Edited by Azizi Powell
This serves as an update to this January 21, 2016 pancocojams post http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-lack-of-racial-diversity-in.html "The Lack Of Racial Diversity In Hollywood & No Black Actors/Actresses Nominated For 2016 Academy Awards (selected comments)"
This news just came on the wire:
From http://www.oscars.org/news/academy-takes-historic-action-increase-diversity
ACADEMY TAKES HISTORIC ACTION TO INCREASE DIVERSITY
"Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Posted:
Friday, January 22, 2016 - 08:00
Lifetime voting rights reframed; new governor seats added and committees restructured
Goal to double number of diverse members by 2020
In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.
“The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”
Beginning later this year, each new member’s voting status will last 10 years, and will be renewed if that new member has been active in motion pictures during that decade. In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award. We will apply these same standards retroactively to current members. In other words, if a current member has not been active in the last 10 years they can still qualify by meeting the other criteria. Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status. Emeritus members do not pay dues but enjoy all the privileges of membership, except voting. This will not affect voting for this year’s Oscars.
At the same time, the Academy will supplement the traditional process in which current members sponsor new members by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.
In order to immediately increase diversity on the Board of Governors, the Academy will establish three new governor seats that will be nominated by the President for three-year terms and confirmed by the Board.
The Academy will also take immediate action to increase diversity by adding new members who are not Governors to its executive and board committees where key decisions about membership and governance are made. This will allow new members an opportunity to become more active in Academy decision-making and help the organization identify and nurture future leaders.
Along with Boone Isaacs, the Board’s Membership and Administration Committee, chaired by Academy Governor Phil Robinson, led the efforts to enact these initiatives."
****
Here's some background regarding the Academy's membership prior to this historic change:
From http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/19/1470971/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-s-Chile#view-story Tuesday's Chile By Black Kos
Tuesday Jan 19, 2016
A comment on the state of People of Color in the Arts Commentary by Chitown Kev
..."One specific issue as it relates to the Oscars is the lack of diversity among the voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. From Doctor RJ’s post last night:
There are more than 6,000 voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The rules for membership are a bit convoluted, but it basically consists of people working in the industry who are either sponsored by two Academy members, or by those who've been nominated or won Academy Awards. The demographics of the Academy are not public knowledge, and the organization refuses to release any data about its members. But 2012 and 2013 analyses by the Los Angeles Times found the demographics to be about what you would expect if one attended a tea party meeting.
•94 percent white
•76 percent male
•An average age of 63 years old
•Of the Academy’s different branches, the producers are 98 percent white, the writers are 98 percent white, and the actors are 88 percent white".
-end of quote-
****
This action by the Academy was largely prompted by criticism of the fact that for two consecutive years a number of quality films directed or produced by Black people and starring Black people have been overlooked for nominations. Also, for two consecutive years, in spite of high quality acting and awards at other venues, no Black stars have been nominated for major awards by the Academy. This criticism has led to calls for a boycott of the Academy Award event. Click http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/22/anatomy-of-an-oscars-boycott-why-will-smith-and-others-are-taking-a-stand.html for information and comments about that criticism and boycott. Here are quotes from that article:
..."Whether one supports the idea of a boycott, there is no doubt that change has to happen in Hollywood. As [Jada] Pinkett Smith suggested, black people and other non-white people will continue to “do us” and leave the Academy to “do them.” That doesn’t have to be called a “boycott” to be recognized as a show of solidarity and strength. Black audiences, in particular, have recognized that black movies don’t have to appeal to or appease white tastes to make money. Sooner or later, Hollywood will be made to understand how desperately it needs the stories and the creativity of brown folks. And, in an era when Black Lives Matter is the most important political issue of our time, this is about more than just movies...
[actor Will Smith speaking] “The nominations reflect the Academy. The Academy reflects the industry [Hollywood] and then the industry reflects America. There is a regressive slide towards separatism, towards racial and religious disharmony and that’s not the Hollywood that I want to leave behind. That’s not the industry, that’s not the America I want to leave behind,” he added.
Smith also acknowledged that him not getting a nomination for Concussion “probably” was part of what inspired his wife, Jada, to voice her criticism. But it wasn’t the sole motivator.
“There’s probably a part of that in there but, for [his wife] Jada [Pinkett who led the Academy Award criticism by posting a Facebook video], had I been nominated and no other people of color were, she would have made the video anyway,” Smith said. “We’d still be here having this conversation. This is so deeply not about me. This is about children that are going to sit down and they’re going to watch this show and they’re not going to see themselves represented.”
And it’s about an industry that seems all too eager to take those children’s money at the box office. Hollywood doesn’t have to do anything it doesn’t want to do, nor does the Academy. Actors are tired of being ignored and they’re making that clear. But what will happen when the people decide that they’re tired of being ignored, too?"...
