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Danielle Driscoll
Dr. Steffen Guenzel
ENC1102H-0205
11 April 2016
The Milennial Sorority Racism of Hollywood
Anyone that knows about the entertainment industry knows that the most prestigious day
in Hollywood is the Oscars. The Oscars are the Emerald City at the end of the Yellow Brick
Road, or in the Oscars case, the red carpet. It has been a reknowned day full of class and
prestige. So, when Chris Rock delivered his controversial opening monologue as host of the
Oscars, the internet blew up. Rocks monologue slammed the Academy with the opening lines,
Im here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the White Peoples Choice Awards. You
realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldnt even get this job. So yall would be watching Neil
Patrick Harris right now. Neil Patrick Harris, a white man, was the host of the 2015 Oscars. The
reason behind such a racially focused opening to the show, is due to the fact that zero nominees
were Black. In fact, every nominee was White, with no minorities nominated for an award. This
sparked an outrage in Hollywood. This was so offensive that many Black celebrities such as the
Smith family, along with many others, chose to boycott the Oscars. This has not been the only
instance in which there has been a selective list of nominees with underlying racial prejudices.
Despite the advancements made as a country for equality amongst Blacks and Whites (dating
back to the 60s at the time of the Civil Rights Movement), there is still racism in 2016 in the
most popular and wealthy industry in the world: Hollywood.

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It is in fact shocking that in the year of 2016, the most respected entertainment hub, is
criticized under the spotlight for discriminating against minority talent. There have been
numerous reasons for this racism, which Chris Rock likes to call sorority racism. In Rocks
monologue he stated sorority racism in a clever way, Is it burning-cross racist? No. Is it fetchme-some-lemonade racist? No. No, no, no. Its a different type of racistHollywood is sorority
racist. Its like We like you Rhonda, but youre not a Kappa. Hollywood is selective in their
casting and nominating, but somehow the nominations and jobs never fall into the hands of
Black actors. When these jobs do fall into the hands of these talented celebrities, they often are
cast as supporting roles that are detrimental to improving the all-around stereotypes pinned on
Black people. In movies like Compton, the Blacks are seen as violent, drug-addicts with their
pants sagging low and no respect for women. In other movies such as Django: Unchained, Jamie
Foxx plays a runaway slave that kills a lot of people. The Black characters in almost all movies,
excluding comedies, are supporting roles where they die in the end or they fulfill the negative
stereotypes against their race. This, then creates an all around negative image of a Black person,
making it not a desirable candidate for a movie because nobody will want to go see it. By
nobody, I mean White people, considering White people are the biggest audience to the film
industry. This racial discrimination in movies then leads White consumers to resonate more with
actors of their own skin color, making White actors much more profitable to these large
corporations than a Michael Duncan Clark. Even other minorities such as Latino actors
acknowledge that diversity is a problem in Hollywood due to greed. Gina Rodriguez, a Latina
actor in the hit TV series, Jane the Virgin, commented on this greed, Hollywood isnt about
racism, its about money, (Moreno). That is why they cast more White actors than say a George

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Lopez or a Kerry Washington for many roles, because the White audience, the biggest movie
consumer group, will be much more excited to see a movie starring an Anne Hathaway or a Brad
Pitt than a Madea Jones movie with Tyler Perry. It is evident: Hollywood has a fetish with the
White race, especially Male actors.
Hollywood is believed to have this obsession with White men as the biopics and lead
characters for movies. Kelsey McKinney did a survey in which she studied 120 famous highgrossing films that has received over $3 million in box office profits and also had appraised
criticism. She provides a chart that shows that of these 120 movies, 78 of these movies had
White men as the lead, followed by 21 White women, then 18 movies with Black men as the lead
and only 3 Black women having substantial roles in these movies. This means that 65% of
biopics are about White men. This is not to say that these men do not deserve their roles,
paychecks, and praise, because they do. However, what is frustrating is how little these White
men have to do to receive such love and approval from the audience in comparison to a female or
minority actor. A Brad Pitt or Hugh Jackman can simply take their shirt off, flex their extremely
toned muscles, and they get nominated for an Oscar. Black actors on the other hand have to be
slaves in an old Western film or sacrifice themselves in some subservient, inhumane fashion in
order to receive any type of attention: positive OR negative. However, Black actors are not the
only minority receiving the short end of this racism stick.
Latinos and women can also be seen as minorities within the film industry. Going back
to McKinneys statistics she states, Its amazing that in a society that is 50 percent women and
40 percent people of color, that 65 percent of bipics are about white men, to which she then
continues to say, When we look at this data, the wealth of stories about white men becomes

