#OscarsSoWhite forces Changes in the Academy

Due to the backlash of the Oscar nominees being so white, the academy has got together and reset the rules.

The new rules will increase the number of women and minorities in the academy by 2020 and limiting lifetime voting rights. Personally, I wish they can fast forward this for next year, but hey, you can't fight city hall.

LA Times have the scoop:

The new academy rules are designed to speed up the process of change, as the board passed a series of measures that would remove from its voting rolls members who have not been active in the film industry for many years and establish a precedent requiring active engagement in the industry for new members. The new rules stipulate that:

• Each new member's voting status will last 10 years and will be renewed if that member has been active in motion pictures during that decade.

• Members will receive lifetime voting rights after three 10-year terms or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.

• Those who do not qualify for active status will be moved to emeritus status, which means they enjoy the privileges of membership, such as access to screenings and events, but cannot vote on the Oscars.

It's a great first step, however, it's a bigger problem within the studios. The changes have to start with the writers, creators and director. The next step is to get these studios together.

Can You Name 7 Superheroes of Color?

Decoded's host Franchesca Ramsey went to New York Comic Con and asked "Why aren't there more superheroes of color?" and "Is there a double standard to accepting, and supporting, stories featuring people of color?"

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Abortion, Race and the Broken Congress

WATCH! Mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice together to discuss Race and Justice

New (Kinda) Research: Three quarters of whites don’t have any non-white friends

According Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, most white Americans don't have non-white friends. This research done in August, but it has popped up again due to the Michael Brown case.

This chart/pic is very telling and sad in a lot of ways

Are we that far apart?

Jose Zamora Whitewashed his Name to Get Interviews - VIDEO

Three quarters of Whites don’t have any Friends of Color

In not so surprising news, another study has revealed another interesting bit of info.

White folks have less friends of color. I'm not not shocked, but in an ever-changing society I thought things were changing... Hmmm.

This study comes from Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute

Let's consider the average American white American and the average American black American, and let's say, for simplicity's sake, that each of them have 100 friends. If you were to break down their respective friend networks by race, they would look something like this

In a 100-friend scenario, the average white person has 91 white friends; one each of black, Latino, Asian, mixed race, and other races; and three friends of unknown race. The average black person, on the other hand, has 83 black friends, eight white friends, two Latino friends, zero Asian friends, three mixed race friends, one other race friend, and four friends of unknown race.

To put it another way: Blacks have ten times as many black friends as white friends. But white Americans have an astonishing 91 times as many white friends as black friends.

There are a number of factors driving these numbers. Simple population counts are one of them: there are more white people than black people in the U.S., so it makes sense that the average American is going to have more white friends than black friends.

Interesting, but sad info read about.

source

Huge Racial Divisions in Reactions to the Michael Brown Shooting

Finally, there is a poll that points out the racial divide in the Michael Brown incident. The new poll was conducted by the Pew Research Center during Aug. 14-17 among 1,000 adults. The info was surprisingly, not shocking, but disheartening to read.

Here are some key findings:

• 37% of whites think the ‪‎Michael Brown‬ shooting "raises important issues about race."
• 47% of whites think "race is getting more attention than it deserves."
• 33% of whites say the police have gone too far
• 32% of whites say the police response has been about right
• 35% of whites offer no response

This is really sad to see. We are not moving fast enough in 2014. We still have a long road ahead.

source

Infographic: There have been no women of color protagonists in top grossing sci-fi and fantasy films

A Deep Look at the Whiteness of Gay TV

Vox contributor Alex Abad-Santos pens an interesting piece about the lack of color in LGBT films and shows.

Alex points out:

These characters have shown people that gay parents are just like any other parents, that gay men are just like any other men, and that gay people are just as imperfect as their straight counterparts. But if your knowledge about gay life and the gay rights movement came solely from television and movies, you might think that the only people fighting the good fight are good-looking, affluent gay white men and their good-looking, affluent white boyfriends and husbands. 

There's nothing wrong with gay, white, male television characters. The problem arises when that becomes the only example of gay life that we see. What are we missing when we don't acknowledge non-white gay characters?

Further in the piece, we learn the truth about the demographics within our community.

White men don't represent the majority of the LGBT community," Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute at UCLA, said. Gates studies the demographics of the LGBT community. He explained that gay white men only make up 22 percent of LGBT people. 

Gates explained what a hypothetical show featuring LGBT young adults would look like if it reflected the current demographics of LGBT Americans. He explained that if you had a show with a cast of 20 characters who were LGBT, two-thirds of the women would be bisexual, and one-third of the women would be lesbians, while two-thirds of the men would be gay, and one-third would be bi. "Close to half of them would be non-white," he said.

There is so much that needs to be done here. I will write my views on the impact of this matter. Because we don't see ourselves on film, many LGBT of color struggle to be. And when we are not at the creative table, how do our stories get told?

Yeah, I will continue this topic.

New Report: Hollywood continues to ignore Diversity

UCLA's Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies released its 2014 Hollywood Diversity Report the other day. Oh, and if you are having a bad day, don't read this yet.

The results are not cute at all— especially, for women and minorities. Then, when you get into the race breakdown, you may need a two piece and a cocktail.

