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Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Octavia Spencer on Diversity in Oscar Nominees: It's 'Not a Reaction to #OscarsSoWhite'
jezebel.com: In a candid interview, best supporting actress nominee Octavia Spencer gently corrects the notion that this year’s Oscar nominees are not a direct reaction to last year’s #OscarsSoWhite brouhaha because that’s not how movies work.
3 comments:
Simone Schneeberg
said...
I find it interesting how people think change can come so quickly, how the uproar of one day can immediately affect the next and engender the outcome that was desired all along.Things do not just magically become different. Yes, people will listen to rational vocalizations of discontent and work towards change, but there has to be action to support and grow that first seed of change. Like Octavia said, if we continue to give our money to the very things we claim to protest, then there will not be the major change we wish to see. There will be no diversity and true representation until we show we actually want it. This has to come not only from our words, from a hashtag tweeted behind an illuminated screen, but also from our actions. In our capitalist society, the fastest way to change is money; if one big corporation can pay to get what they want, then a million people not paying can send a message just as loudly.
It is hard to tell sometimes what is genuine political sentiment and what is a company or industry reacting to backlash. After recent revelations about the CEO of Uber and allegations that their drivers broke the taxi strike at JFK, the hashtag #DeleteUber was trending on twitter. Just then Uber’s main rival, Lyft, promised to donate $1 million to the ACLU, prompting a lot of people to switch from Uber to Lyft. Then Uber promised to help its drivers who were being detained outside the US because of the travel ban. Both Lyft and Uber’s reactions, while they may have been driven by sincere political activism, felt on some level like a marketing campaign. Politics is becoming a selling point and it's clear that companies are realizing that. I also would rather pay to watch tv and movies with diverse characters, but the idea of a company engaging in diversity for the sake of diversity, because they know that it sells, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's the rights actions for the wrong reasons. That's why it’s exciting to me that people like Spencer are taking more behind the scenes positions like producing, because they understand how to tell diverse stories much better than a room of white dudes doing it to get liberals in the seats and having diversity both front of the camera and behind it means that the values of inclusion go deeper than face-value.
I really agree with Spencer said about deciding to support movies that promote diversity. We vote with our money everyday. Everything we buy is us saying we want more of that thing to exist. If as a society we increase monetary support for movies that promote diversity and help create a culture that has a better understanding of the experiences of others, more movies like that will exist. Similarly, as people that work in theater, we can decide what projects we work on. We can try to work on shows/ projects that tell underrepresented stories, or at the very least we can avoid working on (or potentially refuse to work on) projects that reinforce problematic or harmful idea/ stereotypes. There is a lot of power in the way that ordinary people spend their time and money. If we better harness that power, we can hopefully see a world with more movie like Hidden Figures, and a more empathetic society as a result.
3 comments:
I find it interesting how people think change can come so quickly, how the uproar of one day can immediately affect the next and engender the outcome that was desired all along.Things do not just magically become different. Yes, people will listen to rational vocalizations of discontent and work towards change, but there has to be action to support and grow that first seed of change. Like Octavia said, if we continue to give our money to the very things we claim to protest, then there will not be the major change we wish to see. There will be no diversity and true representation until we show we actually want it. This has to come not only from our words, from a hashtag tweeted behind an illuminated screen, but also from our actions. In our capitalist society, the fastest way to change is money; if one big corporation can pay to get what they want, then a million people not paying can send a message just as loudly.
It is hard to tell sometimes what is genuine political sentiment and what is a company or industry reacting to backlash. After recent revelations about the CEO of Uber and allegations that their drivers broke the taxi strike at JFK, the hashtag #DeleteUber was trending on twitter. Just then Uber’s main rival, Lyft, promised to donate $1 million to the ACLU, prompting a lot of people to switch from Uber to Lyft. Then Uber promised to help its drivers who were being detained outside the US because of the travel ban. Both Lyft and Uber’s reactions, while they may have been driven by sincere political activism, felt on some level like a marketing campaign. Politics is becoming a selling point and it's clear that companies are realizing that. I also would rather pay to watch tv and movies with diverse characters, but the idea of a company engaging in diversity for the sake of diversity, because they know that it sells, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's the rights actions for the wrong reasons. That's why it’s exciting to me that people like Spencer are taking more behind the scenes positions like producing, because they understand how to tell diverse stories much better than a room of white dudes doing it to get liberals in the seats and having diversity both front of the camera and behind it means that the values of inclusion go deeper than face-value.
I really agree with Spencer said about deciding to support movies that promote diversity. We vote with our money everyday. Everything we buy is us saying we want more of that thing to exist. If as a society we increase monetary support for movies that promote diversity and help create a culture that has a better understanding of the experiences of others, more movies like that will exist. Similarly, as people that work in theater, we can decide what projects we work on. We can try to work on shows/ projects that tell underrepresented stories, or at the very least we can avoid working on (or potentially refuse to work on) projects that reinforce problematic or harmful idea/ stereotypes. There is a lot of power in the way that ordinary people spend their time and money. If we better harness that power, we can hopefully see a world with more movie like Hidden Figures, and a more empathetic society as a result.
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