Diversity In Holywood – Simple Statistics

The University of Southern California studied the race and ethnicity of more than 30,000 characters to reveal diversity in Holywood.

Researchers have analyzed the 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014, excluding 2011; their findings showed that for nearly a decade, filmmakers have made virtually no progress in portraying more characters from non-white racial and ethnic identities.

Diversity in Hollywood is a bigger issue than it seems. Of the top 100 films of 2014, around three-quarters of all characters were white and just 17 of the most popular movies that year featured non-white lead or co-lead actors. “I realized that white people think that people of color only have ethnic experiences and not universal experiences,” a British blogger commented upon the results. “That really annoyed me. I’m not just eating mangoes all the time with my aggressive mother.”

Such data is very important for understanding that such things as #OscarSoWhite and other trends do not reflect some rage of some small group of people. The absence of diversity in Hollywood and anywhere else is a nation-wide problem and it should be addressed respectfully.