Edthnic Minorities within Media
As a half English, half Thai person it is not often that I see a representation of myself on the big movie screen and nor do I expect to see a mixed actress of my ethnicity to represent me - no, that would be too pedantic. But to see someone that is not Caucasian playing the lead roll would be inspiring.
Media has always projected an exaggerated version of reality and never to truly exist to imitate or represent reality. It is not just ethnic minorities that are being effected by the media’s portrayals – but genders, sexes, sexualities, body types, etc too. TV and Films are predominantly fiction. When looking at films based on History, it is obvious that the film does not represent everything that happened in reality in the span of a couple of hours. And though advertised a ‘reality’ sometimes documentaries or reality TV shows are either fictional or has fictional elements. And so sometimes we must sit back and take what is given with a pinch of salt. Acting is acting and is in a world of fiction. Nevertheless, sometimes when an individual from the majority plays a minority character, it involves some degree of cultural appropriation.
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When addressing the history of ‘racebending’, it refers to the ongoing Hollywood practice where a director, producer, publisher, studios etc… would changes the race or ethnicity of a character. This act was historically used to discriminate against people of colour. Back then, practicing blackface and yellowface would be used as a way for Hollywood restrict opportunities to actors of colour. And so, the communities of minorities were then helpless and could not control how they would be represented in media and thus led to onscreen stereotype.
In this modern-day society, we have yet to escape the prejudice of type-casting, which is still practiced but in a more subtle manner. The motive of Hollywood however has gradually shifted from the history of oppression and discrimination and more towards the idea of profit and money making with the mentality of ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it.’
Fig 1. A screenshot from the film ‘The Good Earth’ of Luise Rainer as ‘O-Lan’ and Paul Muni as ‘Wang’
This is not a new topic. In fact, it has been circling around many times throughout the centuries. Dating back to 1937 with ‘The Good Earth’ where Caucasian actors would have pounds of make-up and prosthetics on to play a Chinese family.
Nevertheless, as time passed, the growth of the minority’s population and communities grew excessively large that there are areas like ‘China Town’ popping up all over the western world and there are now more active people of colour acting than there were ever before... Yet after 75 years you would think that mainstream media has barely changed a bit, what with the needless yellowfacing character in the 2012 movie, ‘Cloud Atlas’ with Jim Sturgess in prosthetics instead of casting an East Asian male for the role.
Fig 2. A screenshot from the 2012 film ‘Cloud Atlas’
On the right side, we have the modern-day struggle of lack of representation, however on the left side we also have backlash when Caucasian characters get a racebending transformation. The act of racebending a character for the better happens very rarely, but when it does it is often misunderstood as ‘political correctness’. And even though these actions are merely attempts to level the imbalance in media, if the portrayals are not executed well then it can worsen an already bad situation by creating more stereotypes. Whereas a successful attempt can make a world of difference.
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The Data
(The data’s will mainly be sourced from the USA (as this is where the main source of influential media derives from) and the UK (as this is where I am situated).
Fig 3. Ethnic groups, England and Wales, 2011
Fig 4. 2010 U.S Census, 2010
As shown by the charts on Fig 3 and 4, it is clear that Caucasians are the dominant ethnic group in the UK and the USA.
Fig 5. University of Southern California studies of 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014, excluding 2011
Fig 5 shows the percent of characters by race/ethnicity in top-grossing films between 2007-2014. Funnily enough, the chart reflects the data of Fig 3 and 4 in light of the real-world percentages. And so, in truth the feelings of minorities being underrepresented is not just a whim, but a fact. So now the question is, if the real-world percentage and the media industry percentage correlates to one another, then why is there an issue if the media is reflecting what the real-world truly is…?
Well this circulates back to the practice of stereotyping, and though sometimes it can be highly entertaining, it can also come across as an insensitive mockery of a culture.
“It’s kind of like a catch 22, in order to get into the industry and working you kind of have to just do those role just to get some kind of credit.” - Ally Maki (Actress)
Like all profession, actors and actresses of colour or not will have to start from the bottom. However, to even stick your foot into the door of entertainment means to become dancing monkey of sort and allowing to be scripted to as a stereotype, which can be demeaning on the person and the people they are representing.
Fig 6. My Ethnic Minorities within Media public survey (Feel free to participate in my survey - Click Here)
Through my own online survey, I gathered the public’s opinion on ‘Ethnic Minorities within Media’. I asked questions like ‘whether they think there is an issue in media’, ‘the difference between then and now’, ‘how it affected them’, their views of it all as a consumer’ and so on. The survey was accessed worldwide and had 80 responses from people of all ages and backgrounds.
Unsurprisingly my online survey also reflects the real-world percentages. However, the responses had high results of concern and acknowledgement on the subject matter as well has some interesting reasoning of why the topic is not concerning.
52 out of 80 agreed that there is an issue with ethnic minorities within media. 20 out of 80 somewhat feel there is an issue with ethnic minorities within media. 8 out of 80 disagree that there is an issue with ethnic minorities within media.
