Yes, it’s true. Some people are afraid that too much “diversity” on our TV programming over the last year is hurting the chances of white actors to find work. No, really, they are.
This has been a breakthrough year for diversity in television. Fox’s Empire became a ratings marvel. ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder vaulted into the same stratosphere of success as its Shondaland sibling Scandal. Comedies like Black-ish, Jane the Virgin, and Fresh off the Boat found their footing and solid ratings. […]
But not everyone sees this as progress. On Tuesday night, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva made it abundantly clear with a strange piece titled “Pilots 2015: The Year Of Ethnic Castings — About Time Or Too Much Of Good Thing?”
Yes, those awful blacks and browns are ruining the beautiful job opportunities of white people, once again.
Instead of opening the field for actors of any race to compete for any role in a color-blind manner, there has been a significant number of parts designated as ethnic this year, making them off-limits for Caucasian actors, some agents signal. Many pilot characters this year were listed as open to all ethnicities, but when reps would call to inquire about an actor submission, they frequently have been told that only non-Caucasian actors would be considered. “Basically 50% of the roles in a pilot have to be ethnic, and the mandate goes all the way down to guest parts,” one talent representative said.
I feel awful. Hollywood’s oppression of the white race is simply too much to bear – or is it? I mean, c’mon, people, white men dominate the big and small screen and the statistics prove it:
Why Hollywood is frozen in the 1950s: White men are still king of the silver screen with lead roles going to just 26% of women and 11% of minorities
Hollywood Diversity Report paints picture of industry ‘woefully out of touch’
Minorities 36 percent of U.S. population, but feature much less in film and TV
Films and TV with diverse casts and crew do better commerciallyThe 2014 Hollywood Diversity Report released this week examines the gender and race of actors, directors and writers of film and television.
It reveals an industry that is still dominated by white men, with women and minorities dramatically underrepresented both on and off screen. […]
The study found that minorities and women were leads, directors, writers and creators in films and television programs far less often than would be expected given they make up more than 36 percent and slightly more than 50 percent of the overall U.S. population respectively.
That study of the 172 largest grossing US produced films of 2011 and “1061 television shows from the 2011-2012 season from broadcast and cable networks, including dramas, comedies, and reality television: is supported by this year’s diversity study which looked at the 2013 season. Guess what? Things stayed pretty much the same – whites, especially white men, ruled. Just look at these charts:
Here’s the chart of broadcast scripted shows on Cable for 2013 (Figure 33, on page 23 of 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report).
Seventy-seven percent of all roles went to white actors on cable that year, but the percentage was even higher on network shows – 81% of all roles went to whites in 2013:
So why are a few anonymous agents claiming that a their clients are being discriminated against merely because there were a small number of racially diverse hit shows in 2014? Apparently they feel deeply threatened by the “blackening” of Hollywood if you believe this tripe from Deadline’s Ms. Andreeva.
But there were more broadcast drama pilots than ever whose leads had been designated as black this year. That includes Fox medical drama Rosewood, toplined by Morris Chestnut, and CBS civil rights crime drama For Justice, starring Anika Noni Rose. Uncle Buck was rebooted by ABC specifically as a black family sitcom, with Mike Epps in the title role originated by John Candy. NBC opted to make the lead couple in its drama about diverse couples Love Is A Four Letter Word black in picking up the pilot. (It had been originally conceived as Caucasian.) After a post-table read recasting of the female role, the two leads went to Cynthia McWilliams and Rockmond Dunbar.
Oh the horror, the horror.
Do these people really believe the bullpuckey they are putting out that, in effect, white actors are now magically – in one year’s time – the victims of ‘reverse racism?’ That the dominance of white actors on America’s airwaves has suddenly disappeared? I highly doubt it. This smacks of institutional racism at it’s worst, only this time the institution is the American Entertainment Industry, supposedly a bastion of liberalism. Well to Nellie Andreeva, and her sources, i.e., those agents and any white actors whining (anonymously) about discrimination caused by the casting of a few more non-whites on cable and network shows, let me just say this: “Go break a leg!”