****
Here are more comments about this subject:
From https://www.yahoo.com/movies/academy-overhauls-membership-voting-rules-to-202831225.html
..."The decision [to take these steps which will increase the diversity of the academy] was made at an emergency board meeting Thursday night. Academy honchos, including president Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson, opted not to wait for the regularly scheduled board meeting on Jan. 26. The changes were announced Friday morning.
Also on Thursday, sources said the Academy met with ABC officials and reps of [African American comedian/actor] Chris Rock, confirming that he will host the Feb. 28 ceremony. Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee and Will Smith said they will not attend. Some other activists had urged Rock to withdraw; he never addressed those directly, but insiders said he believes he can do more good by remaining, since the Academy Awards reach a worldwide audience.
After worldwide media criticism over the Jan. 14 Oscar nominations, Academy officials knew they had to make some bold moves, and make them quickly. The image of the Oscars and the Academy were tarnished when the all-Caucasian lineup of 20 actors immediately led to bigger questions about the lack of diversity within the Academy — and ultimately within the industry."
**
From http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/b12fdcd861244fc29022d230f1a3e4bf/US--Oscars-Diversity-The-Latest Actor Don Cheadle says Hollywood's diversity problem goes beyond the Oscars By SANDY COHEN
Published: 1/22/16 7:15 pm EST - Updated: 1/22/16 7:15 pm EST
"Actor Don Cheadle said he believes that Hollywood's diversity problem extends far beyond the Academy.
"(This) has to do with inclusion and access and the ability of people of color, women, minorities to get entry level positions where you can become someone who can greenlight a movie," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "So until the product that's being spit out is created at a point where there is more diversity, I don't know that these changes will substantively affect much. "
Cheadle, nominated for best actor for "Hotel Rwanda" in 2005, called the Oscars "subjective" and "a popularity contest."
"You're going to vote for what you like or don't like. It's a completely subjective determination which is fine. It's a popularity contest. The only place to me, or one of the places where it comes into play that's tricky, is that these nominations actually translate into dollars and they translate into people's ability to parlay. If you're sort of kept out of that process unintentionally because of an institutionalized system that continues to see the same results happen then you are not able to benefit," he said.
He also questioned the black and white definition of diversity that some have jumped on in recent days.
"People think that the Oscars so White is like the new Black Lives Matter thing. It's like guys, you're conflating things that at that level don't have anything to do with each other," he said. "Diverse doesn't just mean more black people. Diverse means more representation from the entire diaspora of what the United States has to offer, not just one particular minority group. That's a part of it too that I think people are just focusing on that isn't really the issue."...
****
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Showing posts with label lack of racial diversity in Hollywood movie productions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lack of racial diversity in Hollywood movie productions. Show all posts
Friday, January 22, 2016
Thursday, January 21, 2016
The Lack Of Racial Diversity In Hollywood & No Black Actors/Actresses Nominated For 2016 Academy Awards (selected comments)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides excerpts from a few selected online blog posts and articles about the lack of diversity in Hollywood movie production and the fact that for the second consecutive year no Black actors or actresses were nominated for Academy Awards.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and sociological purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/01/update-motion-picture-academy-takes.html for a pancocojams post on Update: Motion Picture Academy Takes Historic Actions To Increase Its Members Diversity.
****
FEATURED COMMENTS ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS
With the exception of the first two excerpts given for background, these excerpts are given in no particular order.
From http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/oscars-2016-boycott-a-timeline-of-the-controversy-w162120
..."The 2016 Oscar nominees were announced on Thursday, January 14, marking the second year in a row that every single acting nominee was white. The outrage over the exclusion of people of color prompted the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to start trending on Twitter.
This sparked a chain of events that led to actress Jada Pinkett Smith to call for a boycott of this year’s Academy Awards. See the timeline of reactions:
January 15
Chris Rock
Staying out of the controversy while still acknowledging it, Oscars host Chris Rock tweeted an ad for the annual show, writing, “The #Oscars. The White BET Awards.”
January 16
Jada Pinkett Smith
Pinkett Smith was the first to tweet about boycotting the Oscars, writing, “At the Oscars … people of color are always welcomed to give out awards … even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of color refrain from participating all together?” Pinkett Smith’s husband, Will Smith, was snubbed at this year’s ceremony after landing a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Concussion."...
-snip-
The ellipsis ("dot dot dot") within this comment were written by the author of that article.
