CHANGING HOLLYWOOD ONE BLACK IMAGE AT A TIME

Caring about what is on our American Television, our American Movies, and our American Books matter because America is ours too.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AVA DuVERNAY

CHANGING BLACK IMAGES IN HOLLYWOOD

ONE MOVIE, ONE TELEVISION SHOW AT A TIME

These media forms are teaching, reteaching, and regurgitating anti-black stereotypes for white people and black people alike. And when the movies, television, and books erase us all together (Oscars So White) it tells white people that they are in the world by themselves and better off that way. And some white people react badly and violently when a brown handed reality slaps them in the face,

http://newsone.com/1058015/anthony-mackie-blacks-hollywood-lazy/

Black people are being influenced by all white dominated movies, television and books too. Where do you think respectability politicians are getting their information on how 'white people would like us and stop killing us if we would only stop doing X and start doing Y if not from what they soak up from mass media (at least partially.  Black children were given the doll test, hating themselves, and failing it long before mass media was very massive.)

At the end of June 2016, Hollywood started taking steps in order to prevent Oscars So White III from occurring.

[Last year] the Board Of Governors of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a record-shattering 683 new members, more that double last year’s 322, which had been the most given keys to Oscar’s kingdom previously. Beyond that though there was tremendous pressure to come up with a list that goes a long way in diversifying the membership, especially to meet the Academy’s goal stated on January 22 to “double the number of diverse members” in the organization by 2020 — meaning women and people of color.

http://deadline.com/2016/06/academy-president-diversity-oscar-voters-change-industry-wants-1201781460/

That was certainly a step in the right direction. But I'm trying to figure out how the Board Of Governors really affects movies get made.

As far as I can tell, this board affects what movies get nominated for Best Picture etc. Of course, if a movie with a predominantly black and brown cast wins then the next black or brown project has better chance of getting funding if there are black and brown people on the board. However, the Sundance Film Festival seems to be one of the only places where new black directors, like Ava DuVernay was a short time ago, can get a serious toe hold in the industry.

For a lot of actors and directors, especially those not-white, getting an Oscar is nearer the middle or the end of the Hollywood career than the beginning.  This means black and brown people need more points of entry.

Already on an inside track, Ava DuVernay has created a few points of entry. She's made a television series for Oprah's OWN called "Queen Sugar" which has generated work for black actors who will later become black directors and black producers. And "Queen Sugar" has some of the most three-dimensional characters on television today


Thanks to Shonda Rhimes, Viola Davis' production company JuVee had enough visibility to get a movie like Lila and Eve on video. I was disappointed "Lila and Eve" didn't really get to theaters but it was decently reviewed. That success plus her visibility raise due to Rhimes' How To Get Away With Murder has enabled her to get a deal with ABC. 

Kerry Washington, who just recently produced the Anita Hill story,  "Confirmation," has also become a high profile figure in Hollywood thanks to Shonda Rhimes. And she too has entered a deal with ABC

The reason we know Jesse Williams  at all  --problematic as he seems right now due to messy divorce -- is because of Shonda Rhimes as well. Rhimes is the reason Williams has had the option to fire agents that were getting him roles such as gangster, janitors, and magical negros. In fact, Shonda Rhimes is one of the reasons that actors do not have to do The Hollywood Shuffle"  and take the stereotypical roles that Denzel and Queen had to take to get a foot in Hollywood's door. And she has allowed numerous black women a chance at directing on her televisions shows...and that includes Ava DuVernay.

Now DuVernay, Davis, and Washington are the reasons a bunch of future black actresses and black actors will have meaningful, race supportive, acting work.

Due to Ava DuVernway, Shonda Rhimes, Mara Brock Akil (Girlfriends, Being Mary Jane) and now Viola and Kerry that I am less and less satisfied with all white casts. I mean, I wasn't satisfied before. But over the past couple of years,  I've started counting the dark skinned folks almost the instant a television show or movie comes on.  In fact, I'm counting the dark-skinned women too. If I don't see SOMEBODY that looks like me and mine in the first fifteen to thirty minutes, my mood gets funky.

This is kind of a weird place to be in, entertainment wise, because I'd almost pay white people to never, ever create a black or brown character without a black or brown writer or producer of equal stature to avoid the creation of deadly stereotypes. 

And when I say equal stature, I do not mean you produce something like CONFEDERATE with two white men that just made GAME OF THRONES and add a couple of black writers who's last project was a video game or something.  Black folks know tokens and shield when we see them.   

White America always manages to take two steps forward, one step back on matters of race. And White Hollywood is no exception

Overall I'd say we're making progress again in Hollywood. And we need to keep up the momentum because we don't need white cops (and black and brown) growing up with white supremacy being taught in their homes and schools being further reinforced by television and movies. We don't need immigrants coming to America predisposed to be violent toward black people because of what they've seen on predominantly white generated television and movies either.

White Hollywood has influence on how much black lives matter to non-black people and it always has. And for so long as Hollywood is too white that influence will be bad.