Interested by the Oscar diversity issue that trended in January, I researched on the subject and created infographics to illustrate what I had found. This is an article that was published on the online magazine I manage: undersoundnews.com.
Hollywood and Oscars Diversity in Numbers
Let’s take a look at how Hollywood reflects the US population diversity. We compared the percentages of racial minorities and women in the total US population with Hollywood’s percentages. We then calculated the difference to see the gap, or the percentage of unrepresented minorities in the industry.
But here’s the interesting part. Everybody agrees, there is a diversity problem in Hollywood: the film industry does not reflect the nation’s diversity. But what about how the Oscars represent the film industry? We calculated the numbers for the last 15 years.
When comparing Hollywood’s numbers with the Oscars nominees, we see there is almost NO DIFFERENCE. The gaps are almost negligible. In fact, the Oscar nominations almost perfectly shadow the (little) diversity Hollywood has to offer.
So are the Oscars the problem? No. The Academy reflects what it can with the ressources given by the industry. The industry is the one with the gaps. With an average of 30.95% of minorities unrepresented, this is what we should look at. This is where we should start.
So are the Oscars the problem? No. The Academy reflects what it can with the ressources given by the industry. The industry is the one with the gaps. With an average of 30.95% of minorities unrepresented, this is what we should look at. This is where we should start.