture.

Even standardized tests were found to have a racial bias.

But yeah. Movies are just like the Olympics.

[Bairn_Writer]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

Sorry if someone already asked this, but:

How many scripts have you written, where the lead character, or a major supporting character NEEDS to be played by a black person. Or a Hispanic, or a woman, etc.

You're a writer. You can fight this. But do you?

My latest script has a female lead (Very difficult, if not impossible to change into a male), and one of the five main players is Asian (Again very difficult to change).

But the character would only need to be played by a black, Hispanic person etc if race is part of the story. Shouldn't the point be that in stories where race isn't a factor the character could be played by black, white, Hispanic etc with no change to the story or film and we should be aiming to have more non-white's represented in these situations so that it becomes 'normal' to see non-whites playing all types of character.

[tuukka]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

But the character would only need to be played by a black, Hispanic person etc if race is part of the story. Shouldn't the point be that in stories where race isn't a factor the character could be played by black, white, Hispanic etc with no change to the story or film and we should be aiming to have more non-white's represented in these situations so that it becomes 'normal' to see non-whites playing all types of character.

The point is that we are not powerless. We can fight this if we want to.

Django and Hateful Eight are two recent examples where the lead had to be black. Both from the same writer. He's fighting the fight, where as many aren't.

Sicario is recent film that needed a Hispanic co-lead.

Not sure how the race card applies to female characters.

I think we are already at a point where the race doesn't matter much. The new Star Wars has a black co-lead. Will Smith was the biggest star in the world for almost 10 years. Fast and The Furious franchise is extremely varied when it comes to race. And so on.

When you write a script, why not make sex/race matter?

[UpandComing]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

But the character would only need to be played by a black, Hispanic person etc if race is part of the story. Shouldn't the point be that in stories where race isn't a factor the character could be played by black, white, Hispanic etc with no change to the story or film and we should be aiming to have more non-white's represented in these situations so that it becomes 'normal' to see non-whites playing all types of character.

I'd have to agree with this. I'm fine with writing roles that could only be played by a minority character (e.g., biopics or true stories) -- I think that there's such a lack of such roles, any little bit helps.

But at the same time, I think it's more important that, if we as writers see a given character as a minority, we're not afraid to specify him/her as such, even if the character's race is not integral to the story. As I stated in another thread, Tarantino wrote Samuel L. Jackson's "Jules" character as black even though the character's race didn't play a role, just because he saw him that way. I think if we don't do this, readers automatically assume the character is white. And casting directors do also. And this makes it that much easier to keep perpetuating the cycle of non-diverse films.

[Bairn_Writer]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

I'd have to agree with this. I'm fine with writing roles that could only be played by a minority character (e.g., biopics or true stories) -- I think that there's such a lack of such roles, any little bit helps.

But at the same time, I think it's more important that, if we as writers see a given character as a minority, we're not afraid to specify him/her as such, even if the character's race is not integral to the story. As I stated in another thread, Tarantino wrote Samuel L. Jackson's "Jules" character as black even though the character's race didn't play a role, just because he saw him that way. I think if we don't do this, readers automatically assume the character is white. And casting directors do also. And this makes it that much easier to keep perpetuating the cycle of non-diverse films.

This is it. Any character in Pulp Fiction for example could have been any race as far as I remember. So, maybe the answer is to name ethnicity as non-white for characters but not necessarily let it play a role in their character, but let it subconsciously or consciously influence the Director/casting director/decision makers.

[UnequalProductions]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

But the character would only need to be played by a black, Hispanic person etc if race is part of the story. Shouldn't the point be that in stories where race isn't a factor the character could be played by black, white, Hispanic etc with no change to the story or film and we should be aiming to have more non-white's represented in these situations so that it becomes 'normal' to see non-whites playing all types of character.

This is where it gets a little difficult for us as writers. We may want to support more diverse casts, but if we're not writing stories where race is a significant element, the default in a lot of reader's minds is to fill in the roles with white guys. Mostly because the majority of readers are white guys or are used to movies populated by white guys.

And a part of that is the market. You can have Will Smith jump into any of these parts, but they really aren't cultivating Black/Latino/Asian actors to that level of star power. Meanwhile Jai Courtney gets chance after chance to tank.

[kintnerboy]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

I was recently writing a movie with a scene that was very reminiscent of the scene in The Departed where Martin Sheen and Mark Walberg were trying to 'break' Leo DiCaprio's character, by verbally abusing him, to see if he was really a bad guy trying to infiltrate the state police.

In my script the Leo character was originally black but I unfortunately had to change him to a white guy, because only white guys can abuse each other at work that way and get away with it. Any other ethnicity or gender would go running to HR and file a complaint or call the ACLU.

Granted this is an extreme example, but it's a valid point. It's the world we live in.

[UnequalProductions]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

In my script the Leo character was originally black but I unfortunately had to change him to a white guy, because only white guys can abuse each other at work that way and get away with it. Any other ethnicity or gender would go running to HR and file a complaint or call the ACLU.

Seriously?

[kintnerboy]

Re: #OscarsSoWhite

Seriously?

Of course. Have you seen a newspaper in the last 15 months? Why would you even ask that?