Diversity in Hollywood: a movement or moment?

Cub Reporter

The first time I remember seeing a film with actors that looked like me was when my mom took me to see “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018. I was 13 years old. The feeling of seeing someone who looked like me surrounded by elegance and projected thirty feet tall made the world seem limitless.

For those identifying as white, straight or a predominant group in the United States, seeing people who look like them in mass media is not something they think about often. In film and TV, there are virtually endless variations of them reflected on screen, from doctors to superheroes. However, the lack of diversity is much more noticeable for those not represented in film and media.

Today, movies and television do not simply provide entertainment; they inspire, allowing audiences to develop a connection with characters. For film and television to be genuinely relatable, they must reflect the world we live in. Shea McHugh, president of the Anti-Racism Book Club, also noted the importance of diversity.

“[Diversity] is realistic… There are tons of different people worldwide, so film is much more interesting with a diverse range of stories,” McHugh said.

This is one of the many reasons diversity in Hollywood is essential. According to the University of California, Los Angeles’ 2023 diversity report, an indepth study on diversity throughout the film industry, only about two out of 10 lead actors are people of color.

At Redwood, 74 percent of students identify as white, while 26 percent identify with an ethnic minority group. This includes Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic or Native American. Nearly 80 percent of those identifying with an ethnic minority group felt unrepresented in film.

The roots of systemic racial issues are deeply embedded in our collective history. Historically, white male voices dominated the film industry, marginalizing people of color and minority individuals. When marginalized groups appeared on screen, the industry did so through the proliferation of stereotypes: donning blackface and exaggerated caricatures. Then the counterculture of Civil Rights and Feminism movements introduced a new wave of film. But, it was not until the began, with films from “Family Matters” to “Boyz N the Hood.” Mr. Minhondo, the Ethnic Studies and Film teacher, further commented on this shift in Hollywood.

“People of color could not really tell their story until the 1990s. You could talk about breakthrough artists like Bruce Lee in the 70s. He had this power in the industry, but as much as he tore down stereotypes, he also created a new stereotype… The civil rights movement [likewise] opened doors in some ways. [Especially] for Black filmmaking in the late 60s, but the films were [mainly] the only way to get audiences is through stereotypes,” Minhondo said.

When diversity is implemented with stereotypical characters, that diversity does not become inclusive but inaccurate. Stereotypes, whether the token minority sidecharacter, the loud Black woman or the Asian doctor, all evolved through time and are still present in today’s media. For instance, the iconic 90s film “Clueless” and today’s “Stranger Things” feature the minority best friend trope.

McHugh and Jeffery Gee Chin, a former Redwood student and current filmmaker in Los Angeles, both touched upon this issue.

“[Diversity] helps destigmatize groups. However, you might only know [a certain minority] through media, and if the media you consume has exclusively stereotypes, that’s what you’re going to know. That’s the thing; it must be good representation,” McHugh said.

“Specifically for Asian Americans, we are constantly represented from an immigrant perspective… So when are we going to see more stories where characters just happen to be Asian?… I think that is the level of evolution in the type of stories we need to see because of how the world

This commonality in the film industry is primarily due to production behind the scenes. 17 directors and 12 writers, out of 100, are people of color, according to the 2023 UCLA diversity report.

“On an executive level, Hollywood has still failed to provide representation at the top… Hiring more diverse people to be on their executive board and President level is the next step,” Chin said.

Diana Sanchez Maciel, the education program manager for the California Film Institute, commented on the origin of this

“Writers and producers know that whatever show they produce might get backlash if there’s no diversity. Commonly writers are white. Therefore, there are stereotypes because they… do not know about [minorities’] experiences… They’re just writing these two-dimensional characters to support. So it’s still a structural problem. The people in the room are starting to realize that they must invite those who share those experiences to write solid characters,” Maciel said. In the broadest sense, the film industry’s goal is views and money, which bleeds into their use of diversity in production.

“Companies are trying to appeal to the largest possible demographic, so they pick someone they think everyone can project – a specific demographic. But anything other than a cis white man is seen as deviant when in reality it’s completely normal,” McHugh said.

Despite the backlash Hollywood receives for stereotypes in film, many claim the industry is moving in the right direction.

“Right now, there is a new kind of wave for Hollywood to catch up with society… and you see that in films in the past five years especially,” Maciel said.

The turning point for more accurate and diverse representation is recent. Maciel argues this transition is largely due to the success of the 2016 Oscars’ best motion picture winner, “Moonlight.” The film is racially diverse and socially diverse with LGBTQ+ plot points. Following this

“Snowfall,” “Encanto,” “Everything, Everywhere, All At Once” and soon a “The Little Mermaid’’ remake, starring a Black actor Halle Bailey. When film starts to include diversity through accurate representation, it starts to have an impact on its audience, like Ayden Ji, a senior interested in pursuing a career in film.

“I am of Asian descent. So when movies like [“Everything Everywhere All at Once”] come out it shows that there is a lot of potential for diversity in film… Which makes me excited to see what I can do [in the film industry]. But I am a little bit scared because of industry standards, including my race. I don’t want to be limited by that,” Ji said.

Jefferey Chin also reminisced on the impact of representation.

“Growing up in Marin, there were not many Asian students… as well as not much exposure to Asian American role models. So having representation, both in front of the camera and behind the camera, I think has given the whole next generation of artists, of all backgrounds, the confidence that there’s potential for a career in the film and TV industry,” Chin said.

In addition to the industry moving in the right direction there are ways for it to improve, particularly in terms of emphasizing opportunities for independent and indie filmmakers.

“[Independent] filmmakers have been doing festival circuits for years… remaining true to their art form and perspective,” said Maciel. “But it’s places like film festivals’ roles to create an opening to these voices…whether adding categories for emerging filmmakers or waiving fees.”

