Ethnic Diversity In The Entertainment Business.

When you have people like Film Director Spike Lee and Actress Jada Pinkett - Smith wife of Will Smith saying they are going to boycott the OSCARS for lack of ethnic or mainly black actors being up for an award this year and then on the other side of the pond you have actors like Idris Elba attacking British entertainment for lack of black or ethnic faces and comedian Lenny Henry doing the same do they have a point?

It is easy to see from their point of view why they say what they do but at the same time in my opinion I think black people have made tremendous strides in the field of entertainment whether that be musicans, sports stars, actors, presenters.

Certainly speaking from my own point of view as an Englishman if you were to watch British tv for example I dont think you could say black people are under - represented. Every advert you turn on their there, evey soap they are represented, in the field of music there has been an explosion in British Hip Hop, Rap and R n B. So to my mind this is where I part company with Messers Elba and Henry I think blacks are well represented across British entertainment Im not so sure about other fields but in entertainment certainly. Im also not denying that blacks still dont encounter racism but I think compared to say 10 years ago black people in the UK have made magnificent strides and indeed probably out of all proportion to their number in the UK which is largely a majority white country.

Its possible that Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett - Smith are genuine and so too Elba and Henry but theres the dark thought too they could be out just to cause mischief in a largely white majority nation like the UK and the USA. It seems some people unfortunately will never be happy for example Will Smith was apparently over looked for an OSCAR this year hence his wife going on the war path but sometimes thats how the cookie crumbles you cannot keep crying racism because sometimes it happens. Many white actors too I suspect have been overlooked and other races too but it always seems to be blacks always complaining about something.

What about other races like Oriental - American and Oriental - Brtish actors? When was the last time Hollywood had the Chinese or Japanese - American leading man the equivalent of Will Smith or indeed Native American - never as I see it from here in the UK. Same in the UK you never get a Chinese - British leading man sometimes you get women yes but only then mostly fleetingly and not as leading characters just one of the characters.

I am a white man and dont know what it is like to be black or any other ethnic group in society thats largely white in population and if certain groups like blacks do face racism then obviously that is to be deplored but I am not going to be held responsible as a white man if blacks happen to be overlooked at the OSCARS one time and Im sure they were not overlooked because of being black (its alright accusing people of this and that but surely you have to evidence to prove it).

You could take the argument the other way in countries like South Africa where white people probably number about 4 million compared to the overwhelming black population how much do white South Africans get representation in entertainment and certainly the plight of whites in Zimbabwe must be even worse.

So I think whatever our race, religion or nationality balance is what is needed here but defining balance is a hard one. Balance is whatever you think it should be and what is balance to one is not to another so perhaps in the end its not really an argument that can be won.