Oscars' lack of diversity contributes to wider racial bias, experts say

The lack of diversity among this year's Oscar nominees has prompteda barrage of criticism, and it's an issuethat affects not only the film industry, but society as a whole, experts say.

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"People who care about racial and gender justice really should care a lot about the [Oscar]nomination process and what's valued in Hollywood," saidPhillipAtibaGoff, an associate professor of social psychology at UCLAspecializing in race issues.

Millions of people watch movies every year, he said,andthe representation of racial diversity in films affects their "implicit biases."

Our brains are constantly storing and accessing information based on how the social world is represented, Goff said, leading people to form stereotypical associations about people of different races.

"Those automatic associations,they come from someplace," hesaid."When we get right down to it, they frequently come from media."

Implicit racial biases are often formed unconsciously, according to the American Psychological Association.

"You don't need to believe the stereotype to be influenced," Goff said.

'On the outside'

Andrea Davis,an associate professor specializing in cultures of the Americas at York University in Toronto, agrees that the absence of raciallydiverseOscar nominees, including black actors, has a broader influence on society.

"It's not just a literal absence it's a kind of silencing of certain representations of black people," she said.

"[Mainstream organizations]continue to send the message that people of colour are still somehow marginalized, thatno matter how accomplished you are you're always kind of on the outside waiting to be invited in," Davissaid.

But sheemphasized that the diversity issue is not that people should have been nominatedsimply because their race isunderrepresented, but that black and Hispanicactors were excluded despite givingnomination-worthyperformances.

"It should be about merit because there are black actors who do deserve it," Davis said. "I don't think we have to go down the road of just saying, 'Oh include a person of colour ... because they should be there to round out [the nominees].'"

Although shebelieves that more diversity among members of the academy, the majority of whom are white,"would certainly help," Davissaid the problem extends far beyond the Oscar-granting institution.

EchoingdirectorSpike Lee's comments earlier in the week, she said alack of diversity ispervasive throughout the film industry and that black actors don't get manyopportunitiesto play a wide variety of characters.

"I think that black actors continue to be typecastinto certain kinds of roles," Davis said."There are less roles for people of colour that are nuanced."

"It is telling," shesaid,thatDenzelWashington won best actor in a leading roleforTraining Dayin 2001, when he played a stereotypical role of "black hypermasculinity," butWill Smith wasn't nominated this year for his portrayal of "a really sensitive bright African immigrant" inConcussion.

"I think the academy just isn't sure what to do with that representation of black masculinity," she said.

'Barely moved an inch'

Davis said another problem is theperception that we now live in "a kind of post-race era" sincethe election of a black U.S. president, leading some to becomplacentwhen it comes to awareness ofracial inequities.

"We think that we're dealing with diversity in fact we think we've mastered it," she said. "We think we don't have to talk about it anymore."

But despite some progress in the movie industry,such as a shift from mostly black women playing domestic servants in themid-20th century,we have "barely moved an inch from 50 years ago," Davis said.