Arguments and Facts: Racial Discrimination at the Oscars
Recently, it seems that the Oscar award is more often criticized than praised: Film academy is accused of discriminating women, homophobia, and most of all - of racism. They scolded the academy for the exceptionally “white” cast of the actor nominations last year, but in 2016 the #OscarsSoWhite movement gained unprecedented momentum. We tried to figure out what claims this year are made by the film academy and how the film industry representatives react to the problem of racial discrimination.
Jada Pinkett-Smith laid the groundwork for discussing racial discrimination in Hollywood this year. On January 18, on Martin Luther King's Day, the actress posted on Facebook a video where she announced that she and her husband Will Smith plan to boycott the ceremony. In the video, she says that African Americans have enough power and influence in Hollywood not to focus on the film academy. “To beg or even to ask for recognition — all this degrades our dignity and diminishes our strength,” Jada says in the video. “We have strength, and we have self-esteem — let's not forget about it. Let's, with all respect and love for the Academy, let it do its job - and we will begin to act ourselves, separately and in our own way. "
A few days later, Will Smith said that he and his wife really didn’t plan to attend the ceremony. "We discussed this," Smith said on Good Morning America. "We are part of this community, but at the moment we cannot just go there and pretend that everything is in order."
On January 18, director Spike Lee also spoke out against racism in Hollywood, publishing a corresponding post on Instagram. In his opinion, the lack of racial diversity among the Oscar nominees is only part of the problem: he says that film studio leaders could give the green light to more projects with African American actors, but do not. "As the great actor Leslie Odom Jr. sings in the revolutionary Broadway musical Hamilton, I want to be in the room where everything happens." The bottom line is that we are not allowed there, and while there are no minority representatives, the nominees for „ Oscar "will remain white as snow," writes Lee.
A few days later, in an interview with Good Morning America, Lee said that even though he and his wife would not attend the ceremony, he did not call others to boycott it. He goes on to say that the problem of racial discrimination in the film industry is not limited to Oscars, and that there should be more projects in Hollywood for African-American actors.
This year, everyone was waiting for the appearance of Idris Elba, who played in the movie “Wild Animals”, among the Oscar nominees, but this did not happen. January 18, the actor made a speech before the British Parliament, where he said that the British film and television industry need serious changes. According to him, the situation with racial and gender diversity in British cinema is much worse than in the US: he went to work in America because he was offered the same roles at home. "Diversity in the modern world concerns not only skin color, but also gender, age, physical disabilities, sexual orientation, origin and - the most important thing, in my opinion, is diversity of thoughts and ideas. Because if people who work on creating films and TV shows will not be restricted in freedom of thought, they will not exclude from the filming representatives of all those groups that I said. "
Elba also drew attention to the fact that filmmakers and producers should not fall under the influence of stereotypes when making films: “Do African actors of origin often play criminals? Do women often play the beloved of the protagonist or do people only talk about men in the frame? Are gays shown stereotypically? Do heroes with disabilities appear in the frame? " We hope that members of parliament have heard it.
David Oyelowow, an actor who last year did not receive an Oscar nomination for Martin Luther King’s role in Selma, also criticized the Academy’s activities at the King Legacy Awards event, where he presented the award to Oscar-winning Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Cheryl Boone Isaacs. Oyelowow said that after last year’s ceremony, he and Boone Isaacs had a “serious conversation” about why he never managed to get a nomination.
"The fact that last year 20 opportunities were missed to mark actors and actresses of different races is one thing. The fact that this happened again this year is unforgivable," said Oaylowou. He noted that the actions of the Academy, of which he is a member, do not reflect the real situation in the United States. “I would just like to leave and say that it doesn’t matter, but it does matter: recognition changes your life, the direction of your career and the world in which we live,” he added.
On the evening of January 18, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, announced on Twitter that the organization is undergoing major changes: "In the near future, we will assess the membership system to bring much needed diversity to our membership and not only." This decision was met with approval, and Jada Pinkett-Smith publicly thanked Boone Isaacs.
On January 22, Boone Isaacs (by the way, the first African-American woman and only the third woman as president of the academy) announced that by 2020 the number of women and representatives of different races as a member of academics would double. The Academy does not disclose the composition of its members, but according to unofficial statistics, more than half of academics over 60 years old are likely to fight for the fact that there are people of different ages among academicians. This year, the Academy will change the order of membership: its members will have the right to vote for ten years. In order to extend the membership, you need to continue your film career during this ten-year period. The owners of the Oscars and the members of the Academy, on account of which is three ten-year terms, will retain the lifelong right to vote.
