Race in Hollywood can be a large discussion within the overall world of film. In the Industry, Women of Color have fought hard to be recognized and taken seriously throughout silver screen history. Black women like Hattie McDaniel, Asian women like Anna May Wong, and Latinas like Rita Moreno have proven time and time again that recognition for acting in Hollywood is nothing more than an injustice. Women of Color are marginalized in film and cornered into being cast based on their race or excluded all together.
Hattie McDaniel is the first Black woman to be nominated and ultimately win an Oscar. Her role in the 1939 adaption of the book Gone with the Wind was her big break that fizzled out like soda. Prior to the film, the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) was established. This code set out strict guidelines for films and the studios that made them. Being that the Civil Rights Movement had yet to occur, the Hays Code along with the power of Jim Crow in the South, limited representation of People of Color in film. Black actors were cast as the train porter and actresses were the maid (“…The Legacy”). At a segregated ceremony is Los Angeles Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for her work in a supporting role. In her speech, she echoed a hope that this win would open doors for her and others. As we know, that did not exactly happen as she never escaped the Southern Mammy typecast (Abramovitch). Along with Black stereotypes, Asian women fell into the same familiar sense of Otherness on the Silver Screen.
Asian stories in film are just as rare as those of Black, Latin, or Indigenous ones. Asian women and the stories of their characters became mysterious, seductive, and exotic. They are cast as the seductive Geisha or the submissive housewife (“#Oscarssowhite”). The characters were something exotic rather than real. Similar to that of blackface, yellowface during the Golden Age of Hollywood was the studio system’s way to circumvent the Hays Code. White actresses were given makeup and had their eyes taped to resenble an East Asian woman. This was becvause if a white man was cast in the lead role, a white woman would have to play the love interest. Anna May Wong, arguably one of the best actresses of her time, was snubbed multiple times. She was not only snubbed by never getting an Oscar nomination for her work, but Asian roles that she could represent. A great example being 1937’s The Good Earth. After lobbying efforts, the main female lead was handed to German-American actress Luise Rainer; a role that would win her an Oscar that year (Desta). Although Anna May Wong was born and raised in Los Angeles, she was continually labeled as “Chinese.” Her roles were primarily of an exotic Oriental. This point is corroborated through “An Introduction to Asian American Identity” by Eunice Uhm in our section about Lisa Ko’s The Leavers. Uhm states that Asians are cast into a cycle of being seen as “perpetually foreign.” It is no secret that the Hays Code silenced and marginalized People of Color. The proof is in the films’ cellulose.
Women of Color, no matter how good their work, were and still are not recognized by organizations like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Recent recognition for films like Black Panther (2018) and Parasite (2019) at the Oscars have begun to reignite the conversation on #Oscarssowhite, however, it took 72 years of Oscar history for a Black woman to finally win an Oscar for a leading. Could there be a well-deserved change in this cycle? Only time will tell.
Works Cited
Abramovitch, Seth. “Oscar’s First Black Winner Accepted Her Honor in a Segregated ‘No Blacks’ Hotel in L.A.” The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Feb. 2021, www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/oscars-first-black-winner-accepted-774335.
Desta, Yohana, et al. “Hollywood: The True Story of Anna May Wong and The Good Earth.” Vanity Fair, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2020/05/hollywood-ryan-murphy-anna-may-wong.
Oscars. Hattie McDaniel Winning Best Supporting Actress. YouTube, YouTube, 27 Sept. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7t4pTNZshA.
“#OscarsSoWhite: From Anna May Wong to Awkwafina.” Be Kind Rewind, YouTube, 24 Mar. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmcvgd8XF0.
“#OscarsSoWhite and The Legacy of Halle Berry.” Be Kind Rewind, YouTube, 18 Feb. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEberAZhZy4.
This is a great post! It really highlights the fact that not all representation is good representation in media, and that Hollywood has a long history of pushing stereotypes for the sake of profit. I believe the Oscars will change with the shift of power from the previous generation to the next, but the efforts of social justice campaigns must be at the forefront to keep the conversations going. I’m excited to see the progress of young stars in Hollywood now like Zendaya, Skai Jackson, and Yara Shahidi.