Questions: Minorities in Film

This week I want to tackle a slightly more serious topic, and that is Race Equality in film. With the film Dear White People coming out, I feel it is an appropriate time to delve into it.

To me one of my biggest gripes about Race in movies is that to me at least, it seems that every time someone brings up race in movies, people go crazy and begin to accuse minorities of being racist. And yes some minorities are a tad bit racist, but that happens when your people have been oppressed, or are still being discriminated against in the modern "Post Racism America".

PROTIP: Racism is still very much alive and, still very degrading in todays modern America.

So I wanted to ask you, the readers some questions. Some of these questions are literally from other movies that are about racism in America, but I think they are still worth asking.

"Why does a movie have to be about slavery, racism, or poverty to have a minority in the leading roles?"

Orange Is The New Black (which is a fantastic show that breaks a lot of ground in race equality)         1. Has to be set in a Women's prison to warrant a lead female character, and 2. Is set in a prison to explain why there are other minorities in the prison. And even then, where are all of the Asian prisoners? The Indian Prisoners? The Native American ones? Theses minorities aren't even usually mentioned when it comes to race relations in film. Which brings me to my next question.

"Why is it that when people make a movie they only add one or two black characters? Why not other races?"

I say this because I feel like when talking about race equality people tend to forget that there is a lot more than white and black. The problem probably lies in the word "race" (We can discuss that in the full article). Ethnicity is the right word. And there are SOO many of them! Latinos, Asians, Indians, Native Americans, The Inuits, and thats just the tip. The list goes on and on and on. yet we never see those ethnicities in film.

"Tyler Perry, I think he does nothing more than belittle his people and further expand and solidify in some minds racial stereo types. Discuss."

Sorry Perry, a lot of your movies are so disgustingly racist, not only to the black community, but to every race there is, furthering terrible stereotypes that minorities have been trying to leave behind them for centuries. But I guess anything to make a quick buck.

"Why do women always have to be the subject of a romantic sub plot, or even for women that are depicted as strong and self reliant, have to be saved by the male protagonist in the end?"

"Why can't a movie like Inception have an all black or hispanic, or Asian or Female cast? Why do we as a society find this weird or immediately play it off as a Tyler Perry, or some feminist movie. SO what if it is? Why is that a bad thing?

"And would you watch one of those movies?"

Ok, rant over.

And those are only a few of my objections with how hollywood handles minorities in movies. But now I want to here your side. What do you see in movies? Do you even think it is a problem? If not why? Comment below and share your thoughts, or message me on Twitter @AGuyTheGuy . And as always,

Thanks for reading.