On the Origin of White Hollywood: The Racialized Space of the U.S. Film Industry

Abstract

The scholarship on White spaces has highlighted the ways in which institutions have devoted themselves to reproducing Whiteness through intentional ideological work, and how the prevalence of such ideologies impact the individuals within these spaces. It is well recognized that experiences are racialized within U.S. social institution, but there needs to be more work on highlighting the origins of such ideologies within each context. In this article, I focus on the Hollywood film industry to emphasize how its history and contemporary practices do just that. Furthermore, the effects of such practices on the content created by Hollywood reinforce mediated representations that not only reproduce stereotypes at the interactional level but also reinforce the ideological status quo of White Hollywood. I conclude with a reflection on how any changes to the structure must be strategic, lest we repeat the same mistakes of other so-called “integrated” institutions.

No Face, No Race? Racial Politics of Voice Actor Casting in Popular Animated Films1

“…They include the original casts of animated television series (namely, professional voice actors), animated filmmakers, and other lesser‐known white actors. These patterns in voice actor casting support Thakore's (2020) conceptualization of Hollywood writ large as a “white space.”…”

The Racial Barriers in U.S. Independent Filmmaking

“…The implication, therefore, is that Hollywood’s lack of diversity is the result of some innate lack of merit among artists of color. Likewise, Thakore (2020) frames the lack of racial diversity in the conferring of professional accolades, such as the Academy Awards, as ideological broadcasts to the industry. By selectively heralding White achievement to the detriment of other artists, these acclimation ceremonies operate as institutional symbols that mark White space.…”