Researchers at the University of Southern California studied the 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014, excluding 2011, and analyzed the race and ethnicity of more than 30,000 characters to reveal diversity in film. The research showed for nearly a decade, filmmakers have made virtually no progress in portraying more characters from non-white racial and ethnic identities. Of the top 100 films of 2014, nearly three-quarters of all characters were white, the study showed. Only 17 of the top movies that year featured non-white lead or co-lead actors.Nikesh Shukla said that “I realized that white people think that people of color only have ethnic experiences and not universal experiences”.Overall, …show more content…
But among the TV companies they examined, Disney and The CW performed best, at 70 percent. Viola Davis’s historic Emmy win served as an important milestone for African American actresses this week, but data suggest that the entertainment industry could do far more to achieve greater diversity in film.Hollywood has a race problem. Hollywood has always had a race problem. The movie industry continues to ignore audiences of color, to its own detriment, given the box office success of movies that do feature diverse casts. It continues to ignore the simple fact that people of color want to see their lives reflected in the movies they watch. Representation is not a lot to ask."The film industry still functions as a straight, White, boy's club," according to a recent study from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. The study examined more than 11,000 speaking characters, 10,000 people working behind the scenes and 414 stories produced by 10 companies in movies, TV and digital platforms."Over 50% of stories featured no Asian speaking characters, and 22% featured no Black or African American characters," it said. "The complete absence of individuals from these backgrounds is a symptom of a diversity strategy that relies on tokenistic inclusion rather than