Blog Post #2: On Racial Perspectives

Cultural Diversity has advanced profusely in the past decades. In pop culture such as movies, television, music, and much more minorities were pretty much non existence, but now minorities are playing huge roles in all of these categories. Caucasians were the predominant race in pop culture and they still are, but minorities are rapidly making their way into these roles.

In television, Caucasians had most if not all the roles in the show; but now minorities are in the cast and even having lead roles. In the Star Wars TV show, “The Clone Wars”, had mainly the characters from the movies and the cast was mostly Caucasian. In the new upcoming Star Wars TV show, “The Mandalorians”, the cast will be more diverse with minorities obtaining main roles and supporting roles.

Just like television, movies mostly had Caucasian filled casts; but minorities are now having roles in huge movie productions. In early Star Wars films, the casts were predominantly Caucasian, but now in the newer Star Wars films minorities are lead roles. In the very first Star Wars movie, “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope”, the cast is mainly just Caucasian such as actors, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and actress Carrie Fisher. In the latest Star Wars movie, “Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi”, the cast is more diverse with a lead role being African American, Finn played by John Boyega. Kelly Tran, Oscar Isaac, and Lupita Nyong’o are all supporting roles that are minorities. So, in the beginning of the movie series the cast was mainly Caucasian, but now the cast is more diverse with minorities to even out the scale.

In music, Caucasians used to be the main source of music. Now minorities are taking charge and are producing music. In The Billboard Top 100, the top artists are very diverse with a wide variety of races. Back in the 1900’s the ranks would have prominently been Caucasian, but today the ranks are diverse and show a great racial diversity.

Do you think minorities will continue to be on the rise in pop culture?