I think there’s an interesting phenomenon at work; even though the Tyler Perry shows may have high ratings, their perceived viewership may not be perceived as lucrative to advertisers, and therefore the networks may not pick those shows up.
In other words, it’s not just that a show gets high ratings, it’s WHO’S watching it to give it those high ratings. It could very well be that all-white “Mike and Molly” brings more ad money with lower ratings than “The Haves and Have Nots” does, despite higher ratings.
And the networks are in this to make money, so they’re going to go with what makes them money.
Whether or not it’s advertiser reluctance to advertise on black shows, or whether it’s that the networks feel that black shows don’t sell good ads, I don’t know, but I sort of doubt it’s overtly racist and probably more economic pragmatism in the final analysis.
The scene is an office at MGM. A producer is pitching his latest, sure-fire idea to a bored-looking studio executive with a deep tan and six cell phones.
“It’s the greatest idea you’ve ever heard! It’ll make billions - it’s gonna be bigger than Star Wars, Part 26 - The Force Gets Cranky Because It Missed Its Nap”.
It’s called JFK and Marilyn: A Love Story. I’ve already got Jimmy Walker to play JFK - he’ll work cheap. Ru Paul wants to play J. Edgar Hoover, and he’s got his own wardrobe so we’ll save money. We’ll use CGI to put Jar Jar Binks as RFK, and Oprah - HERSELF - wants to play Thurgood Marshall.
“Who’s gonna play Marilyn?”
"That’s the genius part - we’ll get Gabourey Sidibe for the role. She’s got the Oscar already, and she will pull in all the black Monroe fans.
It’s gold, Jerry - I’m telling ya, box office gold!"
Where are you getting that they are over represented in music?
And its important to me that they are not severely underrepresented in movies/tv. We’re not going to get total equality and that’s probably a goal that we don’t need to reach, but we should at least have them not be laughably frozen out of places of influence don’t you think?
I think Jews have turned how they are perceived around remarkably from the early 20th century. We still have Jewish jokes, but they are less tolerated now than ever before. I don’t know if that’s a result of them dominating movies and TV, but its a good model to follow if you’re a minority that still gets unfairly shit on by others and want to turn things around, right?
29 of Billboard’s Top 100 albums this week were produced by black artists. And those are just the ones I recognize. The number could be higher. That’s proportionate to almost triple the African-American population of the US (though it should be noted that some of the artists, like Drake, are Canadian).
Of course that may explain why a major network has not picked up a Perry show, but it doesn’t explain why other networks haven’t. At a certain point, numbers matter enough to make up for lower perceived value of viewers to advertisers. That’s even casting aside the fact that there are many products Black buy at higher rates than Whites, and that Perry’s shows typically cost FAR less to produce. Even so, it doesn’t explain why there has never been a Black or Asian bachelor for example.
The comp is less a show like Mike and Molly, and more a show like The Bridge or Fargo.
Well, no, they are not JUST in it to make money. Many of them want to make quality entertainment and stuff that will bring them accolades and professional esteem. This is why most major networks wouldn’t touch reality shows for years despite them being money makers. The bottom line matters, but given the choice, most power brokers would rather make a show they understand and one their rich, largely White friends would watch rather than something culturally unfamiliar to them.
I think it is overtly racist in many cases. I don’t think it’s the malicious type that hate groups practice, but there is plenty of evidence and anecdotes of power brokers explicitly believing unsupported ideas that lead to discriminatory actions. For example, this gem from a producer on the bachelor:
The above would be defensible had the show not been sued for discrimination a few times, and had multiple Black prospective contestants publicly jocky for the role. The idea that a defensible answer to the question about casting and race is to talk about how one contestant might be 1/16 Cherokee is just laughable.
I don’t think malicious racism is what usually happens though. Most of the time it’s just people hiding behind “conventional wisdom” whether it’s actually true or not.
It’s the same conventional wisdom that kept black artists off of mainstream radio stations and MTV for so long. Nowadays we would laugh at the notion of black music not being profitable because we know how ridiculously wrong that is.
I wish people would realize that the “free” market isn’t rational. Racism isn’t rational either.
In a society where only a small proportion of the population are black, and only a small proportion of movies stand out as nomination material, and some of those movies will be representing a demographic type and provide a number of nominees, it is entirely reasonable that some years you will have no black faces nominated simply through relative worth alone.
Note, a representative number of black nominees in a category would be somewhere between 0 and 1. I fail to see why either should be a cause for comment.
It may well be that next year there will be an over-representation of black actors in the nominations and the unspoken assumption will be that it will be based on tokenism and not whether they deserve it or not. I don’t see that as being a step forward for equality.
Do you think he is a good actor? Do you think his acting skill is on the same level as the other nominees for Best Actor this year?
I want to tell you that IMHO, he is not a good actor and his skill is nowhere near the same level as the other actors in that category.
To be fair, Stallone did something really great with the first Rocky movie and IMO, he deserved to win an Oscar for that. But I don’t think it was for his acting. Maybe it was on account of his directing? Or maybe “Best Picture”? He did something great that year. But his acting is not great. He mostly just kind of mumbles his way through movies.
I ask you once more. Do you think he is a great actor? Do you think his acting skill is worthy of an Oscar? I sure don’t.
Not necessarily related, but I feel the same way about Jada Pinkett Smith. When it comes to her acting skill, I think she is just terrible. I base that opinion primarily on the TV show about Batman. It is called “Gotham”. I thought her acting was just terrible in that show. I could never get behind her winning any kind of award for good acting. If she deserves any kind of recognition, I would suggest she deserves something along the lines of the Harvard Raspberry award for shitty acting. She is truly a terrible actor. Just my opinion. But there it is.
It looks like Jada Pinkett Smith, her husband, and Spike Lee will not attend the Oscars. The announcer on the news said they were boycotting, but I don’t know if those were the actors’ exact words.
Do you think a lot of other actors will follow suit?
I have not seen **Creed **so I cannot judge his performance in the film. There are other actors that I wish had gotten nominated in Supporting Actor, Jason Trembley especially.
This is just silly. What is the most economically successful minority in America today? Indian-americans. How many Indian actors have won an Oscar? One.
Asian americans are doing very well economically and Asian actors have won three Oscars, two sixty years ago and one 33 years ago.
The reason people think of young black men as aggressive is that young black men are more aggressive than average. If movies shaped perception then people would think of Asians as being aggressive because of all the kung fu movies we have seen. Changing reality will change perceptions, not encouraging young people to waste their lives trying to be actors and filmmakers.
Another problem is that the nominations often go to biographies. I would divide that into two categories:
Well known people. Because of our Euro-centered sense of history, this is going to be almost entirely white.
People famous because of the movie. People like Erin Brockovich or David Helfgott. I’d even include John Nash. Other than Concussion, how many other biographies about little known or obscure black people can you name?
Being that I haven’t seen any of the nominated movies or those who may have been snubbed, I have no idea if the demographics of the nominations are justified or not. But I do know that the host of award show is black. The president of the academy is black and has made pretty strong efforts to diversify the academy. Of course, the boycotters mean no disrespect to those individuals. So to whom do they mean disrespect? White people in the industry who were nominated? Do the boycotters feel there were undeserved nominations?
I support the right of the Academy to nominate whoever they wish, and the rights of anyone who doesn’t like it to boycott the event. It’s a win-win. We can have a consciousness-raising discussion as a result of the protest, and there will be a few extra seats in the audience for someone who normally wouldn’t get in.