Future of Racial Diversity in Hollywood

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On my first thread here I talked about how being a White male is almost mandatory in the USA if you want to be considered handsome based on just looks alone. Main reason for this is because Hollywood almost always promotes White males as being the most attractive and never really lets other races of men succeed.

You see it more in younger generation of actors, almost all of them are White, sure you can cherry pick and select one minority out of the whole group but it is not in any way representative of the general population.

White males get roles as Goku on DBZ movies and Prince of Persia but never do you see minority men get the role of a major superhero like Batman or Superman.

As for why I am so concerned with this, it affects me as a guy. I am 6 ft tall, chiseled features, dark hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. My friends who are White get more attention, compliments, and are often considered more handsome than me because their eyes are blue and their skin is pale (I live in the south so that might have to do with it but I think it is the same across the USA).

The reason for this I believe is because women are brainwashed by Hollywood to only see White men (and maybe Black men) as ideal. All other races of men are seen as lower class and ugly simply because Hollywood refuses to show attractive men from other races. This affects how society perceives a good looking Indian guy for example who has put a lot of effort into looking good but cannot have the same success as an overweight White guy.

I think it is a sad state of affairs in Hollywood right now.

Do you see Hollywood becoming more diverse say about 50 years from now?



You can't blame just Hollywood, it's the whole state of the media and marketing. Also, this issue affects women far far more, so I think you should consider that before worrying that your ass might be too dark.

(I live in the south so that might have to do with it but I think it is the same across the USA).
As was established in the other thread, no this is not the same.

50 years is a long projection time. Probably? Things change all the time.



Not sure if to "lol" or


The reason why a lot of Superhero roles never get a non-white actor, is because they were never written that way in the comics.
As for other films and roles... what about Steel? Slumdog Millionaire?

Frieda Pinto is also doing well for herself and Will Smith is one of the highest paid men in Hollywood history.
Sam Jackson?
Jet Li?
Jackie Chan?

Megan Fox has American Indian ancestry... and she's doing just fine. Crap actress, sh*t films too, but she's getting highly paid gigs.


Yeah, ok, the majority of people who have 'power' throughout Hollywood are white, but I doubt there's some sort of segregation going on.



Okay, I'm going to ask something simple. Surely, there are more white people working in hollywood simply because white is the majority, and there has traditionally always been more white people in the country, so unless all black people are actors, there's always going to be more white people available and if so why should they pick the black option just for the sake of diversity.

I think honestly that most actors are just picked on merit, some of the most profitable and big name actors are black such as Denzel Washington and Will Smith. I know you're talking about other things, such as Indian men, but this shows that despite America having problems with racism in the past, this does not seem to affect decisions and people are picked on merit.

Simply, unless I am missing something, there are less Indian actors and such in the US available for such movies, they are a minority, so its less likely that even in the minority that one of them actors are going to be better than lots more of them in the majority.

I don't think there should be a forced quota of certain races or such like that, if an actor is good enough they should get the part, also when people are making films they have to be realistic in their characters. Because most American films are set in America they are going to feature real American people and because the majority are white, they are going to require white actors, simple really.
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Not sure if to "lol" or


The reason why a lot of Superhero roles never get a non-white actor, is because they were never written that way in the comics.
Goku was understood to be Asian, why not get an Asian guy to play him?
Prince of Persia was understood to be Persian, why not get a Persian actor to play him?

Hollywood can do that but not allow a minority a chance to be Batman or Superman? I mean come on!



Keanu Reeves was born in Lebanon... Beirut to be precise... I don't see any animosity toward him, even when the was a war on...

I agree there are some characters written as black/Asian etc and were played by white guys... but Hollywood has a habit of getting some things wrong from time to time.
U-571 anyone?


Racial stereotyping is another for sure... look at any Emmerich or Michael Bay film and you'll see stereotypes that border racism...

But as for segregation and pure racism that holds back actors and actresses of certain races?
No way... the opportunities are there to become an actor if you work hard at it.


The main problem with Hollywood though is Nepotism.

Hollywood was founded back in the day when white people had all the power so to speak... and white people ran everything... including Hollywood...

That wasn't that long ago and the children of those white people, regardless of talent, get all the first picks of the bunch... Nick Cage, Charlie Sheen... all made it big through the success of their parents/family.

