Solving the #OscarsSoWhite Controversy

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Prepper247

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfN_u9iDc10

The game thing makes a lot of sense. The solution too!

Wonder what Chris rock will have to say about all this when he hosts.
 

sky14kemea

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Jun 26, 2008
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Prepper247 said:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfN_u9iDc10

The game thing makes a lot of sense. The solution too!

Wonder what Chris rock will have to say about all this when he hosts.
Sorry but I'm not sure what you want us to discuss here? Is there anyway you could expand your Opening Post to add more detail and what you want this thread to talk about?
 

JimB

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Prepper247 said:
The game thing makes a lot of sense. The solution too!
It makes sense but, I feel, misses the point. You can't really compare an exercise in industry self-congratulation like the Academy Awards to basketball because basketball is objective. It's mathematical. It's all about verifiable numbers that have no room for interpretation, whereas the Oscars are about a council primarily (if not exclusively; I'd have to check) of white men bestowing recognition upon their industry according to very predictable yet still fairly arbitrary standards that seem to exclude black creators whose work isn't about the oppression black people face but overcome, which I am cynical enough to suspect the overcoming is necessary because it gives the white council members permission to not feel guilty since racism is clearly over now.

Likewise, you don't really solve the problem of black people and their contributions to the arts being ignored or dismissed by white authorities by segregating them into a "separate but equal" Oscars. That's kind of the opposite of integration and of recognition, and I really hope that YouTuber whose video you linked is taking the piss somehow rather than actually thinking giving the Academy permission to ignore black filmmakers on the grounds that they'll get their own awards anyway is a solution to the problem at hand.
 

Something Amyss

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JimB said:
The guy is a comedian. However, the points he's making are ones other, less comedic YouTubers have also made.

Leaves me somewhat confused as to the goal of thread. Since Ecapist threads are meant to have discussion value, I'm going to assume there's something more than lolsarcasm going on.
 

The Bucket

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JimB said:
Prepper247 said:
The game thing makes a lot of sense. The solution too!
It makes sense but, I feel, misses the point. You can't really compare an exercise in industry self-congratulation like the Academy Awards to basketball because basketball is objective. It's mathematical. It's all about verifiable numbers that have no room for interpretation, whereas the Oscars are about a council primarily (if not exclusively; I'd have to check) of white men bestowing recognition upon their industry according to very predictable yet still fairly arbitrary standards that seem to exclude black creators whose work isn't about the oppression black people face but overcome, which I am cynical enough to suspect the overcoming is necessary because it gives the white council members permission to not feel guilty since racism is clearly over now.

Likewise, you don't really solve the problem of black people and their contributions to the arts being ignored or dismissed by white authorities by segregating them into a "separate but equal" Oscars. That's kind of the opposite of integration and of recognition, and I really hope that YouTuber whose video you linked is taking the piss somehow rather than actually thinking giving the Academy permission to ignore black filmmakers on the grounds that they'll get their own awards anyway is a solution to the problem at hand.
My net crapped out on me before I could finish the video, but the next video on his playlist being about America needing to celebrate White Trash History month strongly suggests there's a strong satirical aspect to this. Which makes me even more confused about what we're meant to discuss
 

Zombie_Fish

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JimB said:
the Oscars are about a council primarily (if not exclusively; I'd have to check) of white men
I decided to check this for myself: The Academy don't publish details themselves from what I can see, but a study by the Los Angeles Times in 2012 found that the Academy was 94% white and 77% male[footnote]http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/oscars/la-et-unmasking-oscar-academy-project-20120219-story.html[/footnote].
 

Something Amyss

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The Bucket said:
My net crapped out on me before I could finish the video, but the next video on his playlist being about America needing to celebrate White Trash History month strongly suggests there's a strong satirical aspect to this. Which makes me even more confused about what we're meant to discuss
Yeah, I clicked the link and immediately recognised him as a comedian. I don't know what his personal views are, so maybe he's spoofing the lack of diversity, but from some of his prior stuff I'd guess not.
 

JimB

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Something Amyss said:
The guy is a comedian.
I was pretty sure right around the time he propped the statuette up over his crotch like a penis, but as you say, his satirical views are ones I've heard earnestly espoused.
 

Something Amyss

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JimB said:
Something Amyss said:
The guy is a comedian.
I was pretty sure right around the time he propped the statuette up over his crotch like a penis, but as you say, his satirical views are ones I've heard earnestly espoused.
Yeah, that's why I decided to clarify. Poe's Law is totally a thing, and once you've heard a few people use the NBA example seriously, it's fairly easy to jump the gun.
 

Ihateregistering1

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Interestingly, the Economist did a piece on this a few weeks ago, and they actually found that Blacks gets nominated for Oscars roughly in line with what their proportion of the US population is, and, in fact, they actually win Oscars at a higher proportion of what their population percentage is.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2016/01/film-and-race

The real discrepancy between population % and oscar representation is with Hispanic and Asian actors.
 

