Is Hollywood a Subversive Institution?

Is Hollywood a Subversive Institution?

By

Bobbie L. Washington

It's award season now and the general public will get set to see the usual fair of awards shows ranging from the already aired Golden Globes, The Critics Choice Awards, The Screen Actors Guild Awards, The Grammy Awards, The Writers Guild Awards, The Directors Guild Awards, The Producers Guild Awards and the crown jewel of awards show, The Academy Awards. And as the announcements were made for this years 88^th season of the Academy Awards, there was a noticeable absents of faces of color when it came to acting. This did not go unnoticed in the acting community for it was the second year in a row that faces of color was not represented in a community that lauds itself for being inclusive. But is it really?

From the very outset, Hollywood's early beginnings with film making has been replete with racist symbolism and depictions. Starting with Birth of A Nation, a film that gave the KKK a resurgence in domestic terrorism and showcased white people in black face that depicted them as lazy, dim-wits, criminals and rapist to 

Charlie Chan, a film about a Chinese detective who was really a white guy speaking in broken English to Burt Lancaster and

 Donna Reed in tan makeup who were suppose to be portraying Native Americans. And the list goes on and on, even Walt Disney's animated racist cartoons added to the laundry list of Hollywood's subversiveness to cultural exclusion.

When Hattie McDaniel won her Oscar for Gone With the Wind in 1939, she did so in a separate room away from the main gathering because they didn't allow blacks in the hotel and accepted her Oscar in a speech that was perhaps adequate for her in the times that she lived in but by today's standard, it was a bit cringe worthy when she cited being a credit to her race. 

Her role as a domestic proliferated throughout her career thus limiting the prospects of blacks, especially female blacks to those types of characterizations.

And as the machine of the Hollywood industry moved forward in time, the Academy Awards have seen fit to nominate eighteen lead black actors over its history with four earning the Oscar; Sidney Poitier in 1963 for Lillies of The Field, Denzel Washington in 2001 for Training Day, Jamie Fox for Ray Charles in 2004 and Forest Whitaker of The Last King of Scotland in 2006. I must make note that in this category, Denzel Washington was nominated three times, Morgan Freeman was also nominated three times and Will Smith was nominated two times. The last year for a black actor to be nominated was in 2013 and that nomination went to Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave. In the lead actress category, there have been ten actresses of color nominated over the history of the Academy awards with only one win, Halle Berry for Monster's Ball in 2001. The last time an actress of color that was nominated was in 2012 to Quvenzhane Wallis for Beast of The Southern Wild.

Under the supporting category for actors, The Academy saw fit to nominate sixteen actors of color with four earning the Oscar; Louis Gossett, Jr., An Officer and A Gentleman in 1982, Denzel Washington for Glory on 1989, Cuba Gooding, Jr. for Jerry McGuire in 1996 and Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar Baby in 2004. The last year a person of color nominated in this category was in 2013 and that went to Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips. For the supporting actress category, there were nineteen actresses of color nominated with six earning the Oscar; Hattie McDaniels in 1939 for Gone with The Wind, Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost in 1990, Jennifer Hudson for Dream Girls in 2006, Mo'Nique for Precious in 2009, Octavia Spencer for The Help in 2011 and Lupito Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave in 2013 with that year being the last a female person of color was nominated.

For Hispanic actors and actresses, the history for The Academy is abysmal. In all of its glorious history there have been one nomination in a lead category and that was in 1988 and it went to Edward James Olmos for Stand and Deliver and that was the last year a Hispanic was ever nominated. 1947 was the only year a male Hispanic was nominated for a supporting role. There has never been a Hispanic female nominated in the lead actress category while there has been a grand total of four Hispanic women in the supporting category with two wins; Rita Moreno for West Side Story in 1962 and Mercedes Ruehl for the Fisher King in 1991. The last year a female was nominated in this category was in 1993 and that went to Rosie Perez for Fearless.

For Asian lead actors, there have been three nominations with two wins; Yul Brynner for The King and I in 1956, Ben Kingsley for Ghandi in 1982 with the last nomination being in 2008 for Ben Kingsley for The House of Sand and Fog. One female lead was nominated back in 1935 and that went to Merle Oberon for The Dark Angel and the last year a female was ever nominated.

In the supporting actor category, there have been seven nominations with one win; Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields in 1984. 2003 was the last year an Asian actor was nominated and that went to Ken Watanabe for The Last Samurai. 

 The supporting female category had six nomination with one win and that went to Miyoshi Umeki for Saynora in 1957. The last time any Asian female was nominated was in 2010 and that went to Halle Steinfeld for True Grit.

