The unbearable whiteness of the Oscars: The sequel

I've been deluged with mail taking issue with the story I wrote after Tuesday's Oscar nominations decrying the fact that, once again, the Oscars were an all-white affair, leaving African American and Latino actors and filmmakers in the lurch. Put simply, the fault lies not with the Oscars, but with the Hollywood studio elite who don't have any people of color in their ranks, which clearly has a bearing on why they rarely greenlight Oscar-friendly dramas with any substantial roles for blacks or Latinos.

As for the reaction from readers, let's just say that I suspect Christopher Hitchens must've gotten the same kind of mail after he mocked Mother Teresa. Although I've received some warm letters of support, by and large the response from readers has been blunt, dismissive, vituperative and, well, unfriendly. A fair example would be this note from D. Whitehead in Chicago, who said:

I would just like to know what was the reason behind you writing this Minority Report of Hollywood? Aren't there enough black civil rights leaders to handle this without you sticking your nose where it doesn't belong? What about the dominance in the sports by African Americans? You ever watch basketball, football and baseball? Who are you? Jesse Jackson Goldstein?

Actually, baseball has fewer African Americans that at any time since the 1970s. And I'm not sure why a heavy presence of blacks in one field would justify turning a blind eye to the absence of blacks in another. But I'm not going to pick a fight with D. Whitehead.  Some of the questions that readers raised, however, were more thoughtful and provocative. Here's a few -- rephrased and condensed -- that deserved an answer. And if you have any more thoughts on the subject, feel free to chime in:

Q: You didn't say African Americans were discriminated against in Hollywood, just that they didn't hold any high-profile jobs. Did you ever consider that blacks just don't gravitate toward working in show business?

A: Fair point. There's little evidence of overt discrimination in Hollywood. It was probably true 40 or 50 years ago, but not today. But blacks do gravitate toward other areas of show business. The music business, for example, is far more multicultural than Hollywood, with all sorts of African Americans having success as producers and record company executives. The difference is that the music biz has always been more open to entrepreneurs than Hollywood, so there's a more clear path to success for people with both creative and business smarts, be they Berry Gordy or Sean Combs or Jay-Z. Hollywood is more of an insular culture, but not necessarily a closed one.

Q: Hollywood is famously full of do-gooder liberals. Isn't it a sign of total hypocrisy for all these studios and talent agencies to be so lily white at the top when they all give money in their private lives to a host of social causes?

A: I can't disagree with you there. While conservatives aren't free of hypocrisy, the absence of any minorities in top-tier Hollywood is a major embarrassment for the industry. You have to practice what you preach, or you shouldn't be preaching, whether you're trying to promote diversity in education without doing it in the workplace or going to environmental fundraisers one week and flying to New York by private jet the next. People in Hollywood give a lot of money to good causes, but it's time for a reality check. They should be putting some of that social consciousness into improving their own industry's track record when it comes to diversity.

Q: When you compared the whiteness of Hollywood to other areas in our society, you led off by citing the advances African Americans had made in sports. Isn't that stereotyping?

A: Actually, I started with sports because I'm a big sports fan. But sports is a great model for diversity. In 1947, long before the Civil Rights Act was passed, Branch Rickey integrated baseball by bringing Jackie Robinson up to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When USC running back Sam Cunningham almost single-handedly humiliated a top-ranked all-white Alabama football team in 1970, Alabama finally began the process of integrating Southern football, with one of Coach Bear Bryant's assistants saying that Cunningham "did more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King did in 20 years." You change culture by making an impact on things that matter to people, and in the South, where I'm from, everything starts with sports. So for me, the fact that sports is full of black head coaches and general managers while Hollywood still hasn't hired one African American studio chief is all the more cause for embarrassment. 

-- Patrick Goldstein

RECENT AND RELATED: ACADEMY AWARDS 2011: THE UNBEARABLE WHITENESS OF THE OSCARS 

Photo: Mo'Nique, left, with academy President Tom Sherak at the Academy Awards nominations announcement Tuesday in Beverly Hills.

