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Image Credit - CNN[/caption]Veteran award-winning actor Tom Hanks is urging filmmakers to undertake the sensitive and important subject of racism with a better perspective. He suggested that Black history and the societal impact of racism are underrepresented in the entertainment industry and the American education system.
It was an op-ed for New York Times which took place on Friday. The day was some time after the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre. Tom wrote, "Mostly written by white people about white people like me, while the history of Black people -- including the horrors of Tulsa -- was too often left out."
He also added, "Until relatively recently, the entertainment industry, which helps shape what is history and what is forgotten, did the same. That includes projects of mine.” In a call to his colleagues, he said that "historically based fiction entertainment must portray the burden of racism in our nation for the sake of the art form's claims to verisimilitude and authenticity."
Over the years of his career, Hanks has starred in or produced several historical films and TV series, including "Band of Brothers," "The Pacific" and "John Adams," and has also had roles in documentaries about US history.
His message to filmmakers and producers comes after years of debate about a lack of diversity in the film industry, an issue that is always among the headlines during every award season.
Hanks noted that the industry has begun telling a greater variety of stories, citing the TV series "Watchmen" and "Lovecraft Country" for depicting the Tulsa massacre.
A USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study last year revealed that 32% of top-grossing films in 2019 featured an underrepresented actor in the lead or co-starring role. This is a significant rise compared to the 13% figure recorded in 2007, the study's inaugural year.
But the field of nominations at the industry's biggest award ceremonies routinely attracts criticism for lacking diversity; the #OscarsSoWhite campaign has dogged the Academy Awards for several years, while the Golden Globes was this year embroiled in controversy over the comparatively higher White membership.
The Tulsa massacre, which took place over two days in 1921, saw a White mob kill 300 Black people and destroy a once-booming neighborhood in Oklahoma, in one of the worst acts of racial violence in US history.
The 100th anniversary of this event was remembered with a day of tribute in the United States on Monday.
US President Joe Biden also highlighted the event's erasure from the American historical discourse in one of his speeches. He said, "This was not a riot. This was a massacre -- among the worst in our history, but not the only one," he said. "And for too long, forgotten by our history. As soon as it happened there was a clear effort to erase it from our memory - our collective memories."
Only time will tell if the world of cinema is ready to take a leap.
