The 2016 Oscar nominations has spurred debate all over social media this year. The hash tag-#Oscarssowhite has trended on twitter yet again, and I am so confused as to why there is no racial diversity. There are so many talented and well deserved people of colour who are not represented fairly on the silver screen.

Chris Rock is this years host of the Oscars - so why hire a black man to host but not nominate any actors of colour?

As a young black female it is shocking and heart breaking to see that the Academy members are mostly middle class white men, who are only nominating other white actors. The root of the problem is that more roles should be cast by diverse people. There is no excuse for films whitewashing their cast. A good example of this is in Cameron Crowe's 'Aloha', where Emma Stone was cast into a role which should have been a mixed-race Chinese and Hawaiian character. This isn't the only time it's happened though. There's Mr. Yunoshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's, Blake Edward's 'The Party', where white actors have been made over to look a different race. Why not just cast an actor who is racially suitable for the role? Is it just me or is this looking a lot like blackface.

John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaac are the new diverse stars of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a good example of what film should be; it stars a woman and two black men. Black characters are often seen as the sidekick character to a white male. It's also common for black characters to be stereotyped, for example in the 2015 film “Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl”, where it seems Earl is added in as a kind of comedic relief from the sad plot, but by doing this the character was made into a stereotypical sexist, black youth. Star Wars breaks from this, by having a black man as the heroic lead, as well as a woman. It's still not as diverse as it could be, but it's taking baby steps into creating a more cultural, modern Hollywood.

In our modern society there is so many different people of colour, race and sex and they should be represented fairly. The sooner more directors, Television producers and academy members realise this, the better.

What are your opinions on this?
Thanks for reading. - Ife Popoola