LawtonEnglish 10225 Apr. 2000Minorities and the Film IndustryIt’s September, the kids are back in school, and it’s time for another new season of television. Another round of must see Felicity, Friends, and Frasier, with a side of ER and some Nash Bridges for dessert. Loads and loads of Caucasian males and females making us laugh, and cry. What you do not see are Black, Hispanic, or other minorities making us laugh, and cry. In this day and age, where everyone gets a fair shot at doing what they really love, the same can not be said for minorities in the film industry. More and more minorities are being turn away in favor of Caucasian actors. It’s not only actors that are feeling the pinch, its also writers, directors, producers, and network execs.This past fall season, of the 26 new fall programs, none had a minority cast in the lead. A recent report by a San Francisco advocacy group found 80 percent of all primetime characters are white, 13 percent are black, and 3 percent are from all other minority groups.(The Christian Science Monitor). I don’t know about you but these numbers do not sit right with me. Attempts by the NAACP to fight this problem have been successful. In an agreement, which began January 6, the NAACP agreed with networks such as ABC and NBC, to hire minorities, to purchase more from minority businesses, to cast minorities in leads and other roles, and to ensure that diversity is brought about at other levels. However helpful this may be, minorities hope that such moves do not lead to token roles, with minorities chosen for their skin color, not their talent. “The second you start legislating a fix with quota systems, you open the door to people grabbing someone of the right race as a seat filler.” (Christian Science Monitor.) Says Samantha Corbin, a writer on The Practice. You might ask yourself “Why can’t we go back to the good old 70’s, when everyone loved S...
