#diversity gap

The Diversity Gap in the Academy Awards: Diversity Records Broken

A child is born. They start to grow and become aware of their surroundings. They begin to read books, or watch TV, or go to the theatre with their parents, or play a video game, or go to an art museum with their class. They keep looking to find someone that looks like them, or sounds like them, or shares similarities to them. They don’t know that they are looking for these things. But then one day they are given a book by an author who grew up in the same neighborhood as them, or they see someone onstage that looks just like them, or they are in the museum and they are transfixed before an image that transmits some of their own identity to them. Suddenly they see themselves reflected, represented in the world at large. And they consciously or unconsciously think: “Oh THERE I am.” No longer just their own face in the mirror, they now see themselves as part of something bigger—as a part of the Universe. This is representation. But now think about those children who rarely, if ever, see themselves out in the Universe. The books they are assigned in school are never about children like themselves; the movies and TV they watch never star or even feature actors who would fit in at the child’s dinner table; the noted leaders and successful people in the news don’t reflect the child’s world; and it isn’t until the child is a teenager or an adult that they finally see themselves represented in the creative arts, or even in the history books. This is the world we currently live in. We do not live in a post-racial society. Racism still exists, it still makes decisions, it still wields power in ways large and small. There are some who say that the conversations about ongoing racism only serve to perpetuate racism. Those people are wrong. Misguided, and perhaps misinformed, and maybe even well-meaning, but they are wrong, nonetheless. You don’t treat a festering wound by saying and doing nothing. After all, how are we supposed to make any lasting and meaningful change if we say nothing, if we do nothing? The myth that talking about [insert racism, marriage inequality, economic inequity, misogyny, etc. here] will only perpetuate the thing itself is a coward’s excuse. If I just called you a coward because you use the “talking about ____ only perpetuates ____” logic, and if being labeled a coward offends you, I suggest you look at your rhetoric before you come at me with your anger. By doing and saying nothing, you create a space in which the oppressors potentially have more agency and control, because you have forefeited your voice/action. What you give up by being silent and inactive, they can (and often will) take and use for themselves. The words you could have said are instead used up by those who would spread their oppressive, small-minded dogma. When you speak, when you act, you take up space. Your words take up space in the minds and spirits of those who hear/read them; your actions take up physical space as well as temporal space—space that cannot be occupied by the oppressor. So here I am, taking up space and using my voice. I believe in many things. Representation is one of those things. I believe that each and every one of us needs to see our selves represented in order to help us solidify and reaffirm our identities. My mentor Alexandra Billings has told the story of how discovering that she was Represented not only helped her reaffirm her existence and identity, it saved her life. Alex was sitting with a bottle of pills, ready to erase her Self from this world, and the Phil Donahue show was on. The guests were these “bewigged and be-lashed” women who were talking about gender identity and politics and at one point it was made clear that these women had “not been born women, they had become” and suddenly, Alex realized “oh there I am.” And she did not take the pills—because she was no longer alone; because there were other *trans individuals living in the world; because she realized that she belonged—because she saw herself Represented. Recently, it was announced that Joseph Fiennes, a Caucasian Brit, would be portraying Michael Jackson, The King of Pop, in a short made-for-TV-special. There was the requisite outrage and outcry from POC and their allies—“why is one of the most famous POC musicians in the past 50 years going to be played by a white man?!?” The outcry and the shock is not unwarranted; for although there is a history in the small and large screen of white people playing real-life and fictional POC individuals, that history helped create and maintain the status quo throughout the industry. What is that status quo? It is the fact that the POC narrative is simply not told, or it is largely told through a non-POC lens. It means that the scripts usually don’t have POC characters as leads, and even supporting roles can be few and somewhat far between. It means that the POC characters that are being created are still largely 1-dimensional, human accessories to some non-POC character’s plot arc—or the POC characters are thugs, villains, prostitutes, background shop owners, service workers, etc. There are exceptions, thank god—there is Shondaland and there are the non-network shows like OITNB, and there are now (finally!) network shows that use the incredible talents of POC artists as the center of the narrative, and/or with supporting roles that are multi-dimensional. But there is still so much further to go before our art actually draws from life. And it’s not just the actors—the writer’s rooms, the directors guilds, the producers’ tables are all sorely lacking when it comes to reflecting the world as it actually is today. And god no—the discrimination isn’t just based on ethnicity—the continued gender gap and the depiction of the LGBT community is very much a part of this discussion. And no, it’s not just the small/large screen that suffers from this inability to overthrow the system—it’s spread across the arts communities—theatre, publishing, music, dance, visual/fine arts, etc. The people who get to use their art, the people making decisions on whose art gets put out there—those people are still largely white, largely heteronormative, and often male. This is a problem. Because as Viola Davis so eloquently put it: “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.” Skill, gifts, ability, and talent count for nothing if there simply aren’t opportunities available. And the status quo still creates a comparative dearth of opportunities for those outside that status quo. There ARE people in positions of power who are throwing out the status quo. There are all-female productions of Shakespeare and casts whose diversity reflects the population. There are people who are putting the art and the artist’s ability first. But these people are not the norm. And so as long as hundreds of thousands of people can spew racial epithets and bigoted vitriol when John Boyega is cast in Star Wars, or when the character Rue in Hunger Games is portrayed by an actor….who looks exactly as the character was described in the book – then we still have a ways to go before we can achieve some artistic utopia in which an artist is judged solely on their merit and ability, not on their race, gender, class, etc. Until then, it is still necessary to fight for Representation throughout the arts. If you disagree, then I hope you can provide some compelling arguments. I’ll include some links to sobering info at the end of this, because sources must be cited, but also because I know that some think that some progress means the fight is over. Far from it, friends. http://blog.leeandlow.com/2014/02/20/wheres-the-diversity-hollywood-85-years-of-the-academy-awards/ http://blog.leeandlow.com/2013/06/17/why-hasnt-the-number-of-multicultural-books-increased-in-eighteen-years/ http://blog.leeandlow.com/2013/06/06/wheres-the-diversity-the-tony-awards-looks-in-the-mirror/ http://blog.leeandlow.com/2013/09/18/wheres-the-diversity-a-look-at-the-emmy-awards-and-tv/ http://blog.leeandlow.com/2013/10/24/wheres-the-diversity-5-reasons-why-the-us-government-isnt-more-diverse/ http://blog.leeandlow.com/2013/12/10/wheres-the-diversity-the-ny-times-top-10-bestsellers-list/ http://blog.leeandlow.com/2014/07/29/wheres-the-diversity-hollywood-sci-fi-and-fantasy-blockbusters-overwhelmingly-white-male/ Here’s a tech infographic too, just because this Lee & Low series is so good: http://blog.leeandlow.com/2015/03/12/the-diversity-gap-in-silicon-valley/

Behind the Scenes of Publishing's First Diversity Baseline Survey