Statistics

At the beginning of 2014, UCLA released a Diversity report for Hollywood films released in 2011. They examined 172 films, andwhite actors claimed 89.5% of the lead roles with 10.5% being represented by all the other races (Black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, Arabic, etc). Some of the minority roles showed up in movies designed for broad audiences – Fast Five, Columbiana – but there was also a significant percentage of roles delegated to the “ethnic” movies like Big Mommas House: Like Father Like Son. 

A quick perusal of the top 100 films of 2014 show this trend hasn’t abated. In fact, out of the top 10 films, only Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America had minority leads. The former painted over the good guys. The latter introduced the lead halfway through the film.

Actually, the comic book movies try the hardest. In Guardians of the Galaxy, all the actors on the side of good are either white, or have had their bodies painted over. Korath, the black star allowed to keep his skin tone, is an evil henchman to an evil henchman. And, Benecio Del Toro gets one solitary sequence as The Collector. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson is a black lead who appears halfway through the film, and Sam Jackson gets to be head of S.H.I.E.L.D. In X-Men: DoFP, Halle Berry (Storm) had an unexpected pregnancy and was essentially missing from the majority of the film.

Of the remaining 90 movies, 8 had black leads, 2 had hispanic leads (one of which was animated), and one was multi-racial.

By the end of 2014, the racial makeup for Hollywood’s top 100 movies: 12% had minority characters in at least one lead, though many of those also had to share the lead with white people. Mind you, white people only make up 72.4% of the population, but held the leads for 88% of the top 100 movies.

Blockbusters are only half the story with Hollywood. The other half are the prestige pictures. This year, Oscar has a huge race problem. Only one of the best pictures this year has minority characters in the lead: Selma. People will make a claim that The Grand Budapest Hotel has a minority character in it (as the narrator no less!), but that character not only is a second banana to the very white Ralph Fiennes, that character changes race from Latino to Assyrian when he grows up, hinting that “all you non-white people look the same.”

All of the acting nominees this year are white. The only minority director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, was nominated for Birdman, a movie with no minority characters in it. The only minority screenwriter nomination was also for Birdman. Last year, at the “No, we’re not really racist” Academy Awards ceremony, Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for a movie with no minority actors on screen.

2013’s 12 Years a Slave gave white people the character of Brad Pitt to root for. It was the first movie with a black character as the definitive lead to win Best Picture since 1968’s In the Heat of the Night, unless we’re counting 1989’s Driving Miss Daisy. 2009’s The Hurt Locker had a black supporting character, and 2005’s Crash had a multi-cultural cast. 2008’s Slumdog Millionaire had an Indian lead. To date, there have been no Hispanic or Asian movies to win Best Picture…ever.

Implications

When Exodus: Gods and Kings was released last month, it was noted that there were no minority actors in the lead roles for a movie set in Ancient Egypt. Of the controversy, director Ridley Scott commented, “I can’t mount a film of this budget, where I have to rely on tax rebates in Spain, and say that my lead actor is Muhammad so-and-so from such-and-such.” Even ignoring the racism of “Muhammed so-and-so” as a stand in for all minority actors, the underlying statement is “Audiences are racist, and I have to play into their racist hands if I want to make money.”

Many people jumped to Scott’s defense saying that it was purely a business decision that kept him from casting minority actors. Besides, its no big deal as a Biblical movie is a work of fiction, right? The argument that casting white people is purely a “good business decision” is trotted out time and time again from Hollywood movies. The studios point to the numbers and say how whites led all of the movies making boffo box office, and no minority person, except for Will Smith, could possibly open a $100m weekend. The flip side to this argument is that there are so few movies with minority leads that there isn’t enough credible data to support this implication. Ride Along, a movie starring Kevin Hart and Ice Cube, made it to #20 at the box office. The Equalizer opened at #1 in America.

Much of modern racism doesn’t come in the form of pointy-hatted lynch mobs intent on burning crosses. Sure, those people still exist but they’re generally considered old hat and passe. Modern racism is much more about passively denying people opportunities based on business decisions. Who will fit on my mostly white team: this person of color, this gay guy, or this straight white dude? Who do I have more in common with: this kid from the street or this kid from suburbia? Who is least able to sue the company? Who can I make more money from? Some people would consider this “good business practices.” But, if you’re the non-white person, it’s systematic racism.

But, everybody is insular. Black people like hanging out with black people, white people like hanging out with white people, gays like hanging out with gays, etc etc etc. Sure, there is intermingling between groups, but most groups are built from common experiences, many of which have a racial component to them. Being racially, sexually, and culturally insular is an inert form of racism. It’s when power gets added to it, such as who runs the companies, that this normally-innocuous insulation becomes much more problematic.

If many business and artistic decisions are based on what and who you can relate to, and many people are culturally insular, then it shouldn’t come as a surprise that AMPAS, a group that was 93% white, would be rather racist. The Academy Award nominee pool is the least racially diverse pool in 18 years. That says a lot. In fairness to AMPAS, there have been few “prestige” minority movies this year, meaning the studios didn’t greenlight many prestige films for minorities.

Solution

What can be done, beyond just sitting around bitching about the general state of things? For starters, you could see more movies with minority characters? You know that one fictitious movie about the asshole white sniper directed by an empty chair? Instead of seeing that, perhaps you should check out a movie about the battle for the right to vote. Or, instead of seeing the terrible romantic comedy with white people, try seeing the terrible rom com with black people.

If movies are a business, and they are, and that business caters to the whims of the movie going public, then the movie going public needs to change their whims and give us marginalized people a chance. Hopefully, we won’t bore you too much.