Academy Awards, racism, and white privilege

Last night Chris Rock had an opening monologue that hit hard at the Hollywood powers-that-be. As you may, or may not, know, there have been no black actors nominated for a major Oscar in a couple of years. This has been even when there have been films with black leads who were well-rated critically. This is reaching the boiling point in the African-American community. But, Chris Rock made some excellent points in his comedic opening monologue. Mind you, it was the type of comedy that at times was slashing and strong, but it was the type of comedy that needs to be heard by this country because he tackled several issues and misunderstandings.

“Is Hollywood racist?” he asks. “Is Hollywood burning-cross racist? … No … It is a different type of racist. … They don’t hire black people, and they are the nicest people on Earth. They are liberals. … Hollywood is sorority racist. It’s like, ‘we like you Rhonda, but you are not a Kappa.’ … We want opportunity. We want black actors to have the same opportunities as white actors.”

We have redefined the word racist in America to mean something that will keep it safely behind us. We have defined racist as meaning a slave-owner, a member of the KKK, a neo-Nazi killer, etc. These are all definitions that keep us safe from being accused of favoring one race over another. We have developed a whole range of defensive techniques to allow us to not see what is rather clear, not only to African-Americans, but to many others, including some of our best overseas friends, who cannot believe that America is so blind about herself. Even as simple a phrase as white privilege is attacked in our desire to say that there is nothing to see here, nothing that needs to be fixed.

And yet, black actors (among others) have trouble getting acting jobs and being nominated for Oscars. Even black (among others) actors can win an Oscar and then find themselves without job offers. There is a saying among both women and blacks that they have to be twice as good as a white person in order to get a job or win a compliment. And, yet, as Christ Rock points out, Hollywood is a bastion of anti-racist talk. So, are they hypocrites?

Well, many conservatives love to say so, simply because it allows them to intimate that they are not that bad after all. If Hollywood cannot live up to its own standard, then we do not even have to try. The reality is that they are not hypocrites, in the sense of willful and intentional action. Rather, this is where the term White Privilege comes to play. What happens in Hollywood is what happens all over the country. It is the tendency to favor your own group above the others. The example Chris Rock used is that of an exclusive sorority into which it is hard to break. It is the tendency to see the accomplishments of someone in your group as better or more important than the accomplishments of a member of another group. White Privilege exists, and Hollywood is a prime example of how it can work its way out, even among a group of people who are supposedly sensitized against such a thing. No black actor has been recently turned down for being black, rather white actors have somehow been rated as being better, or more capable, than the black actor.

And, this is what we see over the country. Like Hollywood, if one looks at employment statistics, one can see a pattern going into the past of CEOs being white men (as one example). Were that the only pattern, one could try to argue (as does the NFL) that it chooses them strictly for their capabilities. But, this employment disparity is found in various professions at various levels, even through old-time university admissions.

Whatever was wrong about affirmative action, it was better than the preceding alternative. No, affirmative action was not perfect, but affirmative action was an attempt to force non-white-males to be hired for many positions, in accordance to the presence in the population. If you had a population of 10% Latinos, why should you not have a 10% representation of them in your supervisory, and higher, positions? In the face of a system of White Privilege that kept certain peoples out of certain positions and professions, a quota system appeared to have fewer drawbacks than allowing the system to remain unchanged.

Affirmative action no longer exists as a quota system, in fact it barely exists anymore. But, during its lifetime, the number of false statements that it gave birth to are legion. I am always amazed how many people are convinced that less qualified people were chosen over more qualified people. Really? Perhaps under some early versions of a quota-based affirmative action and, even then, only at some locations. Remember that I talked about the tendency to always see members of your own group as more qualified and better than members of other groups. People in other groups were not getting opportunities unless they were “twice as good as” members of the privileged group. Hollywood has provided a sterling example of individual producers making individual decisions that add up to blacks being shut out. Does anyone seriously think that blacks being shut out of important leading roles is right? And, yet, we see it happening. That is what White Privilege means. It is not necessarily a willful or intentional racism, but rather an unintentional bias toward the members of your group.

And, the solution is neither to ignore it, nor to claim that it should only be handled in the private sphere. Neither of those solutions work. The first solution leads to social unrest, while the second solution means nothing changes. Nor is the solution to make the claim, which actually used to be heard 30-40 years ago, that “those” people are not ready yet, that there is not a large enough pool of “trained and experienced” people of color from whom to choose.  That is not only demonstrably false, that actually crosses from inadvertent to intentional racism. Frankly, for whatever problems it may have, the solution continues to be some form of affirmative action, and, yes, awareness training.

Just this past week Lionsgate put out a film called “Gods of Egypt.” So far it is being rated as a bomb. Its original release ran into a buzz saw of controversy by both having an unforgivably bad plot, but also for having white actors playing Egyptian gods. Really???? As one reviewer comments, “… Gods of Egypt is a period-piece, fantasy adventure based in Egypt, but most of the main characters are white. The film is yet another movie based in an African continent filled with Australian, Swedish, English, and French actors playing would-be Egyptian humans and gods.”

Yes, they managed to make a film that is a classic example of the type of blindness that exists in White Privilege. It is when you are unable to even notice that having mostly northern European descended actors for a film set in Northern Africa is a bit of a contradiction, particularly when there is a large pool of (shall we say) more melanin-infused actors available.

I will repeat again, this is why some type of affirmative action continues to be needed, and why we cannot rely simply on good will. Hollywood has taught us that working solutions are still needed.