Dear AMPAS Member,
I watched The 90th Oscars with mixed feelings.
The impacts of #OscarsSoWhite #MeToo and #TimesUp were touched upon, in monologue by Jimmy Kimmel, and several presenters like Mya Rudolph and Tiffany Haddish cracked wise about Oscar being “Too Black” but don’t worry, there are still PLENTY of white people with clipboards running things behind the scenes. Common rapped and sung about it in his performance of the Oscar Nominated song for “Marshall”. These gestures echoed past lip-service and placating attempts for an industry mirroring the broader American landscape which isn’t very pretty for anyone who isn’t a White, CIS Male.
Art is Political or it’s masturbation.
In a memorable moment near the end of the broadcast, Frances McDermont asked Female Creatives in all fields to stand and declared “We’ve all got projects that need to be funded, we’ve all got voices that need to be heard.” This was a watershed moment to be sure. However, past being prologue, the facts paint a dismal picture that we need to face before we pat ourselves on the back about COCO, Peele’s GET OUT best screenplay win or Guillermo Del Toro’s Fish-meets-Girl Interracial love allegory THE SHAPE OF WATER.
Facts are even with the social movement hashtags, the reality is Hollywood is moving backwards, not forwards in regards to diversity. It’s time for everyone who can to take real action.
45 new 2017-18 shows across broadcast, cable and digital platforms, there only four creators of color all four are black.
Researchers with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reported Creators of new shows in 2017-18 season were 91% white and 84% male, a step back for gender and racial diversity behind the camera. This is Post-#OscarSoWhite social media campaign.
http://annenberg.usc.edu/sites/default/files/2017/04/07/MDSCI_CARD_Report_FINAL_Exec_Summary.pdf
The television industry numbers paint a sad picture of the state of diversity, this is in-spite of the well documented financial gains accrued by both racially and gender diverse projects. Between 2011, the first year UCLA produced the report, and 2016, the needle remains unmoved regarding film directors of color, who continue to represent only 12% of the top films. Women also made no gains, directing only 6.9% of the top films in 2016.
There are all kinds of missed opportunities. It’s an outgrowth of the executive suites and the fact that they are still overwhelmingly white and male and who is in a position to judge which ideas being pitched are viable … and whose pitches will be heard.” Darnell Hunt, a UCLA sociology professor and the co-author of the annual Hollywood diversity report
With women behind only 16% of new shows and minorities behind just 9%, the outlook was worse than overall representation in the previous season, which was marginally better in both categories.
All new broadcast shows have white creators.
Women also claimed only 28% of leads for new shows, a significant drop from the previous season. There was, however, improvement in casting of people of color, who made up 28% of leads for new shows.
This at the same time the study provided further evidence that audiences prefer diverse content.
Films with casts that were 21-30% people of color had the highest median global box office returns and highest median return on investment. Meanwhile, movies with casts that were mostly white had the lowest median box office returns, but made up a majority of the 2016 films.
45 new show-creators SEVEN are women.
Movie Studios are businesses not soup kitchens. No one is looking for handouts. We only want what’s due. And there is a serious disconnect that isn’t predicated on proven higher box office returns or high quality of work. Boards and Investors should take notice if diversity is proven good buisness and studio heads are refusing to hire diverse creatives leaving money on the table. They have not.
So what’s at the bottom of this counterintuitive anti-diversity bias?
As I predicted in my 2014 article The Fierce Urgency of Wonder Woman. A Wonder Woman film would break the glass ceiling of the cis white male superhero boys club forever. Guess what? Biliion + world wide box office and critical acclaim saved the DC Expanded Universe films. The luke warm reception of both typically very bankable Batman and Superman made Warner Bros. understandibly nervous. Audiences loved Gadot’s & Patty Jensens Wonder Woman so much, they’ve reshot Justice League just to beef up her role in it. White Male Executives know these positive diversity numbers, they’ve known for years. Yet still overwhelmingly hire white men to green light white narratives almost to the exclusion of all others.
The latest punctuation mark of public hunger for diverse narratives came this Black History Month with the long-awaited release of “Black Panther.” Over President’s Day weekend, Black Panther grossed $700 million in global ticket sales in its first 12 days of release and is on track to hit the billion-dollar mark. The movie’s $242 million opening over the holiday weekend was the second-biggest debut ever, beating “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”. Record-breaking pre-sales surpassed all prior Marvel movies for Fandango and IMAX. Typically, Marvel releases are overwhelmingly white and male. Not so for Black Panther. The exit polling showed a near 50/50 gender spilt male/female and almost evenly racial spilt 37% Black & White. We showed up for The KIng. If our lives don’t matter, our cash surely does.
