As the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending, just as it did last year, ceremony host Chris Rock joked in a Twitter promo that he was thrilled to be hosting "The White BET Awards." Then it got serious. Spike Lee, who was honored at the Academy's Governors Awards months ago, and Jada Pinkett Smith announced they were boycotting this year's Oscars and encouraged others to join them. Rock began facing pressure to resign as host in protest. Each day, more high-profile figures are lending their voices to the chorus calling for change. "For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing," said David Oyelowo, who starred as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oscar-nominated Selma, at an event on Jan. 18. "For that to happen again this year is unforgivable." The Oscars made big news last week, but not the way they intended. When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed its picks for the year's best performances on Jan. 14, no actors of color were nominated for the second consecutive year. What's more, acclaimed films with diverse casts including Straight Outta Compton, Creed, and Beasts of No Nation were shut out of the Best Picture category, and the nominations those films did receive went either to white screenwriters (for Compton) or to a white star (Sylvester Stallone for Creed). So the issue seems to be well concentrated at the core of Hollywood, therefore i want to explore the major issue why there is lack of diversity in the nomination of black actors for the Oscars Hollywood's Diversity Problem Starts At The TopA 2012 Los Angeles Times study found that the roughly 6,000-member Academy is nearly 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male, with a median age of 62. Invitations to join the elite organization are typically limited to high-ranking professionals who are nominated by at least two peers; once admitted, membership is for life.Also The study looked into film studios' executive ranks in 2013 and found that 94 percent of CEOs and/or chairs and 92 percent of senior management were white. Because of the high risk associated with the typical project -- most new television shows fail, most films underperform -- individual stakeholders in the industry (typically white and male) look to surround themselves with other individuals with whom they feel comfortable, with whom they feel they have the best prospects for producing a successful project. These latter individuals, of course, tend to think and look like the former, thereby reproducing an industry culture that routinely devalues the talent of minorities and women Studios And Talent Agencies Won't Take Responsibility To make matters worse, when the study's authors spoke with talent agencies and studio executives they found a lot of finger pointing and little accountability. “The talent agencies tell us they are in the business of selling to the networks and studios the kinds of packaged projects they demand," the authors wrote in their conclusion. "Networks and studios -- whose executive suites are almost exclusively white and male -- ironically suggest that packaged projects could be more inclusive were it not for overly narrow talent rosters." Films Just Aren't Casting Actors Of ColorLast August, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism released comprehensive data evaluating the gender, race/ethnicity and LGBT status in the top-grossing films released in between 2007 and 2014 (excluding 2011). The study, titled “Inequality in 700 Popular Films,” found that on average 75.2 percent of speaking roles went to white actors during those years. That's despite the fact that 46 percent of movie tickets sold in 2014 were bought by Latino, Black, Asian and "Other" moviegoers, according MPAA Theatrical Market statistics. All-white acting nominations may very well be a reflection of a larger diversity issue in Hollywood, but the Academy isn't exactly a beacon of diversity. And the Academy isn't alone. Data has shown that the marginalization of actors of color is widespread in Hollywood, and it'll take more than #OscarSoWhite to fix it.
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