"BET" - Black Entertainment Television [network]
****
From http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/01/19/463590839/diversity-in-hollywood-heres-what-critics-are-saying-about-round-2-of-oscarsowhi Diversity In Hollywood: Here's What Critics Are Saying About Round 2 Of #OscarSoWhite
Updated January 19, 2016·7:25 PM ET, Published January 19, 2016·12:32 PM ET
"Last week saw the unhappy reprise of #OscarSoWhite, a Twitter hashtag that's becoming something of an annual tradition skewering the lack of diversity in nominations for the Academy Awards. Many fans and critics are frustrated — to say the least — that all of this year's nominees in acting categories are white, citing Michael B. Jordan's performance in Creed as one of a handful of expected shoo-ins for recognition.
Now, thousands are pledging to boycott watching the awards ceremony on television, and Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee have publicly stated that they will not attend.
We've rounded up some of the most thoughtful responses to #OscarsSoWhite, shedding light on the history of race in Hollywood, how Oscars voting actually works, and how the academy could respond to the backlash.
Eliza Berman of Time says actors of color seem to be receiving deserved recognition from everywhere but the academy:
"If this year's field feels like déjà vu all over again, that's because there's virtually no improvement to speak of. The lack of nods to actors of color — and stories about people of color — comes despite Golden Globe nominations for Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation) and Will Smith (Concussion); despite the critical success of Beasts of No Nation, Straight Outta Compton and Creed, not to mention widespread accolades calling the latter's director, Ryan Coogler, one of the most promising new talents in the industry."
Todd VanDerWerff at Vox delves into the context of diversity within the movie industry:
"Diversity, in short, isn't about simply including as many nonwhite men as possible. It's about acknowledging that white men don't have a lock on good stories, and letting others' stories be told as well as possible. The Oscars improve at this conversation in fits and starts with every year. This year was much better in terms of recognizing films about women than the past several years have been, for instance. But the awards still have a long way to go. And as the film industry's most prestigious prize, simply bestowing their stamp upon a film automatically makes it more viable.""...
****
From https://twitter.com/hashtag/oscarsowhite
Sunny Hostin Verified account @SunnyHostin · Jan 19, 2016
Why #OscarSoWhite matters: When we praise and reward certain stories and images we reveal what we as a society value http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-0119-why-the-oscarssowhite-fuss-matters-20160119-column.html
**
Tomoo Terada, January 19, 2016
@Tomoo_Terada @tvanita @ReignOfApril @TheWrap
"in ALL the histoy of #OscarsSoWhite by @TheAcademy not a single #AsianAmerican has won any Oscar for acting.
**
April @ReignOfApril · Jan 19
"April Retweeted Tomoo Terada
It should not be this way. That is why #OscarSoWhite is about all marginalized communities, to include AsianAmers."
**
Mashable, January 20, 2016
"Latino, Asian and Native American actors aren't at the Oscars, either
Diversity of all kinds is sorely missing in the movie industry."
****
From http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/19/1470971/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-s-Chile#view-story Tuesday's Chile By Black Kos
Tuesday Jan 19, 2016
A comment on the state of People of Color in the Arts Commentary by Chitown Kev
..."Demographic trends show that America is becoming an increasingly more racially diverse society and that racial diversity will affect everything from politics to whom we love to high and low culture.
As that happens, people of color will increasingly be the producers of literature, art, theater, movies, popular music, and even the “higher forms” of these arts (i.e. classical music and opera, independent and artsy films).
As it stands now, so much of the literary/art criticism field that appears in the daily newspapers, magazines, and, now, on “mainstream” internet blogs seems to be very, very white.
There are exceptions, of course (e.g. Darryl Pickney at The New York Review of Books, Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times...books are really my subject, so those were the first two names off the top of my head). But the idea of the dominant white class continuing to pass artistic judgment over the work of an increasingly racially diverse art world simply isn’t going to fly.
And yes, that should also mean that an increasingly racially diverse class of literary, art, and music critics should (and will, I think) pass judgment on all the arts, in whatever form the arts of the present and the future take on. And while people of color may generally see things in certain cultural productions that white people don’t, that should in no way demean the quality or the standards of the criticism."...
-snip-
Comment from that daily kos diary's discussion thread:
from Yasuragi, Jan 19 • 05:28:14 PM
"As happened when I watched Hustle and Flow, I was about five minutes into Straight Outta Compton when I knew, without doubt, that it was written by white people.
I’ve ranted about this here before, but twenty-five years ago I was watching brilliant black writers get shunted aside in TV because of doubts that they could “accurately depict” the white world — and most of these shows were 95-99% white.
And no matter how often I challenged why white writers thought they could so “accurately depict” the few black characters in these shows, I couldn’t get through. I’d holler and bang on the desk and say that the white world was virtually all anyone saw on TV, and that they were casting off excellent writers who’d been watching that stuff all their lives.