But Charlie Sheen is a perfect example of both Nepotism and racial dissonance... Martin Sheen's (Charlie's Dad) real name is Ramon Estevez... and back then, when he was forging his career (that Charlie, real name Carlos Estevez, ended up riding the coattails of), Ramon changed his name to seem more American rather than Spanish/non-white.




It's swings and roundabouts... more integration in years to come... probably... but actual segregation and these days? No.



Goku was understood to be Asian, why not get an Asian guy to play him?
Prince of Persia was understood to be Persian, why not get a Persian actor to play him?
$$$$

Hollywood can do that but not allow a minority a chance to be Batman or Superman? I mean come on!
$$$$

I think that covers it.

For the most part, Hollywood couldn't give a **** what colour/sex/sexuality is. Their perception of what everyone else thinks of these things, however, colours all. Especially as now they're looking at the worldwide take, in most cases, as important as N.American domestic.
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Main reason for this is because Hollywood almost always promotes White males as being the most attractive and never really lets other races of men succeed.
No, it is not. It's for the reasons I have carefully explained in my post on that thread.

You see it more in younger generation of actors, almost all of them are White, sure you can cherry pick and select one minority out of the whole group but it is not in any way representative of the general population.
It is. About 80% of the US is still white.

White males get roles as Goku on DBZ movies and Prince of Persia but never do you see minority men get the role of a major superhero like Batman or Superman.
You get:



All other races of men are seen as lower class and ugly simply because Hollywood refuses to show attractive men from other races.
Hollywood obviously shows attractive people from all races. If they showed only the ugly ones from the minorities the box office performance would suffer

This affects how society perceives a good looking Indian guy for example who has put a lot of effort into looking good but cannot have the same success as an overweight White guy.
Because Indians are an insignificant proportion of the US population:



But there are a ton of very well paid black actors working in hollywood.

I think it is a sad state of affairs in Hollywood right now.

Do you see Hollywood becoming more diverse say about 50 years from now?
If you want to see Indians on the screen why don't you watch Indian movies? Obviously, the US is not India and only 0.1% of the US population has connection with India, so why do you expect to see Indians in US movies?



I'm kind of just reiterating a minor point of my last post here, but but simpler.

Most American films are set in America and in depicting America realistically there will be a large majority of white Americans, they shouldn't just put in Indians for the sake of diversity even though it would be unrealistic. Like Rodent says most superheroes are white males.

Also some white actors it can be easier to adapt them to certain foreign character roles such as Prince of Persia, where Jake Gyllenhaal looks a lot like the character should, this is not racist but it would be harder for an Indian or black person to pull off a typical strong male like Superman.



Goku was understood to be Asian, why not get an Asian guy to play him?
Where in the manga he was described as Asian?

He is from a fictional world where our ethnic groups do not exist. So either an European or an Asian might do fine portraying him. He is drawn as fair skinned and dark eyed and dark haired, that's it.

Prince of Persia was understood to be Persian, why not get a Persian actor to play him?
Well, the facial structure of Europeans is very similar to Persians. So a dark haired European can pass as a Persian.



... this is not racist but it would be harder for an Indian or black person to pull off a typical strong male like Superman.

You sure about that?




Nick Fury:



Nick Fury:



Nick Fury:



Nick Fury:



I have seen the future, and his name is Samuel L. Jackson.
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I think you both overrate and exaggerate what's happening. Exaggerate because it's not the rule you make it out to be, it's just a tendency. And overrate because these things tend to reflect the racial or ethnic makeup of the country in which they're taking place. How many white leading men do you see in Bollywood? How many blue-eyed blonde heroines in China? There's nothing sinister or surprising about the fact that actors and actresses reflect the ethnic breakdown of the country their performances are being sold in. Nobody's being "brainwashed," for crying out loud.

And, to be blunt, the component of self-interest you revealed in the other threads makes me think you're not being particularly clear headed about these critiques, either.



Laurence Fishburne also portrays Jack Crawford in the TV show Hannibal, a white character (at least in the films). People like him and Samuel L. Jackson have been picked on their acting ability and what the bring to the film, especially SLJ.



We've gone on holiday by mistake
I think they should reboot "Blade" except with a white man.




What's funnier about that, is that if Blade was turned white, there would be uproar...

Yet nobody batted an eyelid at Hispanic Spider Man or a black Perry White or a black Nick Fury.