'Oscars So White’ And The Hollywood Diversity Problem

#OscarsSoWhite. We’ll look at Hollywood’s diversity problem and how the country sees itself on screen.

If you’re watching, Oscar night may be more than a little uncomfortable this year. The host, Chris Rock: black and proud and loud. The acting nominees up for Academy Awards: all white. One hundred percent. For the second year in a row. In a country bursting with color. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite has exploded. A new report says our TV and movies just don’t look like us. This hour On Point, Hollywood’s diversity problem, and how America sees itself – or doesn’t - on screen.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Darnell Hunt, director of the Ralph J. Burche Center for African American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. (@darnell_hunt)

Zeba Blay, Voices culture writer at the Huffington Post. Co-host, with Fariha Róisín, of the culture podcast, Two Brown Girls. (@zblay)

Gregory Ellwood, co-founder of HitFix. Blogger and founder of AwardsCampaign.com. (@thegregorye)

Aunjanue Ellis, actress and producer. She currently stars as Miranda Shaw in the ABC crime drama "Quantico." (@aunjanuejlt)

USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism: Inclusion or Invisibility -- "Overall, the landscape of media content is still largely whitewashed. Relative to the U.S. population, the industry is underperforming on racial/ethnic diversity of leads (film), series regulars (TV/digital), and all speaking characters. The number of shows missing two racial groups entirely is particularly problematic. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite should be changed to #HollywoodSoWhite, as our findings show that an epidemic of invisibility runs throughout popular storytelling."

Lenny Letter: On Fixing Hollywood's Diversity Problem — "Diversity isn't something that just happens to appear every once in a while. It's not going to surprise you on your birthday like, 'Oh, I didn't know diversity would be here! How fun!' It's the act of inclusion, and it's something that needs to be improved upon in so many fields. But it is getting better."

Huffington Post: This Report On Hollywood Diversity Confirms What We Already Know — "Needless to say, the study found that, overall, the inclusion of people of color, women and the LGBT community in film and television is lacking. Surprise, surprise. Still, while some may see studies like these as redundant or 'telling us what we already know,' the reality of Hollywood's diversity problem is one that obviously bears repeating."