Nothing changed.
That world that I was in is but a mote in the eye of the larger Hollywood mindset. And since Hollywood is so locked into going with “what works” (producer-speak for cannibalizing oft-told tales and recycling successful films in fewer and fewer years since the original [or, for that matter, the previous recycling]), to them, white writers-directors-lead actors, etc. — that’s what works. They’re walking mummies with no clue how desiccated and dysfunctional they are. They’re the real walking dead. They just don’t know when it’s time to lie down.
...But I’m not bitter. ;)"
**
[response to another blogger's question how did Yasuragi know that the main writers for the movie "Straight Outta Compton" were White]
Yasuragi, Jan 20 • 01:09:38 PM
..."It was the extreme use of readily recognizable vernacular. And the complete lack of any variation on that — or any real, deep insight into their characters. The superficiality of it, and the fact that they spoke virtually nothing but cliche “gangsta” was what made me so sure. It was like watching a bad and racist comedy routine mocking “blackspeak.” Same thing with Hustle & Flow. They never looked into the characters at all, and every line was a line we’d heard a thousand times — like white kids would do mocking culture they don’t understand. Only this was writers supposed to be representing the experiences of real people — people who had and continue to have a powerful effect on our current culture.
NWA was so much more profound (really more than any other hip-hop group of that time) than that dialogue revealed. Their language was so much more intricate and precise — I couldn’t buy that they’d write that way but speak in such obvious jargon.
Granted, dialogue was my stock in trade, and I pay extra attention, but it was so jarring, I had to make a real effort to stay with the film.
I hope that makes sense. And I don’t mean to cast aspersions on anyone who didn’t find it so. But compare it to something like Barbershop. Or Death at a Funeral. Or any good film with fully three-dimensional characters, really. It just didn’t wash to me."
****
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/spike-lee-goes-off-on-the-oscars-on-good-morning-america_us_569fa0e3e4b0fca5ba760ca5
..."For [African American movie producer Spike] Lee, the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations is just another example of the systemic problems in Hollywood as a whole.
"We can't say hocus pocus, presto changeo, and the [Academy] membership is going to change over night... This whole Academy thing is a misdirection play... this goes further than the Academy Awards, it has to go to the gatekeepers."
-snip-
Comment from this article's discussion thread
from Peter Miller [in response to another commenter]
"... Spike said that 'more diversity' is needed among the Studio Executives who ACTUALLY DECIDE which (black, or minority) movies get made, as well as which (black, or minority) actors get hired to work on them.
Btw, the 'stereotypical movies about black culture' that you mentioned.... get APPROVED by rooms full of 'white male' executives.
So 'changing ourselves' will not get more (high quality) black movies made in Hollywood.
Because what Spike is basically saying is... if there are 10x different scripts available for 10x different Hollywood Studio Execs to choose from... only 1 single Studio Exec would choose to 'greenlight' a script filled with minority actors that was the same caliber as "HBO: The Wire", or "HBO: Game of Thrones"...
.... meanwhile the other 9x Studio Execs would want 9x different re-makes of the 'Big Momma's House'-types of movies, instead.
So Spike is basically saying 'If we want to see more people of color represented in the Oscar nominations.... then we gotta address & fix the real problem, in order to get different results"
-snip-
The ellipsis within this comment were written by the blogger.
****
From https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/lupita-nyongo-just-schooled-everyone-154200350.html Lupita Nyong'o Just Schooled Everyone on the Oscars and Racial Prejudice by Mathew Rodriguez, January 20, 2016
"The #OscarsSoWhite was just a hashtag last year. This year, it feels like a movement. And the latest person to join the movement is Lupita Nyong'o, whose performance in the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave earned her the Academy Award for best supporting actress.
Nyong'o posted a statement late Tuesday night to her Instagram.
"I am disappointed by the lack of inclusion in this year's Academy Awards nominations," Nyong'o wrote, adding that the nominations spurred her to think about unconscious prejudice and what is considered prestigious.
"The awards should not dictate the terms of art in our modern society, but rather be a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today," she wrote. "I stand with my peers who are calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of the people who tell them." "
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post provides excerpts from a few selected online blog posts and articles about the lack of diversity in Hollywood movie production and the fact that for the second consecutive year no Black actors or actresses were nominated for Academy Awards.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and sociological purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/01/update-motion-picture-academy-takes.html for a pancocojams post on Update: Motion Picture Academy Takes Historic Actions To Increase Its Members Diversity.
****
FEATURED COMMENTS ABOUT THESE SUBJECTS
With the exception of the first two excerpts given for background, these excerpts are given in no particular order.
