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Oscars so White, What's Next?

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LionPride

Banned
Should've been but it never was. It was ridiculous how people praised this year as more diverse. In general, prominent black actors have as little interest in true diversity as their white counterparts, or maybe even less.

The original intention was for all People of Color, straight up. What makes you think that prominent black actors have little interest in true diversity?
 
Eh, can't speak for the actors, but there was definitely an undercurrent of "if you want it you have to fight for it yourself we aren't here to help you" from some black people. I believe there was a hashtag about it on twitter. Even in these forums there were a few replies that were basically "you're on your own don't expect any help from us because you never helped us first."

I mean, I get their point so I don't feel offended by that, but it doesn't mean it didn't exist. It was definitely a "we're looking out for just our own" attitude.

Yeah I definitely recall people with this sentiment in the Oscars thread last year, when people were criticizing Chris Rock for only talking about black representation and making that joke about Asians. The whole #notyourmule thing or something like that.
 
Yes, more actors like Riz Ahmed.
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Guys done big things, first movie I saw him in was four lions. He was amazing in the night of.
 

LionPride

Banned
Eh, can't speak for the actors, but there was definitely an undercurrent of "if you want it you have to fight for it yourself we aren't here to help you" from some black people. I believe there was a hashtag about it on twitter. Even in these forums there were a few replies that were basically "you're on your own don't expect any help from us because you never helped us first."

I mean, I get their point so I don't feel offended by that, but it doesn't mean it didn't exist. It was definitely a "we're looking out for just our own" attitude.

I believe that came from the sentiment of other minorities using black people as a "mule" to do work that would benefit everyone instead of creating movements for themselves if that's what you're talking about
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
When will Asian actors rise tho.

I mean, even during all the ruckus about Oscars-so-White, Chris Rock still saw fit to use a joke stereotyping Asians on the stage and everyone seemed pretty dismissive about that.

Worse, when complaints about that arose, some people actually accused Asian people trying to "hijack" the show meant for Oscars-so-White moment -________-
 
#OscarsSoWhite wasn't just about black people. It was about the lack of representation of all minorities. I was as equally annoyed the likes of Cary Fukunaga, Benicio Del Toro and Oscar Isaac weren't nominated as I was for Michael B. Jordan and Idris Elba and so many other minorities that made worthy contributions to their craft.

This year was better. But we ain't done.
 
There is a lot (well, some) Hispanic representation in Hollywood but the actors at least often change their name to obscure their origin. Same with polish, german, jewish, etc nationalities/ethnicities. Hispanic media also has an entire audience outside of traditional Hollywood. Be interesting so see how much the Chinese market drives Asian representation.

I might be wrong, but I don't think Chinese people in China give a fuck about seeing Asian people in Hollywood movies.

China already has a healthy entertainment industry. I think the allure of Hollywood movies for a lot of Asians living in Asia is seeing "Western" actors and culture. If they want to see Chinese stars, they'd just watch Chinese movies that cater to their cultural sensibilities.

Same thing happens in Japan. Japanese people for the most part want to see Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Keanu Reeves, etc, in Hollywood productions.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
I might be wrong, but I don't think Chinese people in China give a fuck about seeing Asian people in Hollywood movies.

China already has a healthy entertainment industry. I think the allure of Hollywood movies for a lot of Asians living in Asia is seeing "Western" actors and culture. If they want to see Chinese stars, they'd just watch Chinese movies that cater to their cultural sensibilities.

Same thing happens in Japan. Japanese people for the most part want to see Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Keanu Reeves, etc, in Hollywood productions.

I know that you most probably don't mean it to become as such, but that's eerily similar to the "Asian/Black actors won't sell, so come on in, Matt Damon!" argument, hahah.

Well of course we don't sell, it's not like Hollywood ever gave us a fair chance to begin with.
 

LionPride

Banned
I know that you most probably don't mean it to become as such, but that's eerily similar to the "Asian/Black actors won't sell, so come on in, Matt Damon!" argument, hahah.

Well of course we don't sell, it's not like Hollywood ever gave us a fair chance to begin with.

And that's the problem. People can't sell when they ain't given the chance. Why Glen from Walking Dead fighting for scraps at the bottom of the bottom of the barrel?

Why most Asian actors I see on TV or Movies are the butt of a joke or a shitty stereotype?
 

Maengun1

Member
In this century there have only been two female led BP winners.

Yep. La La Land would have been the third, IMO (Stone and Gosling share top billing and equal screentime, but the film is far more focused on Mia's perspective). That was the one factor that kinda stuck in my craw when people were making the best picture race into "boring straight white movie vs. exciting black LGBT movie."

Also as much as people were happy about Moonlight being a long overdue win for LGBT cinema (and it was)...a lot of people thought Carol was the best movie last year, and it got totally snubbed against a much weaker field of movies!

1/89 female Best Director winners

And I guarantee if there were just "Best Performance" and "Best Supporting Performance" awards instead of them being pre-categorized by gender, men would have like 80-90% of them overall as well.

And people still freak out over anything that's overt about being female driven as if it's some horrible gimmick (yeah I don't need to mention Ghostbusters but ...)
 
As others have said, the next step is realizing that being diverse doesn't just mean having white and black actors in a film and calling it a day.

I mean, shit like Emma Stone playing a part-Asian woman is still happening.
 
a couple of black actors and filmmakers winning Oscars doesn't solve the diversity problems inherent to the industry. Not even close. People were saying the same thing in 2001 when Denzel and Halle Berry won Best Actor and Best Actress respectively and yet here we are, doing this same song and dance.
 

kswiston

Member
I know that you most probably don't mean it to become as such, but that's eerily similar to the "Asian/Black actors won't sell, so come on in, Matt Damon!" argument, hahah.