And there has been one group, the Native American, my cousins, have had only one nomination in the entire history of the Academy. Graham Greene was nominated in 1991 in the best supporting actor category for Dances With Wolves. This by far is the most egregious sore point with the Academy based on years of discriminatory practices done to the Native Americans.

But what is the take away with all of this? Well, whomever votes on these things will be based on a subjective process. Is there any cultural bias to these films and to these actors? Are we too thinned skinned to this issue? I don't believe that is the situation. It is the craft of acting that many people of color are having an issue with and the quality of that work not getting the merit it deserves. American Hustle, a film starring Jennifer Lawrence, Baradley Cooper, (Yes, I know it's spelled Bradley but I like to pronounce it as Baradley Cooper) Amy Adams, and Christian Bale was nominated all over the place for awards including the main prize but I didn't think the work that Jennifer Lawrence did in this picture was her best work. That is subjective. Meryl Streep is another one of those performers who gets nominated time and and time out. She can act no wrong but is it safe to say that there might be bias when it comes to every time she gets a nomination because she is an actor's actor?

Hollywood is about the box office numbers. Sure, you can have a number on movie like Ride Along 2 and the studio heads are grateful because they will make money on their investment but the studio head is not necessarily the impetus behind the nominating process. There are other issues that are too numerous to go into but we will stay on topic with this issue. Jada Pinkett Smith had voiced her pronounced disappointment for the lack of diversity in the nomination process for this years candidates. Her husband, Will Smith, was in Concussion, and it appears that his role was very good or at least nomination worthy. But he was shut out along with Idris Elba for Beast of No Nation. These two films got a lot a buzz that matches the Eddie Redmayne film, The Danish Girl. Concussion got a lot of media attention because the subject matter revolved around the NFL practice of ignoring head injuries to their football players. The Danish Girl is about a man dressing up was a woman and wanting to be a woman. And while The Danish Girl got some buzz, it's been relatively muted in comparison to the Concussion. The hype for The Danish Girl had begun even before it was released as being a viable contender for the Oscar. So it goes into the award season with all of the hype surrounding it while Beast of No Nation gets muted.

Nobody wants to boycott an awards show and for the most part, these award ceremonies are often times boring with the long winded acceptance speeches of thanking God and the caterer for serving cream cheese on rye crackers. On the surface, Jada Pinkett Smith's is venting her frustration about the selection process as this is the second year in a row where no person of color is nominated. This is her profession, this is an industry where her peers vote on who will get the Oscar. But who are the ones who do the nominating? Is it, as they claim, a cadre of sixty to seventy year old white men primarily doing the selecting? Should the Lead Actor and Actress category expand to eight as they did with the Best Picture category?

Of the list of best actor nomination, there are two that I found their performances as “meh”. The reason being is that I've seen these types of performances before and nothing new was brought to the table. And why wasn't the kid from The Room not nominated? His performance as a captive child dealing with the new outside world was mesmerizing and believable. Was this a subjective call as well? And what does it say, once again, about race in America?

Jada Pinkett Smith got a lot of blow back from the walks of life ranging from the most visceral of comments to the hashtags of #justbehappy, #begrateful, #justgoalong and these phrasing are remnants of a time when hash tags were actually voiced by others who questioned why black would want the same as their white counterparts. “It's not your time” or “just wait your turn, it will happen” was said to many aspiring people of color only to be knocked back by the perceived threat to the status-qou. After 88 years, you would think that theses issues would have gone away especially from an institution that seems as liberal to any cause an actor might have. But when it comes to race, that is where the line doesn't cross. Sure, they will have a host of color to come out a make jokes and perform like a sophisticated idiot but the show will come to a close and what are you going to do about the perception of lack of diversity?

The machine of Hollywood will still anoint who they feel is worthy. Can we peer into the future and see any change coming about. This is an entrenched institution. They make claims that they are changing but the fact of the matter that it is hard making it in this business. There are other profession that blacks, Hispanic and Asian would like to explore like directing, producing and writing. Not all people want to be actors. The background stuff has it's own set of particulars to explore but this too is locked out based on a system that says you must have an agent first in order to be seen by us but you can get an agent who will look at your work because they don't accept submissions from authors without agents and that is the catch-22 scenario that every writer goes through. So, if big name stars are having a hard time getting nominated, the lowly would be film director or writer or producer will have many mountains to climb before he or she sees the top.

I don't believe that I will boycott the Oscar telecast, it depends if Downton Abbey is on. It may garner a respectable ratings number but with this controversy looming over like a dark cloud, the host, Chris rock, will find a lot a material to dine on, if they let him improvise. Maybe he could team up with Ricky Gervais to make it the most remembered Oscar telecast in history? Who knows?