From http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/oscars-2016-boycott-a-timeline-of-the-controversy-w162120
..."The 2016 Oscar nominees were announced on Thursday, January 14, marking the second year in a row that every single acting nominee was white. The outrage over the exclusion of people of color prompted the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to start trending on Twitter.
This sparked a chain of events that led to actress Jada Pinkett Smith to call for a boycott of this year’s Academy Awards. See the timeline of reactions:
January 15
Chris Rock
Staying out of the controversy while still acknowledging it, Oscars host Chris Rock tweeted an ad for the annual show, writing, “The #Oscars. The White BET Awards.”
January 16
Jada Pinkett Smith
Pinkett Smith was the first to tweet about boycotting the Oscars, writing, “At the Oscars … people of color are always welcomed to give out awards … even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of color refrain from participating all together?” Pinkett Smith’s husband, Will Smith, was snubbed at this year’s ceremony after landing a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Concussion."...
-snip-
The ellipsis ("dot dot dot") within this comment were written by the author of that article.
"BET" - Black Entertainment Television [network]
****
From http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/01/19/463590839/diversity-in-hollywood-heres-what-critics-are-saying-about-round-2-of-oscarsowhi Diversity In Hollywood: Here's What Critics Are Saying About Round 2 Of #OscarSoWhite
Updated January 19, 2016·7:25 PM ET, Published January 19, 2016·12:32 PM ET
"Last week saw the unhappy reprise of #OscarSoWhite, a Twitter hashtag that's becoming something of an annual tradition skewering the lack of diversity in nominations for the Academy Awards. Many fans and critics are frustrated — to say the least — that all of this year's nominees in acting categories are white, citing Michael B. Jordan's performance in Creed as one of a handful of expected shoo-ins for recognition.
Now, thousands are pledging to boycott watching the awards ceremony on television, and Jada Pinkett-Smith and Spike Lee have publicly stated that they will not attend.
We've rounded up some of the most thoughtful responses to #OscarsSoWhite, shedding light on the history of race in Hollywood, how Oscars voting actually works, and how the academy could respond to the backlash.
Eliza Berman of Time says actors of color seem to be receiving deserved recognition from everywhere but the academy:
"If this year's field feels like déjà vu all over again, that's because there's virtually no improvement to speak of. The lack of nods to actors of color — and stories about people of color — comes despite Golden Globe nominations for Idris Elba (Beasts of No Nation) and Will Smith (Concussion); despite the critical success of Beasts of No Nation, Straight Outta Compton and Creed, not to mention widespread accolades calling the latter's director, Ryan Coogler, one of the most promising new talents in the industry."
Todd VanDerWerff at Vox delves into the context of diversity within the movie industry:
"Diversity, in short, isn't about simply including as many nonwhite men as possible. It's about acknowledging that white men don't have a lock on good stories, and letting others' stories be told as well as possible. The Oscars improve at this conversation in fits and starts with every year. This year was much better in terms of recognizing films about women than the past several years have been, for instance. But the awards still have a long way to go. And as the film industry's most prestigious prize, simply bestowing their stamp upon a film automatically makes it more viable.""...
****
From https://twitter.com/hashtag/oscarsowhite
Sunny Hostin Verified account @SunnyHostin · Jan 19, 2016
Why #OscarSoWhite matters: When we praise and reward certain stories and images we reveal what we as a society value http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-0119-why-the-oscarssowhite-fuss-matters-20160119-column.html
**
Tomoo Terada, January 19, 2016
@Tomoo_Terada @tvanita @ReignOfApril @TheWrap
"in ALL the histoy of #OscarsSoWhite by @TheAcademy not a single #AsianAmerican has won any Oscar for acting.
**
April @ReignOfApril · Jan 19
"April Retweeted Tomoo Terada
It should not be this way. That is why #OscarSoWhite is about all marginalized communities, to include AsianAmers."
**
Mashable, January 20, 2016
"Latino, Asian and Native American actors aren't at the Oscars, either
Diversity of all kinds is sorely missing in the movie industry."
****
From http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/19/1470971/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-s-Chile#view-story Tuesday's Chile By Black Kos
Tuesday Jan 19, 2016
A comment on the state of People of Color in the Arts Commentary by Chitown Kev
..."Demographic trends show that America is becoming an increasingly more racially diverse society and that racial diversity will affect everything from politics to whom we love to high and low culture.
As that happens, people of color will increasingly be the producers of literature, art, theater, movies, popular music, and even the “higher forms” of these arts (i.e. classical music and opera, independent and artsy films).
As it stands now, so much of the literary/art criticism field that appears in the daily newspapers, magazines, and, now, on “mainstream” internet blogs seems to be very, very white.