George Clooney wrote for Variety a column on the issue of discrimination in Hollywood, which speaks not only about racism, but also about gender discrimination and ageism. He says that the situation in the film industry is not improving, but, on the contrary, it only gets worse over the years: it is more difficult for African Americans and women to get movie roles for which they could be nominated for an award. “If you think ten years ago, the situation in the Academy was much better. Consider how many more African Americans were then nominees. It seems to me that the problem is not so much a choice as to what opportunities the minorities in the film industry have, especially for work on good, high-quality films ", - he writes.
Charlotte Rampling, who was nominated for an Oscar this year for her role in the 45 years old film, in an interview with Europe 1 Radio, called a campaign calling for an Oscar boycott because of the white nominees who are "racist towards white people" . "We can't know for sure, but maybe African-American actors just didn't deserve to be nominated?" - quotes the actress The Guardian.
A few days later, Charlotte Rampling said that her words were misunderstood: "I just wanted to say that in an ideal world, every acting job will be evaluated equally," her official statement reads. "The problem of diversity in our industry is very serious. I am inspired great hope plans to change the composition of the film academy, which were announced today. "
Following actress Michael Kane, in an interview with BBC Radio 4, he said that “you cannot vote for an actor just because he is black. He also has to play well”. At the same time, Kane noted that the game of Idris Elba in the film "Wild Animals" is worthy of a nomination for the award. When asked if he could advise African-American actors, Kane told them to "be patient": "Everything has its time. It took me years to get an Oscar."
In contrast to Rampling, Bree Larson and Mark Ruffalo, who also became Oscar nominees this year, on the contrary, expressed support for the rights movement for African American actors.
Another actress, whose statement on the subject of racial inequality in Hollywood caused a storm of indignation - Julie Delpy. At the Sundance Festival, the actress said that being a woman in Hollywood is harder than being an African American. “Two years ago, I said that white men dominated the Academy (which is true), and the press destroyed me. It's so strange - women have no right to speak,” she said in an interview with The Wrap. “Sometimes I think I wanted would be African-American because they are not criticized for their words. Woman is hardest to be. People hate feminists more than anything. There is nothing worse in this business than being a woman. "
A few days later, Delpy also apologized publicly for her statement. "I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that women in this industry also do not have equal opportunities with white men, because I am a woman myself. I in no way wanted to belittle someone’s fight! We must be attentive and united, we must support each other in order to change this unfair situation. We must not allow anyone to discredit our common efforts by distorting the truth, "said the actress.
Steve McQueen, Lupita Nyong'go and Ava Duvernay played a significant role in discussing the problem of racism in the film industry. Steve McQueen shot an Oscar-awarded film "12 Years of Slavery", and in the same year, who played Lupita Nyongo in the film, received a statuette for Best Supporting Actress. Ava Duvernay shot the film "Selma", which tells about the civil rights movement of African Americans in the 60s of the last century - the picture was nominated for an Oscar in the category "Best Film", but the director and performer of the main role did not get it.
And McQueen, and Nyong'o, and Duverny say that African Americans need to be given more opportunities in the film industry. "The award ceremony should not dictate what art should be in modern society, but reflect the diversity of the best that is in art today," Nyongo wrote on instagram. "We can talk about what people are members of the Academy, about its demographic composition, but the problem lies in how the movie is shot: how the heads of film studios, television companies and cable TV channels decide what will and what will not be shot," McQueen. Ava Duvernay, who called the decision of the film academy to reconsider the composition of its members, was "a good step on a long journey for people of different races and women," said she did not like the word "diversity", which describes the problem. According to her, it is much more important to say that representatives of minorities in Hollywood do not feel involved in the film industry.
We are sure that the discussion of the problem of racial discrimination in Hollywood is not over yet and will last at least until the ceremony itself on February 28, and most likely further. The ceremony will be held by Chris Rock, who often speaks about the difficult situation of African Americans in the film industry - perhaps 2016 will be remembered for us as the year of the beginning of the long-awaited changes.
Photo: Jada Pinkett Smith, Cloud Eight Films, NARS