Here are just a few of the results:

Broadcast Comedies and Dramas

Show creator share: Asian=0% (n=96) Black=3.1%, Latino=1%, White=95.8%

Lead actor share: Asian=1% (n=99) Black=3%, Latino=1%, White=95%

Second actor share: Asian=1% (n=98) Black=8.2%, Latino=3.1%, Native=1%, Mixed=2%, White=84.7%

Cable Comedies and Dramas

Show creator share: Asian=1.4% (n=148) Black=6.1%, White=92.6%

Lead actor share: Asian=0.6% (n=156) Black=10.9%, Latino=1.3%, Mixed=1.9%, White=85.3%

Second actor share: Asian=0% (n=147) Black=14.3%, Latino=2.7%, Mixed=2.7%, White=80.3%


Theatrical Film

Director share: Asian=7.6% (n=172) Black=2.3%, Latino=2.3%, White=87.2%

Writer share: Asian=4.1% (n=172) Black=1.7%, Latino=1.2%, Other=.6%, White=92.4%

Lead actor share: Asian=3.5% (n=172) Black=3.5%, Latino=2.9%, Mixed=.6%, White=89.5%

Read the full report here

Huge change in the American Racial Makeup by 2042

U.S. Census Bureau’s latest study tells us that by 2042, racial minority groups will become the majority of the U.S. population.

The Pew Research Center released a new study showing how white Americans will fall from 85% of the population to a possible 43%.

Also, the number of Hispanic and Black Americans will make up 45% of the population by 2060.

The catalyst for the upcoming change has a lot to do with immigration and inter-racial marriages. However, this development will probably increase racial issues and the rise of militias.

For more on this research, go here

Foolishness Alert! The White Man March is Actually Happening

This is garbage and actually happening.

In fear of a multicultural world, these fools are taking it to the streets.

From their website:

The White Man March is scheduled for March 15th, 2014, and will involve coordinated pro-white activity around the world. The purpose is to spread information through activism, but also to make a statement that White people are united in their love for their race and in their opposition to its destruction.

Non-white groups such as La Raza have monthly marches and gatherings with many thousands of participants, while groups advocating for White interests remain relatively silent or hidden from the public. One of the major goals of the White Man March is to demonstrate that pro-White people are able to form a unified front and participate in large-scale action simultaneously, which will send a powerful message to our supporters, our enemies, and those of our race who are still on the fence. We also seek to set a precedent that other pro-white organizations can follow in the future.

This is me right now

The Real Lone Ranger was Black

Oh Snap!

This is something here. The real “Lone Ranger” is nothing like the man in the movies or the show. He's actually a Black man.

His name is Bass Reeves. He escaped racism and slavery, and made his home in Oklahoma and lived will the Seminole and Creek Nations.

His story has been mixed and mostly erased, but it's cool to know that he was a man of color fighting for the rights of others.

Go here to read more about him

In the year, 2050...

Wow!


According to National Geographic, this is what the average American will look like in the year 2050.

Study: Majority of Children's Books are still about White Males

Here is an interesting find on the Racebending Tumblr

In the most comprehensive study of children’s literature during a period of 100 years, researchers recently found that:

• 57% of children’s books published each year have male protagonists, versus 31% female.
• In popular children’s books featuring animated animals, 100% of them have male characters, but only 33% have female characters.
• The average number of books featuring male characters in the title of the book is 36.5% versus 17.5% for female characters.
• Of an estimated 5,000 children’s and YA books released in 2012, only 3.3% featured African-Americans; 2.1% featured Asian-Americans or Pacific Islanders; 1.5% featured Latinos; and only 0.6% featured Native Americans.

This needs to get better.

President Obama speaks on Trayvon Martin and Race - WATCH

Chris Hayes Reads CNN on their Crappy Reporting of the Boston Bombing Suspect

Chris is reading CNN for frakking up the information about the suspect and the faulty reporting throughout the day:

He said:

Forget about the fact that CNN got wrong the information they said they had. Just explain to me precisely what news value exists in the adjective "dark skinned." What exactly that's newsworthy is communicated in that phrase? A dark-skinned individual could be my swarthier Italian relatives or the Ethiopian that won the Boston Marathon before it was bombed on Monday and everyone in between.

No, that's not the purpose of that phrase. That phrase is not there to convey journalism. What 'dark-skinned' indicates is aha, all you folks who thought it was a bad Muslim who did this, you were right.

Because, of course, let's be honest, that is the subtext that says all of this.

But our job, our job in the media is not to flatter those knee-jerk presumptions for the sake of momentary titilation, it's to wrestle that to the ground and get the facts right.

 Watch his full report after the jump:

Harsh Truth of the Day

Research shows that white audiences will not watch TV shows or movies which they judge to have too many people of color as characters. A historically accurate version of the Bible, which embraced the demographic realities of the era such as HBO’s epic series, “Rome,” would be a revelation. Unfortunately, many in the American public would be unwilling to hear such a basic truth, for it would be too upsetting for those who have internalized whiteness and white privilege even on matters of religion and faith.

Read more here

The Bachelor gets sued for Racial Discrimination

This was bound to happen. I'm surprised ABC didn't see this coming. For years, the reality game show, The Bachelor has haunted the screens. And in that time, they never had a Bachelor or a Bachelorette of color.

However, that could change due to this lawsuit:

Football players Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a class-action lawsuit today in federal court in Nashville against The Bachelor and The Bachelorette for racial discrimination. According to the suit (read it here exclusively), “over the course of 23 seasons, not one time has the show’s eclectic mix ever included a Bachelor or Bachelorette who is a person of color.” 

Seeking unstated damages and fees, the 24-page filing also asks the court “that an injunction be issued requiring Defendants to consider persons of color as finalists for the role of the Bachelor and the Bachelorette.”

I am very curious to see how this turns out.

source