2015, it has been 76 years since Hattie McDaniels became the first African American to

ever win an Oscar for her supporting role in Gone with the Wind. 51 years since the Sidney
Poitier became the first African American to win the Oscar for best Actor in his role in Lilies in
the Wind. 14 years since Halle Berry won an Oscar and became the first African American to win
an Oscar for best Actress in her role in Monster Ball. Yet since the first Academy Award only 15
Black actors or actress have been awarded with the number only jumping to 32 when you include
about all the Oscar awards. Sadly this is talking about the second most awarded ethnicity, it only
gets worse. Like Neil Patrick Harris said, Today we honor Hollywood's best and whitest.
Sorrybrightest, But its not just awards were talking about overall the last several years the
trend of racial diversity in Film has been decreasing despite the wide array of talent minority
performers.
But some people dont agree. Some people think that while not every other movie filmed
stars a minority character, we have been making leaps and bounds in the recent years. We no
longer have the white washed films of the early film industry years. No longer do you see the
token black man, one per station. There has been a boon of minority characters that have become
household names. Talents like Will Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Michelle Rodriguez, George
Lopez, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and so many other have found their ways into our home in the last
few years. We see and anticipate the upcoming release of minority performers more than we did
in generations past and this shifting mindset can only increase as time goes by.
But I and the facts disagree. In Race/Ethnicity in 600 Popular Films: Examining On
Screen Portrayals and Behind the Camera Diversity, The study showed that of 100 top grossing
movies from 2013 Just over a quarter (25.9%) of the 3,932 speaking characters evaluated were
from underrepresented racial/ethnic group (Smith 1). Just marginally over a fourth of all

speaking roles are given to minorities in films. Some people will argue that we have made
considerable progress in most recent years. That with films like 12 years a Slave, Selma,
Instructions not Included, and No Good Deeds that the number of roles were giving to
minorities is increasing but Smiths findings show that is not the case. That even the most
accurately represented minorities, African Americans, still have had representation issues in our
more recent years. Again she looks at the 100 top grossing films of 2013 and finds that 17% of
those movies had no African Americans in them, 15 movies have black cast of 2.2-5.9%, 22
movies had black cast of 6-10% and only 6 had over 30% black casts (4).
Another Argument people will make is that despite the fact we have made progress that
Minority performers arent as well received as white stars so their films dont make as much
money. That when it comes down to it this business is about its bottom line. That when you make
a movie it cost cash and that cash has to be made up and then some for it to be considered a hit.
So in order to do that certain things have to happen. One of the most evident is that certain actors
have to be cast. So it make sense that DreamWorks decided that for their upcoming movie Ghost
in the Shell that they might go with a less risky option. That option was Scarlett Johannsson. As
the saying goes her butt gets butts in seats, and thats because Johannsson, along with being
sex appeal in human form, is one of Hollywoods most talented and well regarded actresses in
the business right now. People will come to see her for numerous different reason and that will
sell tickets. There are no if, ands, or buts about that.
Once again facts do not say that is necessarily true. First lets look at the facts about the
money. The whole notion that movies with solid casts representation is false. In fact its actually
closer to being the complete opposite of the truth. UCLA did a study in 2014 called 2014
Hollywood Diversity Report: Making Sense of the Disconnect this study took a look at how well

films did in relations to their diversity in cast and found that films within range of 21-30%
diversity in their cast did the best in the global box office (Hunt 25). This was not by a relatively
small margin either. The films in the 21-30% range had a median global box office of 160
million dollars while the next highest groups median was on 75.5 million dollars (25). So the
notion that films that have racially diverse cast dont do as well is not only false but a deadly
mindset to those who claim to be about their bottom line.
Second is the idea that big name white actors are the people who need to be the stars.
When it was revealed that DreamWorks cast Scarlett Johannsson as Motoko Kusanagi for their
upcoming live-action Ghost in the Shell movie, they received a lot of backlash. Among the
claims that Hollywood was once again whitewashing another film it was also mentioned that the
actress Rinko Kikuchi would have been a better casting for the lead in Ghost in the Shell. While
Kikuchi is not as well known here in America she is known for role in 2013 Sci-fi Action movie
Pacific Rim. In the film she played the partner to Charlie Hunnam in controlling Gypsy Danger.
Now if we were to compare this film to Scarlet Johannssons most recent blockbuster success,
Lucy, youll find the movies both faired extremely well. With Lucy just etching out Pacific Rim
with $458,863,600 at the global box office to Pacific Rims $411,002,906. Casting is important
but when it comes down to it advertisement and the quality of the movie will always be the most
important factor in bringing in money.
So I believe that its 2015 and Hollywood needs to realize that there is a
fountain of talented nonwhite actors that they can take from. That its bigger than
the less than twenty minority actors and actresses we see. This fountain is in fact
larger than the pool of white talent that Hollywood scrapes from because this
fountain has every other ethnicity other than white. I believe Hollywood need to

diversify its portfolio. Because the numbers dont lie. And the numbers say their
progress has been almost non-existent. That a few outliers dont represent the
truth. And most importantly its effecting their bottom line.