JimB

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Ihateregistering1 said:
Interestingly, the Economist did a piece on this a few weeks ago, and they actually found that [black people] gets nominated for Oscars roughly in line with what their proportion of the US population is, and, in fact, they actually win Oscars at a higher proportion of what their population percentage is.
But again, that's mistaking the issue. No one is arguing that black people deserve more nominations because the nominations have to suit racial demographics within the US; they're arguing that good movies by and starring black people have been snubbed in favor of white movies, because the black movies didn't follow the Oscar-bait formula for what makes an Oscar-worthy black movie (be about slavery/racial oppression that the hero overcomes so everyone can feel good that racism is over now). It's about the Academy congratulating itself for the fine work it's done this year and telling the world that it doesn't think any black people have done fine work in 2015.
 

maninahat

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Richard Gozin-Yu said:
Ihateregistering1 said:
Interestingly, the Economist did a piece on this a few weeks ago, and they actually found that Blacks gets nominated for Oscars roughly in line with what their proportion of the US population is, and, in fact, they actually win Oscars at a higher proportion of what their population percentage is.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2016/01/film-and-race

The real discrepancy between population % and oscar representation is with Hispanic and Asian actors.
Any discussion about supposed bias has to rely on this kind of data, proving first and foremost than any supposed bias leads to bad results. Clearly black people as a group aren't suffering in this one particular arena, and I didn't expect such a kick in the balls for Asians and Hispanics. What's the deal there? An issue of roles being offered, or more?
That's one factor. Movies are disproportionately made about white people - white men in particular - and so POC are predominately offered minor support roles. The movie industry is one of the few where you are allowed to openly discriminate on race. The logic behind it is that a casting agency needs to be able to say "white actors only" when casting for, say, a Teddy Roosevelt biopic. This by itself creates a problem because many of the most, famous iconic people in US history were white people (black people weren't allowed to be presidents, generals or scientists), so that in itself creates a bias. Writers and film creators themselves are disproportionately white, so there is an unconscious bias there as directors and writers pick subjects for films that speak to themselves the most.

The rules also has the effect of permitting a studio to default casting to white actors only, even for movies when race would be irrelevant/arbitrary for the lead roles. This is down a mixture of the studio's own implicit prejudices, and actual overt racism based on the fear that audiences won't want to see a movie with too many Hispanics or black people.

Finally, award panels are disproportionately made up of elderly white guys, and have a very specific preference for certain movies. Unless any black people happen to have starred in any recent biopics about slavery, they just aren't going to fit into the "historical figure overcomes personal conflicts to bring about societal change" niche that these guys love to throw awards at.
 

Neverhoodian

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The Academy Awards are a joke. They deliberately snub entire genres like fantasy and sci-fi because they're not artsy-fartsy enough for them. No amount of gender/racial representation is going to change that.

Honestly, the best course of action would be for everyone to ignore it completely until it fades into irrelevancy and ultimately disappears.
 

Thaluikhain

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Neverhoodian said:
The Academy Awards are a joke. They deliberately snub entire genres like fantasy and sci-fi because they're not artsy-fartsy enough for them. No amount of gender/racial representation is going to change that.

Honestly, the best course of action would be for everyone to ignore it completely until it fades into irrelevancy and ultimately disappears.
Well, yes, but lack of gender and racial representation is part of a much bigger problem.

(Having said that, the AA fading away would not be a bad thing)
 

KissingSunlight

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I think it's time to call controversies like #OscarsSoWhite for what it is: First World Racism. Like First World Problems, FWR are mild grievances built up to sound like major problems.

Seriously, any and all awards and lists of "Best" art are subjective. So What! If your favorite movie or actor didn't get nominated by an award show. It's not the end of the world. If you liked the movie before the Oscar nominations were announced, they will still entertain you regardless of how many nominations it received.

I think the basketball team analogy is an appropriate one. I feel that the people who are complaining about the racial makeup of the acting nominees are being racist. Seriously, would it be appropriate if next year all acting categories were made up of black actors, and people would start hashtags complaining that #OscarsSoBlack?

There is an honest discussion could be had if you think a certain black actor or actress should have been nominated this year. Like I said earlier, awards shows are subjective. There is always room for debating who is or isn't the best. If you are honestly concerned about who The Academy Awards constantly discriminate against, you need to start with comedies and genre movies. Also, their insistence of not nominating voice acting performances. (Seriously, the casts of Inside Out and Anomalisa should have nominated this year.)

Let's be honest. There wasn't really a great or note-worthy acting performance from black actors this year. There was no major snub. This controversy was brought up by people who are invested in political identity. Which I think is a racist philosophy that has caused more harm than good.
 

Ihateregistering1

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JimB said:
they're arguing that good movies by and starring black people have been snubbed in favor of white movies, because the black movies didn't follow the Oscar-bait formula for what makes an Oscar-worthy black movie (be about slavery/racial oppression that the hero overcomes so everyone can feel good that racism is over now).
Except what constitutes a "good" movie (or acting) is subjective, so that argument doesn't really apply.

Also, if you actually look at the list of black actors/actresses who've won Academy awards, most of their movies didn't involve slavery and race wasn't even a primary part of the plot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_black_Academy_Award_winners_and_nominees