2011 Oscars

As I watched the 2011 Oscars, I couldn’t help but notice that there were no African American nominees for the most desired award in film. How can that be? Is it a coincidence?

According to this article, black actors and actresses have accounted for around 12 percent of nominations in the past ten years. That’s just over one in ten nominations is African American.

While it’s a possibility that the lack of African American Oscar nominations is a complete coincidence this year, the recent trends don’t seem likely to happen by random chance.

According to this article, black filmmakers are discouraged by the racial trends in Oscar nominations. Though steps have been made in the recent decade to help.

We all remember in 2002 when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won Best Actor and Actress, the first time two African Americans won. Since then, Forrest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx have won Best Actor and Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Hudson and Mo’Nique have won for supporting roles.

The first black actor nominated for an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind. Her role is considered a controversial role but she was rewarded with a nomination.

Since then, nominations have become more common, but still relatively scarce. Multiple African Americans are rarely nominated for the same award, and are outnumbered year after year.

A couple years ago, the nomination and victory for Slumdog Millionaire, similarly to Crash, might have suggested a spark of even more diversity among Oscar nominations as more minorities were nominated. But this year’s lack of diversity suggests an equally large step in the other direction.

Racial Stereotypes in Basketball

On the day of the NBA All-Star Game, I am interested in racial stereotypes in basketball and the fading identity of the white American NBA player. In today’s game, there are 24 players that make up the rosters. Of those 24 players, just four are white (not including Blake Griffin who’s half white), and only one was born in America. 19 of the 24 players are black.

Is the All-Star Game roster representative of the entire league? Since the players selected to the game are regarded as the best players in the league, it does pretty accurately represent the most talented players.

Is it a coincidence that year after year, African American players outnumber whites on the All-Star roster? Studies have been done on the different styles of play between black and white players. Some argue that there is truth to the racial stereotypes prevalent in basketball for a variety of different reasons.

One argument that interests me is that differences in the average upbringing of whites and blacks are the cause of the trends. This is because of the basketball programs that are available in inner city areas vs. suburban areas.

In inner city areas where only a few basketball courts are readily available, playing time is competitive. The hold the court mentality promotes more one on one skills rather than team skills.

Suburban areas on the other hand present more team coached leagues and more expensive facilities, causing more white players to play a different style of basketball. Unfortunately for white basketball players, if this is the case, NBA success would be harder to come by as it is widely believed that one on one skills are most important at the NBA level.

Other theories, like this article, go into more depth and describe a decline in white American NBA players. While trends sometime seem apparent, I still believe that race has little to do with professional basketball success. In the end, unless you work hard, your race doesn’t.

Women Sports Announcers

I watch sports just about every night. If there’s a good game on, I’m watching it. But since my Chicago teams are rarely on in Indiana, I only get to watch the nationally televised games. No big deal though for me because I watch sports for sports.

A big part of the experience for me is the analysis that comes with the game. I love listening to what everyone presenting the game has to say.

Maybe I watch more hours of sports than I used to, but I’ve noticed more women announcing nationally televised games. This is probably a bad thing, but I feet like as a kid, I’d gotten used to seeing women calling less publicized games on smaller channels.

This got me curious so I set out to see how women have been depicted on the analysis side of sports because it would really be a shame if women were being given worse opportunities in sports broadcasting than men. Jack Brickhouse once said, “Women have another dimension that men cannot give.”

It turns out that the sports broadcasting industry has been making strides in presenting women sportscasters. An article written by Sally Jenkins in 1991 talked about how women sportscasters were paid less than men and got less airtime.

American Sportscasters Online notes that this may have been because of the women’s rights activists of the day:

“‘Part of the blame is in the culture,’ says Jeannie Morris, who finds the feminists of the 90's not as aggressive as they were in the 70's. This means less pressure for the networks to hire females, as the women are not really fighting for the jobs anymore.”

Today, women get much more airtime than they did in the 90’s. American Sportscasters Online lists women pioneers like Suzyn Waldman and Gayle Sierens and credits them for starting women’s move into sports broadcasting. It also notes women like Linda Cohen and Hannah Storm who are regular sports analysts on channels like ESPN CNN and CBS today.

State of the NFL

What better day to talk football than Super Bowl Sunday? But I’m not interested in the game today as much as much as the state of the NFL. In my sports sociology class, we discuss many issues in American sport, including racial issues.

