Diversity in Hollywood can increase self-worth

  Jonah Lalas Lalas is a fourth-year
international development studies and political science student who
urges you to question your assumptions. E-mail him at [email protected]. Click
Here for more articles by Jonah Lalas

As a child growing up in a predominantly upper middle class
white neighborhood where most people spoke English, I remember
shying away from my family when they spoke Tagalog in
public. I felt embarrassed, and in an act of rebellion, I
stopped speaking the Pilipino native language in my house. I also
recall refusing to attend Pilipino parties and events, rejecting
Pilipino food and bragging to my friends about how
“whitewashed” I was.

And more than anything I wanted a girlfriend. But not just any
girlfriend, a white girlfriend like Princess Leia or Lois Lane. I
wanted to become like Luke Skywalker, Bruce Wayne or that white
knight in shining armor off to save the world. Instead, the only
representation of myself that I did see was the goofy-looking,
Asian kid Shortround from Indiana Jones and the Goonies. I
couldn’t help but feel hatred for my brown skin.

Looking back, I realize now what effect Hollywood and the media
had on my own sense of self-worth. By not seeing myself
represented, I noticed that I was different from the other kids at
school. And when I did see another Asian or Pilipino on the screen,
he was a meek kid with an accent that did little to boost my
self-esteem. There clearly was a lack of positive roles for Asians
in Hollywood.

Yet recently I am beginning to think things may be changing. A
film opened recently in Westwood titled “The
Debut.”Â Almost the entire cast is Pilipino, making it
one of the first major Pilipino American films in U.S.
history. It is about a young man growing up in the United
States and his struggle in coming to terms with his identity as a
Pilipino American.  

Much like my past feelings, he too has a self-hatred for his
brown skin and rejects his family and culture while seeking to
become something that he is not. After watching the film, I felt
proud to see that Asian Americans were making huge steps in
Hollywood.

But after reading about the film in different newspapers and
talking to the director, I realized the difficulty of getting this
film made and shown in major theaters in America. Many Hollywood
producers had turned down the film, forcing the director to
“go independent” and fund the film through alternative
and grassroots means. The struggle the movie underwent represents
the need for diversity in Hollywood.

It is not surprising that a film largely made up of Pilipinos
would not appeal to an industry that regularly releases films where
the lead roles are written for and performed by white actors. And
while African Americans are making strides to portray their
community positively, Asian Americans continue to be marginalized
from the screen or typecast into weak roles as extras.

But why should any of this matter? Why is it important to have
diversity in Hollywood?

First, Hollywood plays a powerful role in shaping our views of
the world. It is the place where people learn about others who are
not like them. More importantly, it is also a major cultural
institution that influences the part of the human psyche where
people form their opinions and stereotypes. It is something that
people can connect to on an everyday level, more easily than the
news and schoolbooks.

For me, Hollywood played a tremendous role in generating a sort
of internalized racism. After all, the experiences of Pilipinos in
America had already gone unacknowledged in the books at school, so
to see Asians in stereotypical roles of subordination was simply
another slap in the face .

With the exception of characters like Bruce Lee, I rarely saw
Asians portrayed positively on levels that I could connect with.
Furthermore, my perception of beauty was also deeply affected. So
many of the “beautiful people” in films, magazines and
shows were white. This perception of beauty contributes to the idea
that in many Asian cultures, light-skinned people are considered
more attractive.

Clearly, Hollywood plays a huge role in validating the
experiences of Asian Americans and creating a sense of self-worth
or self-hate. It is a mirror that gets held up to your face
every time you enter a movie theater. And believe me, it sucks
when you see a white guy in an American classic like
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” playing a buck-toothed
Asian buffoon who wants to hook up with a white woman.

The problem here is not the role itself, but the lack of
diversity in the roles that Asian Americans play. If a white person
acts stupid on the screen, it doesn’t really matter because
there are other positive roles for white folks to combat those
negative images with, thereby making stereotypes moot. But like
many minorities, we are typecast in one particular role and because
of the lack of access to a movie industry that is still largely
white, any role for us is judged as representative of the entire
race. We simply do not have access to powerful parts beyond the
spin-kicking Crouching Tiger/Rush Hour role.

Diversity in Hollywood is also valuable because it carries
within it the potential to generate a higher sense of understanding
between races. People naturally fear what they do not understand
and as long as minorities are portrayed in only one type of light,
people will continue to think that all black people carry guns, all
Muslims are anti-American terrorists and that I am the quiet nerd
in the corner of the class who takes extensive notes and is good at
math.

We need to understand how crucial it is for us to change
Hollywood in the interests of creating a better society and live up
to one of the unique values of American culture ““
multiculturalism. Many of us fought for diversity on campus; we
must do the same in Hollywood. It’s time we pick up the
mirror to reflect our own stories from our own perspectives.

This can be done by appealing to Hollywood’s economic side
and financially supporting movies like “The Debut,”
movies that portray Asian Americans and their experiences in a
positive way. L.A. is the battleground where films can either make
it or break it and precedents will be set. Asian Americans and
Pilipinos have been put to the test, and we need to send a message
to Hollywood that we value cultural diversity and the empowerment
of minority communities.

Maybe then, you won’t have kids like me growing up wishing
they were something they are not. And for the non-Asian crowd, this
is a chance for you to see something different and fresh, and
experience the multicultural society we call America.