Directed by Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station” and “Creed”), “Black Panther” is the highest-grossing film and the only major studio superhero film made predominantly by Africans & African Americans. You can read what I wrote about the film in my article featured in Black Enterprise Magazine “REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE SIDEKICKS? – BLACK PANTHER AND COMIC BOOK POLITICS
People of color accounted for the majority of ticket sales for five of the top 10 films of 2017
You may choose to chalk this issue of White Gatekeeping as mere nepotism. It’s “who you know”. But instutioinal racism in Hollywood as sighted by Chloe Bennett (given name Chloe Wang) is rampant. She anglisiced her name to find work. Many POC are forced to in all fields. To add insult to injury, Hollywood decision makers aren’t very good at their jobs and they don’t even know it.
Zero accountability exists in Hollywood today. The working conditions may look appealing from the outside but the culture is problematic at best, bottom lines and profit margins have been shrinking overall, a lot of what gets green-lit today is shite and nobody gets fired for this?
That’s no way to run a Rodeo.
There is as documented in this VOX article “Why incompetent people often think they’re actually the best” a psychological phenomenon behind it: the Dunning-Kruger effect.
When psychologists Dunning and [Justin] Kruger first described the effect in 1999, they argued that people lacking knowledge and skill in particular areas suffer a double curse. First, they make mistakes and reach poor decisions. But second, those same knowledge gaps also prevent them from catching their errors. In other words, poor performers lack the very expertise needed to recognize how badly they’re doing.”
There’s a way to prevent all of this: “First, ask for feedback from other people — and consider it, even if it’s hard to hear. Second, and more important, keep learning. The more knowledgeable we become, the less likely we are to have invisible holes in our competence.”
Now do these sound like kinds of insights the average high-powered white male studio executive or producer are likey to have?
I don’t think so either.
Feeling uncomfortable is a necessary part toward unlearning oppressive behaviors.
Facing unpleasant truths isn’t in many skill sets of those running Hollywood. It’s certainly not happening at the highest levels in the film industry as evidenced by the extraordinary sexism and racism exposed in the wake of #metoo , #timesup & #oscarsowhite. “hostile work environment” is an understatement. Who’s running your Human Resource departments? They, along with many managers, department heads and CEO’s should go. A strong case can be made to “throw the bums out”. Get rid of the dead weight of mediocrity and privilege and promote hungry, females and POC waiting in the wings to change the climate enrich the products and potentially make lots more money.
In this video from STRONG OPINIONS LOOSLEY HELD “made by and for the internet’s biggest threat: smart, opinionated women.” Based on the award-winning Refinery29 podcast hosted by Elisa Kreisinger. Elisa makes a very compelling argument for female heads of studios or CEOs.
There Are So Many Mediocre Men
Don’t like ads? Become a supporter and enjoy The Good Men Project ad freeElisa Kreisinger/Pop Culture Pirate breaks down why there are so many mediocre male leaders & how it's hurting women.
Posted by Strong Opinions Loosely Held on Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Mediocre White Men not only think they are better at their jobs than they actually are, they promote others that aren’t so great as well.
This gets to the heart of why politics play as big a role in Hollywood as in all other American institutions. Conservatives overwhelmingly (white and male) love to throw the term “Identity Politics” around like it’s a bad word. The reported “Liberals” of Hollywood aren’t much better. Those of us who live inside the crosshairs (everyone else) of the majority White, CIS, Male, Straight Power Structure of American Society get it. We understand what the powerful knowingly or otherwise refuse to admit. All politics are personal. Those who self-identify as White CIS Male might not like it. They might self identify as simply “American”.
Understand your default identity allows you the privlage to live a “non-political” existence other Americans do not enjoy.
Whites benefit from unearned privlages witin institutions like the Criminal Justice system and Hollywood where White Males are the gatekeepers perpetualy reinforcing the Staus Quo and White Supremacy is the coin of the realm. It’s not about being a bad person, racism and sexism are systemic, pervasive and won’t change unless you decide it’s worth cashing in your privlage, being uncomfortable, unpopular and perhaps even risking your comfortable positions to do the right thing.
“It’s easy to stand up to your enemies, much harder to stand up to your friends” as Professor Dumbledore said.
All should continue to unite on the basis of shared political identities, particularly in efforts to create narratives that might help oppressed groups, but should also consider intersecting categories within these groups. We all see evidence that no matter how successful, talented or deserving non-white female or non- gender specific creatives are, they will NEVER achieve performance based equity within a system created by and for White Men to succeed.
For example, Writer Ta-Nehisi Coates once said President Obama “definitely” had to work twice as hard as Trump to become president, comparing his laundry list of achievements to Trump’s limited experience. “To be president, [Obama] had to be scholarly, intelligent, president of the Harvard Law Review, the product of some of our greatest educational institutions, capable of talking to two different worlds … Donald Trump had to be rich and white. That was it. That’s the difference.” Black Panther Director Ryan Coogler is the “Barack Obama” of Directors. True equality means you shouldn’t have to break every box office record just to get hired.
