The Oscars: Hypocrisy, Diversity and Arab Envy

Ray Hanania
Wed, 02 Mar 2016 21:00:00 -0800
Opinion

More than 34 million people watched the Oscars this past Sunday — fewer viewers than prior years and far below the 114 million people who watch the Super Bowl. But it?s all relative, I guess.

Only 22 million Americans watch the evening news each night, and those numbers continue to plummet. That fact that more people watch the Super Bowl and the Oscars than the nightly news should tell you where the American public?s priorities lay. It could explain why Donald Trump resonates with the public: He?s entertaining. The public trusts him more than they trust the media, because the American society is primarily educated and enthused by entertainment and popularity, not by factual news and study. Hollywood movies impact hundreds of millions of Americans, even if only a fraction tune in to awards shows.

Israeli businessman and billionaire film mogul Arnon Milchan has invested hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money to fund about 130 movies. He also served as an Israeli intelligence operative for some 25 years. Leonardo DiCaprio thanked Milchan during his 2016 Golden Globes acceptance speech for producing and financing ?The Revenant.?
Updated: Thu Mar 03, 2016

More than 34 million people watched the Oscars this past Sunday — fewer viewers than prior years and far below the 114 million people who watch the Super Bowl. But it?s all relative, I guess.

Only 22 million Americans watch the evening news each night, and those numbers continue to plummet. That fact that more people watch the Super Bowl and the Oscars than the nightly news should tell you where the American public?s priorities lay. It could explain why Donald Trump resonates with the public: He?s entertaining. The public trusts him more than they trust the media, because the American society is primarily educated and enthused by entertainment and popularity, not by factual news and study. Hollywood movies impact hundreds of millions of Americans, even if only a fraction tune in to awards shows.

Israeli businessman and billionaire film mogul Arnon Milchan has invested hundreds of millions of dollars of his own money to fund about 130 movies. He also served as an Israeli intelligence operative for some 25 years. Leonardo DiCaprio thanked Milchan during his 2016 Golden Globes acceptance speech for producing and financing ?The Revenant.?

Arabs wonder why the movie industry is so anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. But what?s there to wonder about? The Israelis recognize the power of communications; the Arabs and Muslims don?t. Where is the Arab film mogul? The Arabs are the richest people in the world and yet they have done nothing with their wealth.

Now that the Oscars are over, is it possible to have a serious discussion about the lack of diversity in Hollywood? The current argument centers around a lack of nominations for African-American actors and actresses. People have to realize, though, that this discussion of race discrimination in Hollywood is very narrow. What about Asians? What about Native Americans? Hispanics? Arabs and Muslims? No talent of these other races was nominated either.

Of all minority races, Oscar nominations and awards have historically only gone to African-Americans. Before that, In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American Oscar winner for her role as Mammy in ?Gone with the Wind?. Later on, Sidney Poitier was nominated in 1958 for ?The Defiant Ones,? and eventually became the first African-American to win best actor in 1963 for ?Lilies of the Field.? These two were seen as the ones who broke the race glass ceiling in Hollywood. But the ceiling is still there.

Although they receive much fewer nominations and wins than white Americans, African-Americans still receive the majority of minority votes. Other minority races have never been recognized.

While everyone else enjoyed Hollywood films, I suffered the wrath of racial inequality growing up Arab in America. Almost every movie that addressed the Middle East portrayed Arab characters as terrorists and vicious bad guys. Even the female Arab characters were often murderously insane. That kind of racism is very damaging to young people and can breed violent extremism, as we see today.

The truth is, although African-Americans suffered tremendously from racist depictions in early Hollywood films, they were eventually compensated with films that showed more positive aspects of their race and culture. That's not the case with Hollywood and the American media?s portrayal of Arabs. There have been so few movies that portray the race fairly or attempt to understand of Arab and Middle East culture.

Hollywood movies are one front in this culture war against Arabs and Muslims. Television series sell hate and racism to make huge profits. Shows like ?Tyrant? — which I helped block from renewal — and even the first several seasons of ?Homeland,? were viciously racist. But mainstream news media is another face of this vicious cycle of racist stereotypes.

Nobody in Hollywood has attempted to break the stereotype against Arabs. Racism is simply accepted. How many Arabs have been hired for roles? How many movies and characters have been written to portray positive images of Arabs and Muslims?

And what about Chris Rock? Will I, or anyone else from my community, be invited to emcee the awards?

If you truly want to address the reality of racism and discrimination today, we must widen the discussion of diversity — or lack thereof — in the Hollywood film industry. Hollywood does not only shut out blacks, Asians and Hispanics; it mostly shuts out Arabs and Muslims.

Sadly, that the Arab and Muslim world is incapable of making any real change. But worst of all, the movie industry, and even the black community, are really not interested in changing the status quo.