There are exceptions, of course (e.g. Darryl Pickney at The New York Review of Books, Michiko Kakutani at The New York Times...books are really my subject, so those were the first two names off the top of my head). But the idea of the dominant white class continuing to pass artistic judgment over the work of an increasingly racially diverse art world simply isn’t going to fly.
And yes, that should also mean that an increasingly racially diverse class of literary, art, and music critics should (and will, I think) pass judgment on all the arts, in whatever form the arts of the present and the future take on. And while people of color may generally see things in certain cultural productions that white people don’t, that should in no way demean the quality or the standards of the criticism."...
-snip-
Comment from that daily kos diary's discussion thread:
from Yasuragi, Jan 19 • 05:28:14 PM
"As happened when I watched Hustle and Flow, I was about five minutes into Straight Outta Compton when I knew, without doubt, that it was written by white people.
I’ve ranted about this here before, but twenty-five years ago I was watching brilliant black writers get shunted aside in TV because of doubts that they could “accurately depict” the white world — and most of these shows were 95-99% white.
And no matter how often I challenged why white writers thought they could so “accurately depict” the few black characters in these shows, I couldn’t get through. I’d holler and bang on the desk and say that the white world was virtually all anyone saw on TV, and that they were casting off excellent writers who’d been watching that stuff all their lives.
Nothing changed.
That world that I was in is but a mote in the eye of the larger Hollywood mindset. And since Hollywood is so locked into going with “what works” (producer-speak for cannibalizing oft-told tales and recycling successful films in fewer and fewer years since the original [or, for that matter, the previous recycling]), to them, white writers-directors-lead actors, etc. — that’s what works. They’re walking mummies with no clue how desiccated and dysfunctional they are. They’re the real walking dead. They just don’t know when it’s time to lie down.
...But I’m not bitter. ;)"
**
[response to another blogger's question how did Yasuragi know that the main writers for the movie "Straight Outta Compton" were White]
Yasuragi, Jan 20 • 01:09:38 PM
..."It was the extreme use of readily recognizable vernacular. And the complete lack of any variation on that — or any real, deep insight into their characters. The superficiality of it, and the fact that they spoke virtually nothing but cliche “gangsta” was what made me so sure. It was like watching a bad and racist comedy routine mocking “blackspeak.” Same thing with Hustle & Flow. They never looked into the characters at all, and every line was a line we’d heard a thousand times — like white kids would do mocking culture they don’t understand. Only this was writers supposed to be representing the experiences of real people — people who had and continue to have a powerful effect on our current culture.
NWA was so much more profound (really more than any other hip-hop group of that time) than that dialogue revealed. Their language was so much more intricate and precise — I couldn’t buy that they’d write that way but speak in such obvious jargon.
Granted, dialogue was my stock in trade, and I pay extra attention, but it was so jarring, I had to make a real effort to stay with the film.
I hope that makes sense. And I don’t mean to cast aspersions on anyone who didn’t find it so. But compare it to something like Barbershop. Or Death at a Funeral. Or any good film with fully three-dimensional characters, really. It just didn’t wash to me."
****
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/spike-lee-goes-off-on-the-oscars-on-good-morning-america_us_569fa0e3e4b0fca5ba760ca5
..."For [African American movie producer Spike] Lee, the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations is just another example of the systemic problems in Hollywood as a whole.
"We can't say hocus pocus, presto changeo, and the [Academy] membership is going to change over night... This whole Academy thing is a misdirection play... this goes further than the Academy Awards, it has to go to the gatekeepers."
-snip-
Comment from this article's discussion thread
from Peter Miller [in response to another commenter]
"... Spike said that 'more diversity' is needed among the Studio Executives who ACTUALLY DECIDE which (black, or minority) movies get made, as well as which (black, or minority) actors get hired to work on them.
Btw, the 'stereotypical movies about black culture' that you mentioned.... get APPROVED by rooms full of 'white male' executives.
So 'changing ourselves' will not get more (high quality) black movies made in Hollywood.
Because what Spike is basically saying is... if there are 10x different scripts available for 10x different Hollywood Studio Execs to choose from... only 1 single Studio Exec would choose to 'greenlight' a script filled with minority actors that was the same caliber as "HBO: The Wire", or "HBO: Game of Thrones"...
.... meanwhile the other 9x Studio Execs would want 9x different re-makes of the 'Big Momma's House'-types of movies, instead.
So Spike is basically saying 'If we want to see more people of color represented in the Oscar nominations.... then we gotta address & fix the real problem, in order to get different results"
-snip-
The ellipsis within this comment were written by the blogger.
