The New Yorker Cover Tackles #OscarsSoWhite

‘The New Yorker’ takes aim at the Oscars 2016… with a damning new cover.

The magazine’s latest issue features a cover illustration by cartoonist, illustrator and screenwriter, Daniel Clowes… and it clearly takes aim at the recent controversy surrounding the lack of racial diversity at the Academy Awards.

And the timing couldn’t be better…

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The image, titled ‘Priveliged Characters’, features a group of golden Oscars statuettes walking the red carpet, while similar statues of darker colours are kept tucked away behind a velvet rope.

Clearly, the image takes aim at the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, after the Academy Award nominations revealed that not a single black actor or director had been nominated for the top awards.

And that was for the second year in a row.

Of course, social media users were outraged at the lack of racial diversity – sparking the now infamous Twitter hashtag – but the real blow came when a number of high-profile actors and directors decided to speak out. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, along with Michael Moore and Spike Lee rather publically revealed that they would protest by not attending the Oscars ceremony.

But while the backlash has already prompted the Academy to rethink its diversity policies in what it calls a “sweeping series of substantive changes” to its rules, it looks as though there are still plenty of changes to be made…

As a rather damning report revealed today.

“It’s clear we have an inclusion crisis,” said Stacy L. Smith in a new study which examines the entertainment industry. “Everyone deserves to see their stories seen and heard.”

The report finds that from 109 movies and 306 broadcast, cable and digital TV shows, only one third of speaking characters were female, less than 30% were from minority groups and a staggeringly miniscule 2% were lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Approximately half of the projects lacked Asian characters and 20% had no black characters.

Do the Oscars really have something to answer for, or is this merely a damning indictment of an industry which still has a glass ceiling for minority filmmakers?

That’s something that will no doubt be discussed at great length.

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Picture Credit: The New Yorker