Having asked those taking the survey to elaborate on their chosen answers, people of all ethnicity shared one key point in their response, which addressed the idea of ‘representation’ and how there is a lack of it and they also picked up on the negative theme of stereotyping.
Interestingly, some felt that since the percentage of media and real-world ethnic popular are the same, that there is not an issue with ethnic minorities within media and said;
“In the end, it's all about individuality if you want to prove yourself to the society. Being a minority simply means you don't get a head start in life.”
“Hard workers will get to where they want to.”
Note: These two comments were made by Southeast Asians.
In a sense, it is all a matter of opinions and perspective when you are look at it as an outsider. Anna Akana – an Asian American filmmaker, producer, actress and comedian, spoke out about her experience in almost landing a lead role in mid-2016. However, she was later disappointingly offered to be re-casted as a supporting role due to the uncontrollable colour of her skin. Which was confusing since she had been working hard since the beginning and overall hustling her way through the entertainment industry. But without a doubt there is no denying the underlining history of oppression and discrimination that is still it existing today.
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The Importance of representation
What is representation? It is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way. And why is it that representation is so important? Well… it is important to be represented because without representation there would be missing and untold stories. And without a depiction of oneself, people will feel unheard, unseen, ignored, and ultimately oppressed. In a growing world as diverse and complex as ours, the last thing we want is do is revert back into the dark days and lose a large portion of peoples sense of self. The impact of representation begins at a very young age where our sense of identity is only just forming - and not having that visual connection can make one feel like an outsider and effects can ripple out through the rest of our lives. Being represented illustrates the possibility of achieving anything, whether it be growing up believing that you can be an entertainer or an Olympic athlete. Seeing people a-like, accomplishing their dreams, breaking barriers, and destroying stereotypes shows us our own potential. Reminding us that we are not alone in our experiences.
Casting established Caucasian actors as characters of colour will definitely bring in profit to the producing company however, it will have a huge and harmful impact on the underrepresented communities of colour and the battle for recognition. On the other hand, casting Caucasian characters with actors of colour will have little impact on Caucasian children and consumers as they have plenty of already existing representation of themselves to relate to.
In recent years, shows like Asian American family sitcom ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ and ’Dr. Ken’ came to exist and were airing at the same time in 2015. And ‘Blackish’ which came a year before and portrays the daily life of a black family. These TV shows has a highly positive factor and that is showcasing a perspective of daily life - one from a more diverse outlook. These shows are not your usual standard middle class pale families we are used to seeing, they are their own and were not just hired to hit diversity quotas. These rare portrayals of people of colour challenging historical stereotypes is truly empowering and will boost the esteem of self-identity. These shows matter. These shows should be the norm.
Fig 7. D.Va and Voice actress Charlet Chung Overwatch
In addition, we have media such as video games and comic novels where the companies rely on the continuous support from the fans. These companies cater to the audience’s more than the film industry as the fan base loyalty is needed for them to continue on making money. A small but gratifying example would be the choices of voice actors for Blizzards 2016 video game ‘Overwatch’ - a competitive first person shooter game that is based on a futuristic version of our world. The playable characters are from all over the world, with all kinds of ethnicity and sexuality. And although they are animated and appear to represented all sorts of cultures, Blizzard went beyond that and hired voice actors according to the ethnic background of the video game characters. Another fantastic fan driven company is Marvel. Who has within the past couple of years been racebending their original characters to be more inclusive in the comic book world, this is a liberating action as now child of ethnic minorities can feel inclusive and relate to the hero.
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Who’s to blame?
It is very easy to point fingers at Hollywood and blame them for the lack of representation of the minority community of all genre. But then again, Hollywood alone is not the problem. It is us, the consumers as well who are unconsciously funding them by purchasing tickets for the show. In some ways, Hollywood does a good job at recreating some very real and aspects of history. Nevertheless, the racialisation is ever so complicated and while it is fiction it is so very real.
Changing the system
Ultimately, we as consumers of the media, must stand up against the prejudice representation of the minorities on the big and small screen by boycotting outlets that demeans the minorities or watch the film at a later date as the opening weekend is Hollywood’s means of income. And on the contrary, support the medias that are heading into the right direction, such as Disney’s 2015 ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. Disney ignored the opposing criticism on casting a black actor, John Boyega, as a Stormtrooper and yet the film went on to become biggest domestic blockbuster release of all time. Supporting programs and films like these will certainly guide content creators to seeing that decision like casting a minority is acceptable and will perhaps continue casting more non-Caucasians in the future films. It is definitely a slow progress but it is unquestionably changing and making a difference.
Youtuber, Philp Wang of Wong Fu Productions makes some valid arguments in his video ‘Don't just TALK about Whitewashing’. He also talks about how Hollywood is not going to change quickly enough for whitewashing to go away. And so, the answer to this is for us (the minorities) to step up and create our own contents.
“Be the change that you want to see in the world” - Gandhi
Sources: Ghost in the Shell announcement [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]