Exoticized "Others" the Exception, Not Rule at Academy Awards
There has been a fair amount of
criticism of the Academy Awards since the release of the nomination, prompting the hashtag
#OscarsSoWhite. The argument is particularly strong that the Academy Awards favors white actors and actresses because Selma is nominated for best film, although none of its cast or director is nominated in the corresponding categories. As it stands for Latinos, Mexico-born Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu seems to be a favorite in the best director category for Birdman, although this could be attributed to the greater acceptance of foreign-born non-Whites (Villanueva argues this as early as his 1993 book
Bootstraps).
I am a fan of Inarritu's films Amores Perros and Babel, so I
wish the best for his exposure; however, the benchmark for the Academy Awards
seems heavily influenced by the voters who are predominantly older, white
males. Outside of film,
NPR Latino
USA notes similar issues with diversity in video games:
"According to a study published in the journal “New
Media and Society” in 2009, only 3% of all video games characters can be
identified as Latino. And of that 3%, only 5% are characters you can use to
play."
(Lucha Libre from blogs.mercurynews.com)
Comparisons have been drawn between the staff at Fox News
and the Oscar nominations, which follows in line with what I address in
Reclaiming
Poch@ Pop as I discuss Al Madrigal's appearance on the
Daily Show and his meta-criticism of the Daily Show's hiring practices.
The Shockingly Low Statistics in Print and Television News
Media
Madrigal tongue-in-cheek explains:
"[President Obama]’s had his whole term to do something
about immigration and he’s just bringing it up now. I mean that would be like,
I don’t know, having your own show for twelve years, hiring every race and
religion and creed of correspondent under the sun—Indians, Brits, Blacks, two
Canadians—then when the demographic numbers become completely unavoidable, you
hope to make up for it by googling ‘Mexican comedian’ and voila."
(Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
In Hector Amaya's "Citizenship, Diversity and Ugly
Betty," he draws on data from numerous studies that found Latinos
accounted for at most 4% of English-language print news personnel.
"In journalism, Latinos account for 4 percent
of personnel in print news, and 6 percent of news staffers in
English-language television (NAHJ, 2007). Bob Papper (2003: 21) has
found that Latinos account for only 1.5 percent of radio newsstaffers
and, in television, for only 4.4 percent of news directors. The
lack of Latino personnel in news has a predictable effect on coverage. Federico
Subervi’s latest report on Latino representation in television news media shows
that stories about Latinas/os account for only 0.82 percent in the
major television networks and CNN (2005: 4) (Amaya 2010, p. 806)
As with the Oscars, apologists are quick to defenders are quick to dismiss allegations of discrimination by arguing that there just isn't the supply of Latinos wanting to fill these positions. What films like Selma demonstrate is that there is the presence of such films that deserve to be recognized just as there are actors and journalists who want to fill positions, but those in positions to hire fail in efforts of inclusivity and representing the percentages of the national demographic.
See the
Daily Show clip below:
