The Academy Awards is coming up and after a second year in a row, the nominations for best performance by an actor are all white. Immediately after the nominations were announced, people were complaining and reactions ranged from "oscars so white" to "don't blame the academy" to "don't be racists towards whites." Since then, the academy announced plans to change the voting pool and acquire people of diverse backgrounds. But is this enough? Is this the way we can change the lack of diversity on the big screen?
My answer: yes and no.
It starts with us. The audience. The people buying tickets.
It starts with us. The writers. The people with stories.
It starts with us. The film-makers. The people with the power to cast people of color.
I think the Academy Awards isn't to be blamed at entirely. It is merely a small reflection on what the industry had to offer in the past year.
The real people to blame are the ones who decided to cast Emma Stone as a half-Asian woman in
Aloha.
The real people to blame are the ones who ignore stories of people who aren't "white."
The Oscars isn't so white. The entire movie industry is.
Of course, there could have been a lot done like nominating Idris Elba for his role. (I, however don't think Will Smith deserved a nomination). Point is, a lot of people felt like they were snubbed because of their color. But it didn't begin there.
I had a tiny toe through the threshold of acting and this entire industry and already I felt like I was being snubbed out because I'm Asian. I didn't even travel far and already I could see the road ahead and how hard it was going to be for people who aren't Caucasian. Every single casting called for a white person, even going so far as to asking for a blonde hair blue eyed doll-face. Those stories aren't even historical ones where the character HAD to be played by a white person. The casting director simply wanted a certain aesthetic.
That's the real problem. That's the point where we should all be mad and raise our hashtags furiously. As audiences, we should be
demanding for diversity. Don't limit yourselves to remakes of the past (because, let's be honest, most of the films coming out now are just remakes). Open yourself to tales of different countries, different languages.
As I dreamt of becoming an actress in a too-white industry, I looked through dozens of roundtable interviews online. One of them included Oprah, and she said something that was all too disappointing. She said, diversity won't come because audiences don't want to see names that are too unfamiliar (she used Chinese names as an example.) Really, Oprah, really?
The Oscars isn't so white. The audience is.