Well of course we don't sell, it's not like Hollywood ever gave us a fair chance to begin with.

Given the fact that there are a number of fairly big name Asian American directors/producers currently working in Hollywood, I am surprised that none of them really push for Asian American actors in their films. For example, M Night Shaymalan is funding his own stuff these days, but his films still have pretty white casts. I can understand wanting someone as acclaimed as James MacAvoy on board your small budget film, but most of the other roles could have gone to anybody.
 
I don't think the point of Oscars so white is gone just because we had some black people get nominated and win a few awards. Some of the changes the academy did make were certainly beneficial and imo moving forward with more efforts like that should help. Hollywood still needs to be way better.

As far as the whole "black people only looking out for black people" tone going on here. No lie, we are the most fucking vocal minority group about stuff like this so it's no surprise when even if the intention is not "black only" it gets taken that way. The flip of that is that we take all the heat about being whiny and bitchy and so demanding etc etc so it's not like it's all sunshine and rainbows.

Not that I agree with #notyourpackmule or "don't complain about no pass if you don't wanna run the floor" but I don't particularly care for that blame game when we literally get shit for even speaking up at all.
 
I know that you most probably don't mean it to become as such, but that's eerily similar to the "Asian/Black actors won't sell, so come on in, Matt Damon!" argument, hahah.

Well of course we don't sell, it's not like Hollywood ever gave us a fair chance to begin with.

Yeah, I guess I should've made a point lol.

Basically, you can't rely on the Chinese market to push Asian actors in Hollywood.

And it's not like when Asian actors are featured in movies or TV, people hate it. When I was growing up, all the kids at school thought Ernie Reyes Jr. in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Surf Ninjas was dope as fuck. Same with Rufio in Hook. People love Rufio lol. Wong got a pretty good reception in Dr. Strange as well (I'm specifically mentioning male characters because Asian men seem to have it the worst right now). Oh, and can't forget Glenn.
 

Platy

Member
I know that you most probably don't mean it to become as such, but that's eerily similar to the "Asian/Black actors won't sell, so come on in, Matt Damon!" argument, hahah.

Well of course we don't sell, it's not like Hollywood ever gave us a fair chance to begin with.

Considering how little chance it has and how much Fast and Furious franchise makes money ...

I would have to say that PoC makes more money than white people proportionally =P
 
Should've been but it never was. It was ridiculous how people praised this year as more diverse. In general, prominent black actors have as little interest in true diversity as their white counterparts, or maybe even less.

This is bullshit. Not only were people like Barry Jenkins saying there needs to be more representation all award season, if those other groups want more representation they need to join the cause and not expect the black community to do all the heavy lifting. The movement wasnt just about the lack of black actors and behind the cwmera talent, but when the call went out, nobody else jumped on board.
 

hiredhand

Member
They really need to revamp the foreign language film category. You can clearly see that the voting demographic is really old and resistant of actually inventive cinema. It also favors (western) European cinema. Though I have to admit that the category was even worse in the 90's.

It blows my mind that both Romania (recent submissions: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Beyond the Hills, Sieranevada) and South Korea (recent submissions: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, Secret Sunshine, Mother) still have zero nominations. Also neither China, Hong Kong or India have never won the award.
 

LionPride

Banned
This is bullshit. Not only were people like Barry Jenkins saying there needs to be more representation all award season, if those other groups want more representation they need to join the cause and not expect the black community to do all the heavy lifting. The movement wasnt just about the lack of black actors and behind the cwmera talent, but when the call went out, nobody else jumped on board.
Yeah...
 
Tbh I don't think #OscarsSoWhite is over just because a few black people won some awards in the year directly after the controversy.
the cynic in me imagines the academy voters thinking "we can hit two of our diversity birds with one stone if we vote moonlight"

The real test will be what representation looks like in movies and in awards say over the next 5-15 years to see if there is a real improvement in:
- the types of people being cast/hired
- the roles/jobs they are cast for
- how far they are allowed to go within that role
- what level of support they are getting from studios
- what kind of recognition this results in.

While I think it's great that there are more PoC in movies, we need to see more in lead roles and not just supporting ones as the friend, sidekick, or the mentor, magical negro trope etc. It's important to me that anyone from any ethnicity, gender, religion or background should be able to look up and see some like them can be a hero, be the lead or a lead love interest, can be the person that's driving a narrative and not just in service of one. And I think decades of not having that have hurt people's self perceptions of who they are and who they can be, but maybe that's for another thread...
 

LionPride

Banned
Tbh I don't think #OscarsSoWhite is over just because a few black people won some awards in the year directly after the controversy.
the cynic in me imagines the academy voters thinking "we can hit two of our diversity birds with one stone if we vote moonlight"

The real test will be what representation looks like in movies and in awards say over the next 5-15 years to see if there is a real improvement in:
- the types of people being cast/hired
- the roles/jobs they are cast for
- how far they are allowed to go within that role
- what level of support they are getting from studios
- what kind of recognition this results in.

While I think it's great that there are more PoC in movies, we need to see more in lead roles and not just supporting ones as the friend, sidekick, or the mentor, magical negro trope etc. It's important to me that anyone from any ethnicity, gender, religion or background should be able to look up and see some like them can be a hero, be the lead or a lead love interest, can be the person that's driving a narrative and not just in service of one. And I think decades of not having that have hurt people's self perceptions of who they are and who they can be, but maybe that's for another thread...
No, you see certain things in the media, and that's all you see, for a lot of people that's what they'll believe that's all they can be. It's damaging to a youthful mind.
 
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