Many professionals have researched and produced evidence of the existence of racial inequality in the movies industry. Racism in Hollywood is in existence not only in the underrepresentation of actors of color but also in the willingness of movie producers to fund and produce movies directed by blacks and whose main casts are blacks and those from other races. Research by Harwell, Thompson, and Kang shows that minority in America forms 36% of the population. However, they only represent 10% of lead characters and 12% of directors in the movie industry. More specifically the movie industry is composed of 74.1% Whites, 14.1% Blacks, 4.9% Hispanics, 4.4% Asians, 1.1% Middle East, less than 1% American Indians or Alaskans, and 1.2% from other races and ethnicities (Pieper, Choueiti, & Smith, 1). Many Hollywood financiers do not like funding movies made by directors from other races saying that such movies do not attract enough profits in the industry overseas irrespective of the fact that most of the said movies have made more than 30 million dollars in foreign countries. I will use my time at AU to study methods that can be used to counter racism in the movie industry.
For the better part of my life, I have always wanted to help people, I have even worked as a volunteer in nursing homes and orphanages. I believe that people have the right to enjoy better living standards and that the capable in the society should be able to help those who are incapable. I will, therefore, use my time at AU to come up with volunteering and social programs that extend help to such needy people.
Works Cited
Harwell, Drew, Thompson, Krissah and Kang. Cecilia. “Hollywood’s Race Problem: An Insular Industry Struggles to Change”. Washington Post. 2014. Web. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/hollywoods-race-problem-an-insular-industry-struggles-to-change/2014/12/19/d870df04-8625-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html>
Pieper, Katherine, Choueiti, Marc & Smith, Stacy. Race/Ethnicity In Popular 600 Films: Examining on Screen Portrayals and Behind the Camera Diversity. 2014. Web. <http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/Racial%20Inequality%20in%20Film%202007-2013%20Final.ashx>