Credit: Mike Lee / Landov/MCT 

 

Comments

[Ryan]

This is what we call in statistics, a recency problem. A year ago, after a black woman won a Supporting Actress Oscar, a Black man won an Adapted Screenplay Oscar, and a GAY BLACK man was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture. This year, it just so happens that all of the main nominees are white. Statistically, that's not even significant considering the amount of white people in the US.
The issue is when something is "all white" people feel the need to call it racist, when all they are really doing is demonstrating their complete lack of understanding of logic.

[yell4yell]

Again, The Unbearable Political Correctness of the media and the liberal elite.
So out of touch with what people think outside the media bubble, but they love to preach to us and tell us what bad people we are.

[Polonius]

Pat & James, since you're so hung up about diversity; your next column can be: 'The Unbearable Whiteness of the Los Angeles Times.' Your company is about as diverse as the Hollywood that you throw stones at. I'm surprised that you didn't ask for quotas for hiring minorities be instituted immediately. Why don't you two set a good example & resign your positions, with the express proviso that 'a person of color' replaces you.

[Malby]

I think we're all just tired of the incessant headcounting. You want Hollywood to be exactly numerically reflective of the population nationwide? Well, then, that goes for basketball and football, too. I guess you could insist that one Oscar nomination of 5 in each category go to a "minority," and that the "minority" nominee win once out of every five years. Would that satisfy you?

[Michael Scully]

PATRICK Goldstein. I love it.

[TechBro]

Ryan, actuallay your analysis is one of dataset insufficiency. If you take the entire history of the Oscars, you see the full nature of the problem. You'll see Hattie McDaniel's Oscar then some long flat periods. Yes the data trends up over the last 20 years, but if you normalize based on the number of roles performed by African Americans (or do some crazy math to calculate the ration of profits based on their performances (like key Will Smith or Denzel years)) you will see some disappointing graphs.

Not to say that this is overt, but more of a systemic problem that starts with who enters the field and why (or why not).

[Harvey Guinn]

This issue has been around for a long time. As a Black man, I feel that many factors are at play here. Image is a major factor. The images of Blacks is a mostly negative one,and this has always been true. The glorifacation of 'thug life', hyper sexual behavior, violence, and clownish behavior; i.e. stupid, are the norm. This is not a 100% true of course. Hollywod is afflicted with bad writing, Black or White. I'm sure there many very good scripts around. I'm sure that there a many very good Black writers that portray positive images of Blacks. Are they marketable, and can they appeal to a wide audience? Yes. The right casting, creative promotion, and most important a good story. The story comes first. As far as getting through that "White elite" door? That probably won't happen until we make our own films. There are many good Black directors doing good work in movies and TV. Doing mostly White casted films. The breakthrough will come from these ranks, but it's going to take a brave studio head to take a chance. There are many examples of breakout Black films, and it's been proven that those films can appeal to a wider audience. It's going to take Black writers to do the job. The "White" view of how we are supposed to act is seriouly distorted. We are a diverse group of people, just as all groups are diverse, and yet our protrayal is limited. Whether you like or dilike Tyler Perry's work, he has proved two things, it and be done, and if you can make money, you will get a seat at the table.

[JR88]

Wow. It's funny that you left Asians out, and they're more underrepresented than blacks and Latinos. Your complaint lacks credibility.

[Edbaldo Rioty]

Patrick Goldstein's comments are entirely accurate. However people of color reporters have been making these points since the '90s and there are practically none left on the L.A. Times entertainment staff.

What's up with that?

[oooo]

RE: "Hollywood is famously full of do-gooder liberals. Isn't it a sign of total hypocrisy..."
When conservatives say that liberals (usually well off liberals) are hypocrites, I have to say I don't get it. Would it be better if I was a well off Republican movie executive who didn't do anything and never brought anything up? The reason African Americans and Hispanics (and everyone) need to be well represented is because some people see movies as art and art needs to open, honest and inclusive to everyone. Some people laugh at movies from the forties and fifties because black people aren't well represented. Are black people well represented now? Every era has something it can't deal with and it's usually represented in the art. In fifty years our shortcomings will be apparent to the people viewing our movies.
signed
a middle aged white guy in texas.