Reform the Oscars--and the Studios

One of the most anticipated events in cinema will take place in a little over a month. The Academy Awards this year include films like "The Revenant" (2015), "The Martian" (2015), "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015) and "Carol" (2015),  a familiar allotment of obscure and Oscar-hunting movies, with the crucial caveat that for a second year in a row there are no people of color nominated for any of the acting awards. As reported in The Daily on January 15,  the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite resurfaced as soon as the nominees for the 2016 Oscars were announced. 

Prominent black members of the film community such as Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee will boycott the ceremony in an attempt to draw attention to the issue. For one thing, the Academy should have taken note of impressive performances by stars like Michael B. Jordan in "Creed" (2015) and Idris Elba in "Beasts of No Nation" (2015). The greater problem, however, is that the Academy must recognize that systemic disadvantage for actors and actresses of color necessitates more than just altering the makeup of the Academy voters, who are overwhelmingly white. The awards-seeking studios must cast and hire more than just white, straight, men and women for their films.

As some are trying to push the Academy to change, others are pushing back hard. While some applaud those who will boycott the ceremony, others find the boycott unnecessary and controversial. Among this latter group is white Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling, who went so far as to call the boycott “racist to white people.” While the comment may seem extreme, Rampling is not alone. Several people stand behind her in the belief that “perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list.” Actors who have spoken in support of this position, such as Rampling and Michael Caine, both of whom are over the age of 65 and white -- ignore that the exclusion of people of color from the Academy Awards is not based on individual ability, but on the systematic disadvantage they face at the top and bottom of the film industry. 

The backlash to #OscarsSoWhite recalls the case of Abigail Fisher, a young, white woman who sued the University of Texas at Austin because she believed she was rejected for the color of her skin. The court case garnered a lot of attention because it questioned the importance of racial diversity in the college admissions process--and the precarious position of affirmative action. This sentiment is seriously flawed and pernicious--the belief of many white people that racism is a non-factor, or, even more ludicrously, "reverse racism" against white people, goes against measurable historical and contemporary facts and statistics. Such purposeful ignorance is more than a widely-shared blind spot but a choice to perpetuate a media industry that trades in stereotypes instead of stories that can affect us as only the best art can.

The Academy has a lot more power in this than its timid offering of change suggests. Films that cast people of color do so because there are people from all walks of life in all parts of the film process--writing, directing, producing and funding, all before acting. As viewers and consumers, it's our part to hold studios and the Academy to high standards of film and storytelling.