Hollywood's Diversity Smokescreen

 

    Diversity has always been an issue in the media. There are too many ethnicities and cultures that go tragically under represented or even misrepresented in Hollywood. It has been a heated topic for many years and it seems as if Hollywood just can not get it right. There have been times when ethnicities have been overlooked and actors were incorrectly cast. An example that comes to mind is when I think of this is when Scarlett Johansson was cast as the lead in the film Ghost in the Shell, in which the lead is intended to be women of Asian ethnicity. 

Many believe that Hollywood uses a figurative smokescreen when it comes to diversity. This is because while there are general claims that they are being inclusive, it simply doesn't show. A study on films from 2018 shows that there has been an increase in diversity, although not much. The study looked at films from a ten year span, starting in 2007. Out of 1,200 top films in that span of time, only 27 of them included underrepresented racial or ethnic lead or co-lead roles. Hopefully, we will continue to see these numbers rise.

While all growth is just that, growth, Hollywood could still do better when it comes to casting roles and being inclusive to these underrepresented and misrepresented races and ethnicities. 

Images:

https://hewlett.org/committing-diversity-equity-inclusion/

https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-institute/ieee-news/ieee-adopts-new-diversity-statement

Source:

https://deadline.com/2020/01/hollywood-diversity-2009-strides-film-tv-representation-inclusion-1202817299/