Is Hollywood Becoming More Diverse?

Study the graph above. What conclusions can you draw from it about Hispanics in Hollywood? What explanations can you come up with for why Hispanic representation looks this way?

In “After #OscarsSoWhite, Hispanics Seek Their Hollywood Moment,” Brooks Barnes writes:

After black actors and films that focused on black characters were overlooked for Oscar nominations in 2015 and 2016, the #OscarsSoWhite social media outcry was so fierce that Hollywood was forced to listen. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began a determined diversification effort, and last year there were six black acting nominees, a record.

Whitewashing, or casting white actors as nonwhite characters, has galvanized Asian-Americans in Hollywood. Stars like Constance Wu have railed against the practice, hurting ticket sales for films like “Ghost in the Shell,” a Japanese manga adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson.

But as Hollywood tries to deal with those issues, not to mention the fallout from the harassment crisis that began with Harvey Weinstein’s downfall, the minority group that Hollywood excludes the most onscreen — Latinos — is trying to create its own bullhorn moment.

“We are expecting that we are going to have to go to the Academy Awards this year and demonstrate,” said Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, a watchdog organization. “We’ve tried to push in less hostile ways. But these studios don’t seem to understand anything else.”

Latinos make up 18 percent of the population in the United States and 23 percent of frequent moviegoers — those who go to the movies at least once a month. But only about 3 percent of speaking characters in films during the last decade were Latino, according to a study released in July by Stacy L. Smith, an associate professor at the University of Southern California. (Ms. Smith’s team found that 13.6 percent of speaking characters were black, while African-Americans make up 13.3 percent of the population. For Asians, the shares matched: 5.7 percent.)

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

— In your opinion, is Hollywood becoming more diverse? What evidence do you have to support your viewpoint?

— Are there any races, ethnicities, genders, body types or other types of people and life experiences that you think are especially underrepresented in Hollywood? If so, what are they?

— How do you think minority groups can bring attention to their marginalization and achieve change in Hollywood? What strategies seem to have worked in the past? Which do you think should be used and why?

— Who do you think should be responsible for diversifying movies? The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the film industry itself (i.e. directors, writers and producers), watchdog organizations, agencies, something else or a combination of all of these? Why?

— Do you think it is a worthy goal to try to make movies that are more inclusive of all kinds of people and life experiences? Why or why not?

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