****
From https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/lupita-nyongo-just-schooled-everyone-154200350.html Lupita Nyong'o Just Schooled Everyone on the Oscars and Racial Prejudice by Mathew Rodriguez, January 20, 2016
"The #OscarsSoWhite was just a hashtag last year. This year, it feels like a movement. And the latest person to join the movement is Lupita Nyong'o, whose performance in the 2013 film 12 Years a Slave earned her the Academy Award for best supporting actress.
Nyong'o posted a statement late Tuesday night to her Instagram.
"I am disappointed by the lack of inclusion in this year's Academy Awards nominations," Nyong'o wrote, adding that the nominations spurred her to think about unconscious prejudice and what is considered prestigious.
"The awards should not dictate the terms of art in our modern society, but rather be a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today," she wrote. "I stand with my peers who are calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of the people who tell them." "
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Speeches & Songs From The January 18, 2016 #MLKnow Event
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post provides information about the #MLKnow event which was held on January 18, 2016 in Harlem, New York City. Three readings and two song performances from that event are showcased in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who organized and participated in this event. Thanks also to the video publishers of this event on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE #MLKnow EVENT
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ryan-cooglers-mlknow-event-was-the-perfect-answer-to-oscarsowhite_us_569d6c6ce4b04c8137614284
Ryan Coogler's #MLKNOW Event Was The Pinnacle Of Art And Activism
It was a beautiful look at the past, present, and future of black Hollywood. by Zeba Blay, 01/19/2016
"Hollywood, please take note.
Yesterday, inside Harlem's historic Riverside Church, history was made. Ryan Coogler, director of "Creed" and founder of the activist collective Black Out For Human Rights, organized an inspiring array of black Hollywood talent to recite powerful speeches from Civil Rights heroes, in honor of Martin Luther King Day.
The event, called #MLKNOW, was not intended as an answer to the unbearable whiteness of Hollywood, but rather an opportunity to bring awareness to police violence, mass incarceration, and the need for systemic change. Still, it couldn't have been more poignantly timed. It came just one week after Oscar nomination announcements rekindled the #OscarSoWhite hashtag. It was, unintentionally, the perfect antidote to the complete lack of diversity of this year's noms...
Watching the livestream of #MLKNOW on Monday evening was to watch an overwhelming expression of black excellence. Of black power. One by one, talented actors and musicians took to the podium to recite rousing, moving, and eerily relevant speeches from some of the greatest black minds of the last hundred years...
Boycotting the Oscars might be one way to get the message across, but what made #MLKNOW such a powerful response to Hollywood and kingmaking institutions like the Academy Awards was its dignified subtlety. Here were a dozen great black actors who were using their talent to effect real change in their own community and, while doing so, they called out the hypocrisy of Hollywood. Coogler and company proved that #OscarsSoWhite isn't just a ridiculous byproduct of Hollywood's exclusion of black talent -- it's Hollywood's greatest shame. And they did so, simply by existing in their brilliance.
-snip-
A video of the entire show is given with that article.
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES FROM THAT EVENT
These examples are given in no particular order.
Example #1: Chris Rock MLKnow - Reading Of James Baldwin "My Dungeon Shook"
LesGrossman2016 Published on Jan 18, 2016
Chris Rock brought down a packed house in Harlem’s Riverside Church with an impassioned reading from James Baldwin as part of the day-long MLKNow celebration on Martin Luther King Day. The event brought together a who’s-who of African-American activists and celebrities including Harry Belafonte, Octavia Spencer, Jussie Smollett, Lin Manuel Miranda and Anika Noni Rose. Rock took the stage and read from Baldwin’s 1963 “My Dungeon Shook,” expressing what it is like to live as a black man in white America.
“My Dungeon Shook” is a letter written to Baldwin’s nephew — also named James — where he encourages his nephew to not give up hope. “Well, the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar: and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations. You, don’t be afraid. I said that it was intended that you should perish in the ghetto, perish by never being allowed to go behind the white man’s definitions, by never being allowed to spell your proper name. You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention; and, by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality,” Baldwin wrote. “But these men are your brothers—your lost, younger brothers. And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it. For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.”
-snip-
This summary was reformatted for this post.
****
Example #2: India Arie Sings I Am Light #MLKNow
Broadway Black Published on Jan 19, 2016
The free #MLKNow event by @UnitedBlackout gave some stellar performances and speeches. Including this performance by India Arie with two special guests she did not rehearse with singing I Am Light
****
Example #3: Andre Holland Recites Malcolm X Speech #MLKNOW
Paul Fant, Published on Jan 19, 2016
****
Example #4: Jesse Smollett Performs Strange Fruit at #MLKNOW
Paul Fant, Published on Jan 19, 2016
http://www.pabloproductionsllc.com
****
Example #5: Condola Rashad Reads Shirley Chisholm's Presidential Campaign Announcement of 1972
Broadway BlackPublished on Jan 19, 2016
The free #MLKNow event by @UnitedBlackout gave some stellar performances and speeches. Including this speech by Shirley Chisholm from her Presidential Campaign Announcement of 1972 read by Condola Rashad
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This post provides information about the #MLKnow event which was held on January 18, 2016 in Harlem, New York City. Three readings and two song performances from that event are showcased in this post.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who organized and participated in this event. Thanks also to the video publishers of this event on YouTube.
