I'm mean because I care, and expected so much more from you Chaqa :(

I'm not here to try to make some end-all argument. Jesus. Why is it so difficult to just have a discussion and not be torn apart because one little aspect of a sentence isn't phrased "just right"? I never intended to list the top 20 white actors, I was just naming a few who don't have awards, to show that it's not a black or white thing.

And on a much wider level, I don't really give it a shit if the oscars aren't racially representative. I don't go to the movies for cultural reflection. Movies are entertainment for myself and the majority of people.

Cool. I give a shit that the Oscars are racially representative. I care about diversity in film: sexuality, gender, and race. Movies would be much more entertaining and high quality for myself and the majority of people if they weren't always centered around the same type of person.

Vote with your wallet, then. That's how the industry will take notice. Entertainment is an industry, and despite all the DiCaprios and Clooneys out there who are going to push to make things better, the bottom line is still king to the people financing the movies.

What do you mean by racially representative? Should black actors not be allowed to have more roles than their percentage of the population would suggest? Wouldn't their being non-racial truely be the mark of fairness?

Huh? When did I say anything about roles? I said the Oscars should also represent people of other ethnicity. I never said anything about proportional representation.

"I give a shit that the Oscars are racially representative."

That can mean more than one thing, which is why I asked.

"All time" is somewhat important. Actors can keep going, and even improve, with age. And the Academy does on occasion give out Oscars to actors as much for their body of work as for the particular role for which they were nominated.

So it is important to look all the way back in history to see what is going on with the nominations...if indeed one thinks its is important to do so at all.

Chris Rock in Compton:

https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/704146129999376385

Putin wrote: Did aboriginals make a lot of films?

Not really but some of the very best Australian films have Aboriginal themes and lead actors. If you get a chance to see it I highly recommend a newish film called "Charlie's Country" starring David Gulpilil.

@Chaqa: "Vote with your wallet, then. That's how the industry will take notice. Entertainment is an industry, and despite all the DiCaprios and Clooneys out there who are going to push to make things better, the bottom line is still king to the people financing the movies."

Said financiers are not wholly rational actors. They are frequently subject to conscious or unconscious biases on top of the biases of their audience. They are also frequently risk-averse, i.e., unwilling to reconsider biases that have worked out well enough for them so far. So a lot of stereotypes about what the market will bear are likely to persist well beyond their useful lifetime, and affect movie-making decisions all along the pipeline, with the effect of greatly reducing people's chances to vote with their wallets in the first place.

Responding to comments about diversity by saying that only "the bottom line" should dictate decisions sounds objective, but the logic of the bottom line is itself partially a construction of industry biases. So we do need the DiCaprios and Clooneys (and, perhaps more to the point, Lupitas and Spike Lees) who push to make things better--and voices from the audience as well--in order to counteract those biases.

(In any case, "So vote with your wallet" is sort of like responding to political advocacy with "So vote on election day." If you believe in the logic of the bottom line, then one good way to effect change is to persuade other people who are also part of the bottom line to your viewpoint.)

More white people have won oscars for playing Asian actors than Asian actors have won Oscars.

But of course I'm sure that's just meritocracy at work.

https://fusion.net/story/271397/oscars-whitewashing-white-actors-people-of-color/

Interestingly the article objects to "white" actors playing hispanics. For example William Hurt played an Argentinian Manuel Puig.

Do Americans consider all hispanics to be people of colour? I would have though people of predominantly Spanish heritage would be considered white (such as Maneul Puig).

Hurt didn't play Puig, he played Luis Molina, a character based in one of Puig's books.

Not all Spanish speakers are people of color, but why Anglo-Saxons are chosen to play Spanish speaking characters all the time is beyond me.

Hurt got the job probably because he is a really good actor....

Tom Cruise trained for 3 years how to wield a katana by slicing heretic scientologists in half.

Exactly. Work ethic.

White people play the roles of other races because of "work ethic" (because naturally the only good actors are white) and when non-white actors play traditionally "white" characters like Johnny Storm people like fiedler complain about political correctness. It's breathtaking.

COMRADE PUTIN!

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THAT IN GLORIOUS SOVIET UNION MOST ACTORS IN FILMS WERE.....WHITE!!????

EXPLAIN OR GULAG FOR YOU!

Dumb question.

Russia is largely white. ~95% white. And the country didn't participate in the Slave Trade, certainly not in the way that Western Europe and the USA did, and therefore doesn't have a large non-White populations that have faced centuries of abuse and misrepresentation.

fiedler, what do you think of Noma Dumezweni's casting as Hermione in the upcoming Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play?

Nice troll. Sadly for you numerous black American literary and cultural figures including many actors and filmmakers fled the lynch mobs apartheid and police brutality of America and went to live in the Soviet Union in the 1930s where they were welcomed and flourished, raising their families there.

Here's a classic example of a 1930s Soviet film that was made while American actors were parading around in blackface.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vscLiKX_ghg

But I don't feel sad. This whole thread is hilarious. Typical white-baiting by wjessop the big racist.

Lethologicism I cannot understand a word you wrote.

I agree 100% with Chaqa.

LOL "white-baiting". Good one, Himmler.

WOW PUTIN IT"S AMAZING WHEN YOU LOOK AT PHOTOS OF THE BIGWIGS OF SOVIET EMPIRE PARTY - Sooooo many black faces.

COMRADE PUTIN!

WHERE IS CLEVER REPLY TO OBVIOUS RACISM OF COMMUNIST PARTY???