Results by title

2 books match the query 'Yuen, Nancy Wang'

cover of Reel Inequality, Second Edition: Hollywood Actors and Racism

Reel Inequality, Second Edition

Hollywood Actors and Racism

Nancy Wang Yuen

Rutgers University Press, 2027

Reel Inequality was the first book to systematically document how Hollywood's institutional racism shapes the lives and careers of actors of color. In this updated edition, Nancy Wang Yuen again translates academic research on structural racism into an engaging, accessible narrative for general readers. Connecting personal stories from actors of color, industry data and practices, and historical patterns, she reveals how racism operates both behind the scenes and on the screen. She also examines Hollywood’s retreat from diversity efforts amid the broader backlash against DEI. 

Yuen draws on newly released industry data and recently published interviews with actors of color, showing how racism continues to shape who gets cast, who gets hired, and who gets to tell their own story. She looks closely at the pressures actors of color face, including typecasting, financial precarity, and racial burdens, even as many push back and forge their own paths. She also uses the lens of Hollywood to explore broader issues of race, inequality, and representation.

[more]
cover of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism

Reel Inequality

Hollywood Actors and Racism

Nancy Wang Yuen

Rutgers University Press, 2016

When the 2016 Oscar acting nominations all went to whites for the second consecutive year, #OscarsSoWhite became a trending topic. Yet these enduring racial biases afflict not only the Academy Awards, but also Hollywood as a whole. Why do actors of color, despite exhibiting talent and bankability, continue to lag behind white actors in presence and prominence? 
 
Reel Inequality examines the structural barriers minority actors face in Hollywood, while shedding light on how they survive in a racist industry. The book charts how white male gatekeepers dominate Hollywood, breeding a culture of ethnocentric storytelling and casting. Nancy Wang Yuen interviewed nearly a hundred working actors and drew on published interviews with celebrities, such as Viola Davis, Chris Rock, Gina Rodriguez, Oscar Isaac, Lucy Liu, and Ken Jeong, to explore how racial stereotypes categorize and constrain actors. Their stories reveal the day-to-day racism actors of color experience in talent agents’ offices, at auditions, and on sets. Yuen also exposes sexist hiring and programming practices, highlighting the structural inequalities that actors of color, particularly women, continue to face in Hollywood. 
 
This book not only conveys the harsh realities of racial inequality in Hollywood, but also provides vital insights from actors who have succeeded on their own terms, whether by sidestepping the system or subverting it from within. Considering how their struggles impact real-world attitudes about race and diversity, Reel Inequality follows actors of color as they suffer, strive, and thrive in Hollywood.
 
[more]