Whose role is it anyway?

In recent years there has been a great deal of discussion of opportunity in the arts - or the lack of it - with the charge that only those with a relatively wealthy background can succeed.

In 2016 the question of privilege in TV and film hit the headlines when a number of stars boycotted the Oscars Ceremony because no black actor or director had been nominated for an award. The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite was trending on Twitter. Critics pointed out that it was the second year in which outstanding films and actors had been passed over. The suspicion was that the voting was biased because 94% of the voters were white.

Of course, it is also possible to put the counter argument that there were no black candidates who were worthy of an award - that there were good performances but that their white colleagues were simply better this time. But both those arguments collide in one word - opportunity.

The Economist analysed the Oscar results and found that the problem was much wider than awards: ‘an analysis of Oscar selections since 2000 suggests that the imbalances are industry-wide, not primarily to do with Academy voters. And they affect all ethnic minorities. Oscar nominations have not dramatically under-represented black actors. Instead, they have greatly over-represented white ones. Blacks are 12.6% of the American population, and 10% of Oscar nominations since 2000 have gone to black actors. But just 3% of nominations have gone to their Hispanic peers (16% of the population), 1% to those with Asian backgrounds, and 2% to those of other heritage.”