A Black male actor or A White Female actor. Who has it harder?

[Marvelgirl]

Who do you think comes second in diverse opportunities roles after the white alpha male in Hollywood. As a kid growing up I knew off Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bullock. I could put Whoopi Goldberg in the category too. women who were in lead roles that made money. On the African America side of male actors, I remember Eddie Murphy, Denzel Washington, Samuel L Jakcson, Wesley Snipes. James Earl Jones, Will Smith and Morgan freeman. Compared to the list of Caucasians white males I can name, the names of the black actors and white women I mentioned looks like an atom. Which group do you think has it harder or has to fight twice as hard as their white male counterparts to succeed in the business.

[Michael Watkins]

how talented are we talking? Meryl Streep seems to be untouchable. either way, I think the answer is 'black female actor.'

[Marvelgirl]

how talented are we talking? Meryl Streep seems to be untouchable. either way, I think the answer is 'black female actor.'

Talent is open to interpretation. I remember many people who thought Camron Diaz could not act and Julia Roberts is only successful because she is pretty and has a good smile.

Meryl Streep is talented and versatile as are many black male actors (Denzel Washington)

[Colossus1980]

Without a doubt, hands down by miles, the Oriental male. What, they actually have Oriental males actors? Yes, only in Asia. Shang Chi? Sad but I think it's going to flop.

[Username taken]

We cant really say.

Except those of us in the industry.

[Starter Set]

I think it's pretty hard to make a decent living by acting for everyone. Just look at the thousand and thousand of Hollywood rejects.

But between the two, black dudes i would say.

[Marvelgirl]

I think it's pretty hard to make a decent living by acting for everyone. Just look at the thousand and thousand of Hollywood rejects.

But between the two, black dudes i would say.

I was moving towards black males having it harder, I was not 100% sure to vote. there is something my teacher once said to me about the industry, Women may have it hard but women are not a minority. on the otherhand Eddie Murphy and Will Smith in their Glory days were bringing more audience in than any white woman.

[Jokerz79]

I'll give you option 3 out gay man or woman no matter how many times we learn Hollywood legends were gay or bi and in the closet its a death nail to come out once you do you're relegated to Gay roles or Supporting roles in big main stream studio films.

[Cyke]

Or, maybe the issue can be framed without pitting the two groups against each other? Doing so means that you foster animosity and competition between the two of them, rather than having both of them together to address decades-old institutionalized racism and sexism in the industry that still bends over backwards to maintain white male talent as the default by a considerable margin.

[Starter Set]

I was moving towards black males having it harder, I was not 100% sure to vote. there is something my teacher once said to me about the industry, Women may have it hard but women are not a minority. on the otherhand Eddie Murphy and Will Smith in their Glory days were bringing more audience in than any white woman.

Well, there always will be room for white women in Hollywood movies. In no point in history we will ever see someone from those studios say "sorry ladies, the fiesta is over, we are only giving jobs to men now, even for playing a women " lol.

And a lot of room, many, many roles. Not many very glorious but eh, a job's a job.

Black (or Asian, Latino..etc...) actors now? Roles are scarce. Real scarce.

[Ilan Preskovsky]

There is a whole generation of wonderfully talented actresses out there right now, getting what seems to be tons of work so, from the outside looking in, white women don't really seem to be at much of a disadvantage right now. Internally, it might be an entirely different question, though, as I understand that there is still an income gap between actors and actresses and women are more likely to be sexually harrassed than men. In terms of what's happening on screen, though, we're in a golden age of great women actors - and, yes, a few of them are women of colour.

As for black men, again, I find it odd that people complain so much aout the state of the industry currently when there are so many fine black male actors doing great work in everything from indie darlings and Oscar contenders to major Hollywood franchises. A ways to go? Sure, but again, pretending that there hasn't been a huge improvement in this area is to be willfully obtuse. I saw this interview with Denzel Washington where the interviewer couldn't get off the subject of race and when he asked Mr Washington if he felt that there had been any improvement for black people in Hollywood, Washington gave him a look that was the visual-dictionary definition of "you've gotta be kidding me", noting that he was chatting with a journalist in a swanky hotel about a film that he directed, starred in and adapted (Fences) - what did he think? Not every black actor is Denzel Washington, it's true, (and I mean that in every respect) but things are unquestionably better today than they have ever been, and by quite some distance at that.

[Powerboy]

Well, there always will be room for white women in Hollywood movies. In no point in history we will ever see someone from those studios say "sorry ladies, the fiesta is over, we are only giving jobs to men now, even for playing a women " lol.

And a lot of room, many, many roles. Not many very glorious but eh, a job's a job.

Black (or Asian, Latino..etc...) actors now? Roles are scarce. Real scarce.

Black males definitely struggle more to ever get into a movie to begin with though white women and all women struggle to be anything but eye candy or to get cast if they are not eye candy.

[jetengine]

Black Males easily. Roles are fairly limited for them due to Hollywood racism.

[Marvelgirl]

Black males definitely struggle more to ever get into a movie to begin with though white women and all women struggle to be anything but eye candy or to get cast if they are not eye candy.

which is worse. white women as eye candies or black men in the black best friend stereotype role? The two must be frustrating for both groups.

[XPac]

Without a doubt, hands down by miles, the Oriental male. What, they actually have Oriental males actors? Yes, only in Asia. Shang Chi? Sad but I think it's going to flop.

I didn't want to bring it up because they were outside the paramenters of the original post but yeah... my first though when reading this was that asians probably have it harder in Hollywood than either of the 2 groups mentioned.