Despite Hollywood’s stained history, it is impossible to ignore the immense advancement. On one hand, we have seen much progress since the days of blackface and Mr. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” but society still has much to do.

“[The film industry] is moving in a direction where it is more accepting and culturally understanding,” Ji said. “But it is gonna be a long process of taking Hollywood down to realism instead of stereotypes.”

The spunaround iPad at a checkout blinks expectantly. Ten percent, 15 percent or 20 percent? Since its introduction to the United States (U.S.) in the 1800s by European travelers, tipping has allowed Americans to express their gratitude with dollars. But now, with rising prices and a heightened awareness of the often poor conditions in the industry caused by tipping, the tides have shifted and the longstanding expectation of tipping is faltering.

Originally, tipping was meant to serve as a means to reward good service and to offset the high labor costs of running a restaurant. However, the widespread reliance on tipping can perpetuate a variety of inequalities. According to an analysis by Eater of U.S. census data, white servers make more in tips than other racial groups: the median hourly tip for white servers from 2010 to 2016 was $7.06, compared to $6.08 for Latino servers, $5.57 for Black servers and $4.77 for Asian servers.

Ann Tepovich, an Advanced Placement (AP) Economics teacher, said that according to labor economists, tipping can provide a justification for lower wages.

“An employer can say, ‘Well, you’re going to make this [wage] plus tips so I don’t have to raise your base salary.’ When I had a job in high school, I earned less than minimum wage because I earned tips. And that is really, to me, somewhat exploitative because there’s no guarantee [of income],” Tepovich said.

At the root of the continued reliance on tipping in America is the lower status of tipped work. According to Tepovich, this results in lower wages for restaurant employees and an increased reliance

Tepovich said. “In [socialized European] countries, workers tend to have a stronger voice… If you have a homogenous view that all work is good work, you tend to see higher wages, even for base-level jobs.”

As an understanding of the low wages of the restaurant industry has spread, so has the expectation of tipping — beyond restaurant checks and dine-in services and into the realm of touch screens at coffee shops and takeout. Tepovich said that the rise of touch-screen tipping has created a new reality: tips based on guilt rather than service, especially in businesses where tipping previously wasn’t the norm.

“They’re calling it tipflation — that you feel pressured [to tip more] because that person is standing there… I have two dynamics pushing me: One, the nice barista, standing there, staring at me. Two, that I don’t feel [the purchase] as much. I’m using plastic or my Apple watch. So it’s both of these psychological dynamics that are forcing this,” Tepovich said. “Maybe we’re tipping less each time, but we’re tipping more on things that we

Tepovich,

really low hourly rate so you wouldn’t make anything if you didn’t get tips.”

Despite her history with tipping, Davis says that she’s experienced the phenomenon of tipflation as well.

“[Tipping has] put the [burden] of paying a living wage to employees onto the consumers,” Davis said. “The big con of depending on tipping is that it’s creating the issue of [the lack of a liveable wage] so that the employer can get away with not paying their employees a living wage.” landscape of food ordering platforms — dine-in, delivery and takeout alike — has also influenced the rise of tipflation. According to a 2023 Bark survey, students tip differently depending on where they’re getting food; 82 percent of surveyed students tip for dine-in services and 53 percent tip for delivery while only 33 percent tip for takeout.

Tipping can present a moral as well as an economic dilemma for customers. Bay area resident Cassie Davis, who worked as a waitress throughout her college and graduate school years, has tipped more ever since working in the restaurant industry due to her more informed understanding of the difficult conditions and low wages in the service industry.

“My experience led me to generously tip most of my adult life because I knew what a hard job it was,” Davis said. “In different states at the time, there was a

Local parent Debra Hilleboe said that although she’s accustomed to tipping 20 percent for dine-in, she’s felt a recent pressure to tip more for pick-up and delivery.

“[Touch screen tipping] has now set an expectation that everywhere you have to tip,” Hilleboe said. “You feel more guilty now because [for takeout]… when you’re checking out, it asks you to tip and so you feel like, ‘Am

I supposed to be tipping? But I’m not really getting service, so why am I tipping?’”

According to a 2023 Bark survey, nearly half of surveyed students tip 10 percent for take-out, while only one in ten students tip 20 percent. Molly Goldstein, a sophomore who works at Mag’s Local Yogurt in Larkspur, says that her job has led her to tip more regardless of the type of restaurant.

“Even if it’s the smallest thing, I still will tip because I know it makes [employees] feel good,” Goldstein said. “Maybe they’ve had a long day and they’ve dealt with rude customers or [they’re overworked] or maybe they haven’t been getting all the tips… I know that they’re doing a good job even if it’s not the best customer service.”

Within restaurants as well as outside of them, tipping can lead to a variety of inequalities, as Tepovich explained.

“Right now, tipping isn’t really fair if you’re in the kitchen. It’s great if servers due to a decrease in their pay.

Both restaurants reverted back to tipping in less than a year. Tepovich spoke about a similar instance in New York in which the higher-end restaurant chain of Union Square Hospitality Group chose to raise the prices on their menu in order to phase out the expectation of tipping.

“Their thinking was that it could be more equally distributed because then the restaurant can share those increases in profits by paying the workers more,” Tepovich said. This decision, however, was met with backlash from customers — a result of the loss of consumer choice when switching to a tipless model.

“I think it’s a lot of the psychology of how we feel as the consumer. We want to feel like we are in control,” Tepovich said. “You sit down and look at the menu and you’re like, ‘Are you kidding me, charging $22 for a burger?’ People really pushed back [against raising prices]. But in the end, after you tip, you’re still probably paying $22 for that burger.”

As the prices of goods and services rise, it can be hard to sacrifice even a dollar.