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"Audiences Prefer Hollywood Movies With Diverse Casts, Study Finds" https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ucla-hollywood-diversity-report-2021
However, we definitely have to be clear to Hollywood about what we mean when we say diversity because Hollywood has a peculiar definition.
They have to know that the inclusion of stereotypes of marginalized peoples does not count toward diversity.
They have to know that the inclusion of stereotypes of marginalized peoples does not count toward diversity.
Otherwise, they will continue to cast marginalized actors as villains, comic relief, and objects of particular pathologies in need of white/male intervention.
They have to know that tokenism isn't diversity. Otherwise, they will continue to create movies with entirely white/male/cisgender/heterosexual/non-disabled casts with One Marginalized Person...
...who generally has no life or language outside of their inclusion for the sake of shielding the filmmakers from criticism about their casting and story choices.
They have to know not allowing two people from the same marginalized experience to co-star as leads, romantic or otherwise, is not diversity.
Insisting upon at least one of the actors in a couple or duo being white is the opposite of diversity because what it is saying is that no union is valuable unless it is confirmed and occupied by whiteness.
They have to know that diversity is not just for the screen. It should be behind, up, down, and through the screen. This includes studio heads, casting directors, directors, producers, screenwriters, etc.
And not marginalized people who are aligned with the status quo, but those who have an education and sensitivity toward modes and models necessary to ensure these images and representations do the opposite of harm.
They have to know finding marginalized actors who present as close to white hegemony as possible isn't diversity--particularly because doing so is an attempt to make differentness from the "white ideal" illegible.
This isn't to say that actors who fit this description shouldn't be given work. It is to say that their casting should be considered within the framework of representation and they alone cannot be representative of said groups...
...because the most privileged of each group cannot by definition be representative of a marginalized experience whose marker for oppression is DISTANCE FROM the white ideal, not PROXIMITY TO it.
I believe these things to be true because of the way in which media functions as symbol and propaganda, fictional landscapes that, because of their audio-visual nature, influence real-life human thought and behavior.
For more about media and its impact on marginalized communities, please read:
THE DEVIL FINDS WORK by James Baldwin
REEL TO REEL by bell hooks
Also, see Wikipedia for an introductory understanding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_mass_media
THE DEVIL FINDS WORK by James Baldwin
REEL TO REEL by bell hooks
Also, see Wikipedia for an introductory understanding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_mass_media
ADDENDUM:
Someone asked me, "Well, what about Black African/British/Caribbean/Central and South American actors being cast in African-American roles?"
Someone asked me, "Well, what about Black African/British/Caribbean/Central and South American actors being cast in African-American roles?"
My response:
I don't know how to feel about that complaint because I remember a time when African-American actors played the roles of continental Africans.
Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu in CONCUSSION
Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in INVICTUS
I don't know how to feel about that complaint because I remember a time when African-American actors played the roles of continental Africans.
Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu in CONCUSSION
Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in INVICTUS
Jennifer Hudson as Winnie Mandela in WINNIE MANDELA
Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela in WINNIE MANDELA
Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Kerry Washington as Kay Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Derek Luke as Patrick Chamusso in CATCH A FIRE
Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela in WINNIE MANDELA
Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Kerry Washington as Kay Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND
Derek Luke as Patrick Chamusso in CATCH A FIRE
Denzel Washington as Steven Biko in CRY FREEDOM
Whoopi Goldberg as Mary Masembuko in SARAFINA
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa in BLACK PANTHER (as well as many other members of that cast)
And I could go on.
Whoopi Goldberg as Mary Masembuko in SARAFINA
Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa in BLACK PANTHER (as well as many other members of that cast)
And I could go on.
I think my point is that I don't like the way white supremacist capitalist patriarchal institutions pit Black people of varying geographies and ethnicities against one another by using the scarcity mindset and forcing us to view each other as competition rather than community.
Whenever this topic comes up, I always try to remember that in a "crabs in the barrel" situation, as my friend Darnell L. Moore once said: "Crabs belong in the sea. The problem isn't the crabs; it's the barrel."
I try very hard not to let these hegemonic structures turn me against other Black people.
