Opinion
East side story
Asian actors voice their stuggles in Hollywood And out of the 14 movies that had an underrepresented lead, no leads or co193105@sycamoreschools. leads were played by an Asian actor. The lack of representation does not want to be them one day,” I derive from a shortage of Asian talent; thought, enchanted with the rather, whenever there is a chance in leading actresses in the movie. Hollywood to cast an Asian actor or ‘I want to become an actress.’ It was actress, whitewashing, the practice of a dream like many others, but when I casting white actors in non-white roles, voiced my thoughts to my mother, she often occurs. told me that I better learn Chinese to While the directors may not have start a career in China. malicious intent against the minority, Did she say this because she was Asians in Hollywood have taken racist? to Twitter to speak up No. She against this prominent said this Maybe one day you’ll play practice using the hashtag, because she Snow White, but some people #WhitewashedOUT. believed Criticisms have varied already have a preconceived that there from Scarlett Johansson’s was more image of what Snow White portrayal in “Ghost in a opportunity Shell” to even the modeling looks like, my mom said. for me industry, where Karlie there. Kloss poses as a geisha at the front cover of Vogue’s diversity issue. Raising Awareness But the versatile hashtag does not Although my aspirations have exclusively apply to Asians, rather, it faded, my awareness of the lack of gives a voice to all those frustrated with representation of minorities has Hollywood’s diversity problem. only grown. For the longest time, The makers of the hashtag explained Caucasian actors have dominated their campaign in The Nerds of Color the industry, leading up to last year’s blog post. #OscarsSoWhite parading in headlines, “We want Hollywood studios, drawing attention to Hollywood’s lack of producers, and casting directors to stop diversity. casting white people in Asian roles — or While the acknowledgment of black any roles that should be filled by people actors has been steadily improving, of color,” they said. Asian actors and actors of other minorities are rarely in the spotlight. As reported by the Huffington Post, #WhitewashedOUT only one percent of Oscar nominations Twitter feed: in the last 89 years were awarded to Asian actors. According to Dr. Stacy L. Smith’s study that evaluated 800 popular films “Growing up wishing you in 2015, 73.7 percent of characters were were white so you could be white while only just 3.9 percent of characters in stories,” tweeted characters were Asian. Youtube Star Anna Akana, utilizing the trending hashtag.
JESSICA LU staff writer
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Opinion
Whitewashing in action “The Last Airbender”: The 2010 live action movie based Avatar the Last Airbender, an anime consisting of people from Asian and Inuit culture, had the opportunity to cast the underrepresented minorities. Nearly the entire cast was was whitewashed, with the exception of “Aloha”: Although the film may aim to educate its audience about Hawaiian culture and history, many viewers cannot overlook the predominately white casting arrangement. One of the biggest targets is none other than Emma Stone, whose character’s heritage includes being a quarter Hawaiian and a “Ghost in a Shell”: The film has yet to premiere, but already has drawn a tremendous amount of controversy over casting Scarlett Johansson as the protagonist. The manga, on which the film is based, features Japanese culture and a Japanese heroine.
“I worry most about kids, who are absorbing all of these messages about who’s really important, whose stories matter,” tweeted Nicole Chung, the managing editor at Catapult.
Opinion
Stuck on Stereotypes
Photo courtesy of German Silva
Unfortunately, the Asian actors and actresses that do appear on television shows and movies are often confined into the same old stereotypical roles: uptight scholars obsessed with academics, martial artists, dragon ladies, etc. Lucy Liu, one of the few famous Chinese actresses in Hollywood, once expressed her frustration about typecasting in an interview.
Even at the 2016 Oscar Awards, Chris Rock, after ridiculing the lack of diversity, proceeded to bring in Asian children as “bankers” and started to make jokes that promoted the stereotypes. Despite the attempt to include more diversity into Hollywood, the representation of Asians is littered with the common practices of whitewashing and stereotypes. Now, Asian actors and other supporters are speaking out more than ever against these issues in Hollywood, and they show no signs of stopping.
“I wish people wouldn’t just see me as the Asian girl who beats everyone up, or the Asian girl with no emotion. People see Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock in a romantic comedy, but not me,” Liu said.
Discrimination in casting? Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore
Constance Wu, who stars in “Fresh Off the Boat” and has been known for being outspoken about this issue, said, “An Asian person who is competing against white people, for an audience of white people, has to train for that opportunity like it’s the Olympics.” “An incredibly talented Asian actor might be considered for a leading role maybe once or twice in a lifetime. That’s a highly pressured situation,” Wu said.
Brutal responses A letter representing disappointed viewers such as George Takei from “Star Trek” and director Ang Lee was written in retaliation to Rock’s joke. “In light of criticism over #OscarsSoWhite, we were hopeful that the telecast would provide the Academy a way forward and the chance to present a spectacular example of inclusion and diversity. Instead, the Oscars show was marred by a tone-deaf approach to its portrayal of Asians.” “We’d like to know how such tasteless and offensive skits could have happened and what process you have in place to preclude such unconscious or outright bias and racism toward any group in future Oscars telecasts,” they said.
Chloe Bennet from “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” has a Chinese father and a Caucasian mother. Formerly known as Chloe Wang, Bennet changed her last name because of her struggles to get cast. After changing her last name, however, Bennet noticed an immediate improvement in her reception. “Oh, the first audition I went on after I changed my name, I got booked. So that’s a pretty clear little snippet of how Hollywood works,” Bennet told the Daily Beast.
SHS students speak up
“I was kind of surprised that I haven’t noticed these examples of whitewashing. “Hamilton” is a good example of a diverse cast and that was really cool to see. It was one of my favorite things about the show,” said Andre Harte, 9. “I alwaysupsee Indians “Growing wishing you play were the same characters: the nerdy IT guy, the weird best friend, or just a character that has to be white so you could be char-Indian for the storyline. To me, diversity is when a character that could be played anyonetweeted is chosen to be played by a minority. It shows that the demographics in America acters by in stories,” Youtube Star Anna Akana, is becoming more diverse,” said Nandita Kulkarni, 10. are changing and America utilizing trending hashtag. “In the the entertainment and Hollywood industry, it should be talent over gender, race, and age. Diversity should be celebrated across all spectrums, especially in the media, because we are exposed to it every day in SHS,” said Anita Pan, 11. Opinion