Racial segregation began as a way to differentiate groups of people. And like many things, as the time passes, the truth is lost and you’re left with is a group of people believing that they are superior to others. Fast forward to 2016 and it’s almost night and day in comparison. There are minorities playing a big role in how the world is being shaped and are changing the face of media in a grand scale.

Despite it being 2016, there is still a notable gap between Caucasians and minorities; especially in the Oscars. This past year was a great year for African American actors, producers and even directors, yet none of these hardworking members of Hollywood got nominated. Was this because they weren’t as great as those that were nominated? I would normally agree with that, but movies like Straight Outta Compton and Creed were talked to death about and had lots of positive feedback. Straight Outta Compton brought in an astounding $200,425,182 and the film was nominated for an Oscar, but not for the acting or directing, for the screenplay written by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, both Caucasians. Creed was a continuation of Rocky where Sylvester Stallone played as Rocky and Michael B. Jordan played as Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed. This movie racked up $136,234,603, and like Straight Outta Compton, this film was nominated for an Oscar and Sylvester Stallone, who was a supporting character, was nominated instead of Michael Jordan. Now this may be because Stallone delivered a heartbreaking performance, but that doesn’t mean Jordan didn’t deserve the recognition.

In the greatly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there was many discussions about the movie. One being that an African American was playing the role of a Stormtrooper. This caused many issues with people awaiting the trailer of the film. Apparently, Stormtroopers were clones, but the cloning machine was broken and the Dark Side began recruiting Stormtroopers so it wouldn’t be ridiculous that there would be a black Stormtrooper. However that didn’t stop people from going to the online boards and complaining about racial change, not knowing how much of a talented performer John Boyega is. This also happened in Fantastic Four where people were outraged that Michael Jordan was playing a role of a Caucasian character. Even though in the past Caucasian actors have played intended roles for a minority character.

This needs to stop. This cycle of anger geared towards racial prejudice affects the role and the movie experience. Personally, I enjoy good acting and would like to see more minorities on the big screen getting the recognition they deserve.