While I hear stories all the time about racially insensitive players, coaches, and fans, I am more concerned with the system. The league as a whole.

After doing some research, I found certain trends in football indicate that some aspects of organized football may be subtly racist. Many have noticed that leadership positions, specifically quarterback, are filled by white players. Maybe this is because of the stereotype that African American players are more athletic while white players are students of the game. Maybe it’s a complete coincidence. But the stats are there.

This article notes a study done by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports that claims even tough a majority of D-1 football players are not white, most leadership roles are performed by white players and coaches.

It’s interesting that the article brings up coaches. I think as long as we’re discussing the decision makers in football and questioning their racial diversity, we should examine the coaches.

It took until 1989, when Art Shell was chosen for the Raiders job, for an African American to become a head coach in the NFL. Since then 13 more have earned stints, including two Super Bowl winners. Recently more African Americans have been given the opportunity to coach at the NFL level, but still, there were only six in 2010, compared to 26 white coaches.

The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports also notes in its annual NFL Racial and Gender Report Card that all of the NFL majority owners are white; The people who make the real decisions and control the entire system.

Even though a majority of the actual NFL players are minorities, most everyone in control of the league is white. Maybe it’s a coincidence, but the trends could suggest otherwise.

Give them what they want

We talked about All in the Family in class this week and how it pushed the boundaries of its viewers and their beliefs. The show was in its time, and still is today, one of TV’s most popular shows. It first aired in 1971 and paved the way for modern television.

The show’s unique comfort with racial boundaries made it extremely popular as it recorded the highest ratings on TV for five straight years. Today, we see shows that display similar disregard for political correctness, like South Park and Always Sunny in Philadelphia. And these shows thrive on their edgy content. But in its time, All in the Family introduced a brand new genre and as it turned out, people enjoy it.

Because All in the Family was so widely accepted, it became clear that people enjoy watching racy content.

The year after All in the Family began airing, HBO started. According to the National Cable and telecommunications Association, it was the very first pay-TV network. HBO has become very popular over the past 40 years partially because it plays by different rules than regular cable TV.

Since you have to subscribe to receive HBO, they are allowed to display more explicit content than cable TV. Some of the most popular shows on TV today run on HBO even though you have to pay extra for it. Maybe they pick the best shows, but I’d argue that people are willing to pay for HBO because HBO is allowed to show edgier shows.

Shows like the Sopranos and Entourage would not be allowed on cable TV uncut and the HBO exclusive version is much more appealing to many. Subscribers are essentially paying for the added nudity and profanity in their shows.

This notion that people are more interested in mature content is prevalent in all forms of media. And it’s not just used for comedic purposes. Movies like Saw and Hostel intentionally push the viewers boundaries with graphic images because people want their boundaries pushed.

Hollywood wouldn’t make shows and movies like this if they weren’t making money and they’re making money because the people approve.

Diversity in film

In class this week, we focused on the depictions of different minorities in film. We examined stereotypes and how they are used in Hollywood. But I believe that it is most important that we understand why movies use stereotypes when presenting minorities.

In the movies, the top priority at all times is to keep things believable. And not just believable to the filmmakers, but to the target audience. For that to be possible, the filmmakers try to keep things simple.

But simplifying things in a make-believe world can have consequences in real life. This is because of the immense power Hollywood can have on public opinion. Movies have gotten so believable that much of what is in them is believed.

This can be especially problematic because many people tend to get much, if not all, of their experience in different areas from movies. Take war movies for example. Many, probably most, people have never fought in a war. They’ve never used a gun, seen an explosion, or had their lives threatened. But through movies, they have an experience with it, or at least a Hollywood version of it.

This is true in other types of movies, including those that present other cultures or races. It is common for people to spent more time with others of their own race or culture. They often don’t have their own experience with people of other cultures and sculpt their opinions of these cultures off their depictions in movies.

It is important that people get out and experience other cultures for themselves so that they can build their own relationships with those cultures. But it is equally important that the movies do more to promote diversity.

Instead of using stereotypes to simply describe groups of people, Hollywood should explore new cultures and open eyes to diverse stories. Movies like Slumdog Millionaire where the main characters are not white, and that don’t take place in America, are essential to changing the mindset about minorities because they don’t just promote stereotypes.