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overwhelming. Not only are people of color rarely portrayed in major theater releases (17.5
percent), but women too are very overlooked (20 percent). This means that only 17.5% and 20%
of Blacks and Women are portrayed as important characters in critically acclaimed films. The
problem with this is that the audience becomes desensitized to the sorority discrimination
against Blacks, Latinos, and women. Thus, change within the industry becomes very hard,
because Hollywood has fallen into the money quicksand and they cant seem to find their way
out of White men prejudices. Not only is this undeniable racism affecting the actors that need
employment within the industry, but it also affects those watching these shows that do not
properly represent or even show the minorities.
Like I said, Latinos are in fact cast out in Hollywood as well. Latinos and Blacks alike
feel that their racial groups are not being properly represented in the media, which in turn creates
a negative image of that entire race. Not only does it influence the White audience to shy away
from minorities as lead characters and resonate with solely White talent, but it negatively affects
the self-esteem and mindset of these minority actors. In Carolina Morenos interview with actor
Gina Rodriguez, Rodriguez discusses her desire to change the way media approaches and views
diversity and minorities: I want to change the idea of minorities in the mediaGrowing up, I
never saw my home life reflected on screen, and that made me feel a certain way about myself.
Its not only about my ethnicity; she continues, It made me feel a certain way about my beauty.
Not seeing a woman like me as a lead made me feel like Id never by skinny enough, Id never be
pretty enough. This statement from Rodriguez, the lead character in Jane the Virgin, proves
that the sorority racism in Hollywood is negatively affecting the minds of those minorities
watching these TV shows and movies where they are not present or represented in a stereotypical

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manner. Despite the obvious racism, Hollywood and the Academy claims to be making great
strides to change this view of so many.
Before the 2016 Oscars even took place, there was an outrage against the Academy due to
the early release of the nominees. When the nominees were released and no Black or Latino
actors were listed on the ballots, there was an uproar amongst every day consumers and
celebrities alike. Hollywood tried to react to this by making almost all of the award presenters
Black, such as Kevin Hart and of course the host of the Oscars, Chris Rock. Hollywood and the
Academy obviously deny any type of participation in racial tendencies. Yet, if they are so
ademate about the fact that they are promoting diversity in the industry, why did it take an out
rage against the nominees for them to hire all Black presenters? Not only that, but the Academy
came out with a report stating that they would double the amount of minority members within
the next 4 years. If Hollywood is not racist, why is there such an instantaneous push for this
integration and diversity in Hollywood? It is because Hollywood knows that they have been
participating in these racist and sexist habits. People feel threatened only when there is truth in
whatever they are threatened by. Therefore, Hollywood and the Academy saw these slams as a
threat due to the truth behind the racial comments condemning the Academy. This makes in
evident that Hollywood is in fact racist.
In conclusion, Chris Rocks monologue for the 2016 Oscars created the largest
controversy against the Academy to this day. He attacked the Academys reputation by calling
them out for their sorority racism habits, that is, their selectiveness and exclusivity of
nominations and overall lack of diversity in Hollywood movies today. While women and Latinos
also fall victim to this racism, it is mainly the Black population that feels undermined by this

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years Oscar nominations. This problem has been ongoing for almost half a century, and the
Academy is just now deciding to respond to the hate and backlash, because they know that they
are in fact participating in prejudice behaviors. The reason behind these behaviors and
involuntary racism, is due to the bankability of the White male as a lead role in a movie. White
people are the largest audience in terms of watching movies at a theater. Therefore, White males
are cast more than any other person (female, Latino, Black), due to the fact that more people will
go watch a movie with Will Ferrel in it than Samuel L. Jackson. Hollywood claims that they are
not racist and are making strides to incorporate more diversity into the industry. However, this
quick and exaggerated reaction to the criticism against the Academy shows the racism taking
place, otherwise they wouldnt feel obligated to make Chris Rock the host of the 2016 Oscars.
Again, Like Chris Rock said in his monologue, Hollywood is racist. Are they burn-them-at-thestake-or-lynch-them racist? Absolutely not. Hollywood, the richest industry in the world, after
almost 50 years after integration and equality laws for Blacks and Whites, is still racist; sorority
racist.

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