The Importance Of Diversity In Oscar-Qualified Films

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The lack of diversity in Oscar-nominated films has been a highly controversial issue this year. People are beginning to address the issue in numerous articles and videos. One of which is “Oscarssowhite: How to win an Oscar if you’re black (chart).” By the Hollywood reporters staff published on Jan 29, 2016. In the article THR staff confronted the issue in their article explaining that when black people get nominated for the Oscars it’s usually for playing stereotypical roles like kingpins, addicts, slaves and maids. For instance Jamie Foxx who was the lead actor in the film Ray in 2004 played the role of a drug addicted musician, or Mo’Nique who was the supporting actress in the film precious in 2009 and her role was a violent single parent who was unemployed and a con artist. When black people play in top rated movies that’s sends positive messages of African Americans, those actors aren’t nominated for Oscars. Why do the Oscars commonly nominate black people who play stereotypical roles? This question is unanswered, among social media and has caused a lot debate. …show more content…
The video is slightly a satire, but it actually happened this year. When “Straight Outta Compton” was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and the nominees are Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berlof who are the screenwriters and both of them are Caucasian.
There has been an ongoing conversation of industry people beginning to question the lack of racial diversity of the nominations at the Oscars because black people are not being nominated for top-rated movies produced by and starring African-Americans. The overall message is how white actors get nominated for doing the