Alejandra Buendia is a media and communications major at SUNY Old Westbury who has wanted to act for as long as she can remember.

Being a Latina woman, Buendia has felt discourage from further pursuing her career.

“Most of the actors I look up to look nothing like me,” she said. “It made it hard for me to believe that I could one day be up there on the big screen.”

While it has been reported that more minorities are going to the movies often, a new study shows that minorities are still not proportionately represented in the industry compared to white men.

The report comes from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which researches inclusion and diversity in the entertainment industry. In this study, professors from the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism examined the top 100 films from the years 2007-2017, and found out that in 2017, White actors made up of over 70% of all speaking roles.

The study also reveals that in 2017, only about 32% of all speaking roles were women, and that only 4 women of color had lead roles last year.

Many people point to this as clear evidence that Hollywood still has a diversity issue today. One person who agrees is SUNY Old Westbury American Studies Professor Dr. Jasmine Mitchell.

“There is a lack of diversity there and what kind of representations we see on camera visually,” she said. “In terms of gender speaking roles and also in terms of thinking about different presentations of gender, kinds of sexuality, as well as different forms of bodies and different forms of national identity.”

Along with different nationalities and genders, sexuality and characters with disabilities are often overlooked when discussing diversity.

The report shows that last year, less than 1% of speaking characters in film were members of the LGBT community, and that only 2.5% of speaking characters had a disability.

Buendia believes that Hollywood alienating various groups of people has prohibited her from landing specific roles.

“I can’t help but feel annoyed every time I see a lead role that specifically asks for a Caucasian woman,” she said. “There’s no way I could possibly even attempt to try out for that role because of its restriction.”

While it is widely agreed by many experts that there is a problem as far as lack of diversity on screen, Dr. Mitchell believes that it stems from a much larger issue.

“The other problem is that there is very scant attention to what actually goes on behind the camera…I think that's ever more severely underrepresented,” she said. “In terms of thinking of production, thinking of writers and you can't envision any world unless you're writing.”

Someone who agrees with Dr. Mitchell is another SUNY Old Westbury American Studies Professor, Lisa Payton, who has made a lengthy career writing for hit TV shows such as “Living Single” and “House of Payne.”

“Of course Hollywood has a diversity problem. Hollywood is run by an elite group of people,” she said. “Just a few of them are people of color, and it's very difficult in terms of getting programming on the air because there are no people of color in the decision making.”

The USC report also touches on the lack of diversity behind the scenes, revealing that out of 1,223 directors in the last decade, only 53 of those directors were women. 64 of those directors were Black or African-American, and 38 of those directors were Asian or Asian American.

Those two numbers, specifically, gets even smaller when you switch the gender. Out of those 64 Black or African-American directors in the past 11 years, only 4 of them were females; and, out of the 38 Asian or Asian American directors, only 3 were females.

“The diversity behind the scenes kind of determines the diversity in front of the screen,” said Payton. “So when we have people in position who are diverse creatives, writing characters, they're usually going to write more diverse characters because we [as writers] write what we know.”

Payton says that it is a tough act as a writer to find the right balance to connect with various audience members while simultaneously writing to reflect herself and what she sees around her.

“You want the people who are on the other side reading your material to be able to respond to you,” she said. “I am very conscious when I'm creating characters to think of how many people who I see like me on the screen and to represent people who aren't necessarily thought of initially, and then represent others as well.”

While for her, finding the balance to represent everyone is tough, Payton says that because of how competitive the industry is, it is even more tough to just get into the door.

Over the last few months, the term “inclusion rider” has been gaining more traction, mostly in thanks to Frances McDormand’s Oscar speech earlier this year. An inclusion rider is a clause in an actor’s or director’s contract that they can sign to demand diversity in the cast and production crew.

Many A-list actors have publicly announced to use inclusion riders, including Michael B. Jordan (Creed), Brie Larson (Room), and Matt Damon (The Martian).

Buendia believes that more filmmakers should support inclusion riders.

“Actors who have a platform should encourage each other to be better,” she said. “To challenge and to create change because the audience deserves more people that they can relate to.”

Payton is also a supporter of the inclusion rider.

“It definitely should be part of every production,” she said. “Everybody has a voice and I think that they should have the opportunity and make sure that these people work on every production to make it stand out.”

Dr. Mitchell also supports the inclusion rider, however with a bit of a caveat.

“I think that's a start, but I don't think it's the solution,” she said. “But I think the start is to have these kinds of conversations and start placing the disenfranchised in these decision-making roles.”

Box office analysts used to point to studios being hesitant on producing films and shows with an inclusive cast and crew due to their fear of losing money, expecting that White audiences won’t want to see those projects, and that the audiences that those movies are intended for won’t show up to see them. However, in the past few years, the numbers have shown otherwise.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reported that in 2016, African-Americans and Asian-Americans went to the movies more frequently, saying Asians/Other Ethnicities reported the highest annual attendance per capita, going to the cinema an average of 6.1 times in the year of 2016. The MPAA also reported that in 2017, Hispanic/Latino people reported the highest annual attendance per capita, going to the cinema an average of 4.5 times in the year, followed by the Asian category (4.3).

While representation in the industry is still low according to studies, many of the few films that have made strides for diversity have generated huge box office revenue.

“These films are also successful with white audiences,” said Dr. Mitchell. “It's actually just better films. It's better quality TV. Essentially, I don't think then it's a loss of money or a lack of quality, it's actually doing both.”

In 2018, films such as Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians have garnered great buzz both with critical reception and at the box office, the former currently being the highest grossing movie of the year domestically.

Payton believes that these types of films help on a much larger social scale.

“I think the push to have movies like Black Panther are amazing,” she said. “Some small child can look and see themselves and grow up to either be just like somebody that they see on the screen.”

Dr. Mitchell agrees that diverse films extends beyond just the convention on cinema.

“I think that representation in mass media is essentially about power dynamics,” she said. “Who has power and who doesn't. If you don't see yourself on-screen, it's as if you don't exist.”

Dr. Mitchell also urges that while having films such as Black Panther or Wonder Woman being so successful is wonderful, we should also be cautious of those being the outliers.

“There's so much normalization of whiteness in Hollywood,” she said. “So that when there is a Hollywood picture that has Black stars it'll get a lot of attention but those are actually usually more exceptions.”

Buendia says that the direction that Hollywood is moving towards gives her hope not only for her career, but for the state of inclusion in general.

“The inclusiveness helps people understand that we’re all the same,” she said. “That we are all human living through the same situations in life.”