****
INFORMATION ABOUT THE #MLKnow EVENT
From http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ryan-cooglers-mlknow-event-was-the-perfect-answer-to-oscarsowhite_us_569d6c6ce4b04c8137614284
Ryan Coogler's #MLKNOW Event Was The Pinnacle Of Art And Activism
It was a beautiful look at the past, present, and future of black Hollywood. by Zeba Blay, 01/19/2016
"Hollywood, please take note.
Yesterday, inside Harlem's historic Riverside Church, history was made. Ryan Coogler, director of "Creed" and founder of the activist collective Black Out For Human Rights, organized an inspiring array of black Hollywood talent to recite powerful speeches from Civil Rights heroes, in honor of Martin Luther King Day.
The event, called #MLKNOW, was not intended as an answer to the unbearable whiteness of Hollywood, but rather an opportunity to bring awareness to police violence, mass incarceration, and the need for systemic change. Still, it couldn't have been more poignantly timed. It came just one week after Oscar nomination announcements rekindled the #OscarSoWhite hashtag. It was, unintentionally, the perfect antidote to the complete lack of diversity of this year's noms...
Watching the livestream of #MLKNOW on Monday evening was to watch an overwhelming expression of black excellence. Of black power. One by one, talented actors and musicians took to the podium to recite rousing, moving, and eerily relevant speeches from some of the greatest black minds of the last hundred years...
Boycotting the Oscars might be one way to get the message across, but what made #MLKNOW such a powerful response to Hollywood and kingmaking institutions like the Academy Awards was its dignified subtlety. Here were a dozen great black actors who were using their talent to effect real change in their own community and, while doing so, they called out the hypocrisy of Hollywood. Coogler and company proved that #OscarsSoWhite isn't just a ridiculous byproduct of Hollywood's exclusion of black talent -- it's Hollywood's greatest shame. And they did so, simply by existing in their brilliance.
-snip-
A video of the entire show is given with that article.
****
SHOWCASE EXAMPLES FROM THAT EVENT
These examples are given in no particular order.
Example #1: Chris Rock MLKnow - Reading Of James Baldwin "My Dungeon Shook"
LesGrossman2016 Published on Jan 18, 2016
Chris Rock brought down a packed house in Harlem’s Riverside Church with an impassioned reading from James Baldwin as part of the day-long MLKNow celebration on Martin Luther King Day. The event brought together a who’s-who of African-American activists and celebrities including Harry Belafonte, Octavia Spencer, Jussie Smollett, Lin Manuel Miranda and Anika Noni Rose. Rock took the stage and read from Baldwin’s 1963 “My Dungeon Shook,” expressing what it is like to live as a black man in white America.
“My Dungeon Shook” is a letter written to Baldwin’s nephew — also named James — where he encourages his nephew to not give up hope. “Well, the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar: and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations. You, don’t be afraid. I said that it was intended that you should perish in the ghetto, perish by never being allowed to go behind the white man’s definitions, by never being allowed to spell your proper name. You have, and many of us have, defeated this intention; and, by a terrible law, a terrible paradox, those innocents who believed that your imprisonment made them safe are losing their grasp of reality,” Baldwin wrote. “But these men are your brothers—your lost, younger brothers. And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it. For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.”
-snip-
This summary was reformatted for this post.
****
Example #2: India Arie Sings I Am Light #MLKNow
Broadway Black Published on Jan 19, 2016
The free #MLKNow event by @UnitedBlackout gave some stellar performances and speeches. Including this performance by India Arie with two special guests she did not rehearse with singing I Am Light
****
Example #3: Andre Holland Recites Malcolm X Speech #MLKNOW
Paul Fant, Published on Jan 19, 2016
****
Example #4: Jesse Smollett Performs Strange Fruit at #MLKNOW
Paul Fant, Published on Jan 19, 2016
http://www.pabloproductionsllc.com
****
Example #5: Condola Rashad Reads Shirley Chisholm's Presidential Campaign Announcement of 1972
Broadway BlackPublished on Jan 19, 2016
The free #MLKNow event by @UnitedBlackout gave some stellar performances and speeches. Including this speech by Shirley Chisholm from her Presidential Campaign Announcement of 1972 read by Condola Rashad
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
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