“If I have to jump six feet to get the same thing that you have to jump two feet for – that’s how racism works.” – Ta-Nehisi Coates
A clear antidote to help shift this toxic paradigm is what Ms. Mc Dermot said last night. “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider,” concluding her powerful acceptance speech for winning the best actress Oscar.
Inclusion Riders
An inclusion Rider is designed to ensure equitable hiring in supportive roles for women, POC, the LGBT community, & people w/disabilities.
University of Southern California professor Stacy Smith, said Sunday’s twitter response was huge. This idea was floated at a TED conference in 2016
Here it is-
“An equity rider by an A-lister in their contract can stipulate that those roles reflect the world in which we actumally live, Now, there’s no reason why a network, a studio or a production company cannot adopt the same contractual language in their negotiation processes.” -Stacy Smith
Smith went on to explain the advantages of actors’ pursuing riders, which she offered as a possible solution to the “inclusion crisis in Hollywood.”
“The typical feature film has about 40 to 45 speaking characters in it. I would argue that only eight to 10 of those characters are actually relevant to the story,” she added. “The remaining 30 or so roles, there’s no reason why those minor roles can’t match or reflect the demography of where the story is taking place.”
Smith said the overall goal would be to have tax credits tied to inclusion riders as an incentive for diverse production opportunities.
Now is this a perfect solution? Of course not. I can see casting directors loading the background up with “diverse furnishings” to comply. It will take oversight and investment by Powerful A list talent and studio executives willing to put thier money where their mouths are to ensure the “8-10 relevant to the story” and even the story itself is representative of marginalized groups. If there isn’t the black equivalent of the Bedchel Test that ensures a minimum of female character depth in film I’m adapting it. I’ll call it the “Yarde Stick”
THE YARDE STICK: If you have a minimum of three black named characters on screen, male or female and they are speaking with each other and discussing something other than White People. And they aren’t Enslaved, Criminals, Junkies or Domestic Help? Then that film mesures up!
It will take Pop Media Journalists to call out tokenism and celebrate projects that embrace diversity as nessisary. It will also count on all of us to seek out and support intersectionaly the traditionally undeserved in Pop Media with high quality content that fills our hearts, challenges our preconceptions and entertains us.
Will there be resistance? Absolutely. Already as if on cue deriders are chiming in about quotas and affirmative action. As if diverse creatives in front or behind the camera will somehow lessen the quality of work or cost white professional peers their jobs.
I’ll quote ROOT article “Everything White People Think About Affirmative Action Is Wrong” –
But what about in the workplace? Don’t you think the best candidate should get the job? Why have affirmative action at companies, which should only be concerned with making money?
I agree. I believe the most qualified candidate should get the job. The problem with that belief is white people’s supposition that it was ever that way. Neither colleges nor companies have ever had a merit-based system that selected people because of ability. White men have always been the most employed, highest-paid and most powerful group in America.
Black people wouldn’t care if every Caucasian soul were really a Klansman at heart—we wouldn’t care if you harbored ill will toward us and hated us in the core of your being—so long as you treated us equally. Black people don’t seek some esoteric notion of love and unity from white America; we want economic, social and political equality.
Finally, your host made an attempt to “honor” the movie going public by going across the street to interrupt a viewing of “ A Wrinkle in Time” (the kind of product we’d like more of) for wealthy celebrities to shoot hotdogs at patrons and hand out candy which shared the optics of a clueless private school teacher sheparding a class of spoiled rich kids on a trip to the Zoo to feed the monkeys.
Ick.
Save the Mike & Ike’s. You really want to honor moviegoers?
Employ diverse creatives on both sides of the camera, let them tell authentic stories for my children and yours to inspire them and see themselves at the center of wonderous tales instead of the periphery. You more than most know the history of film and that Movies have the power to change hearts and minds unlike any other medium.
Bring that awesome power to bear to help effect positive societal changes within the film industry even as other American institutions have failed us from without. Remember your artistic legacy. A century of film and what past and current members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences can accomplish at thier best.
This idea of Inclusion Riders are a small but concrete way to address the immediate, pressing needs for diversity in Hollywood. The promotion of women executives can combat the male toxicity of a culture that desperately needs to change. A case can be made for diversity with all the empirical data already cited and a larger box office take helps the bottom line, but fresh, new stories from different perspectives can feed the soul of an important industry.
Your stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures cannot be fullfiled in the climate the industry curently finds itself.
Thank you for your time and attention. I await your response.
Sincerely,
A moviegoer
—
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