I finished reading an article about black representation at the Oscars this year. It is a topic that comes up every year. It is the shock of so few blacks and other minorities up for awards, the hand wringing on what to do, and the comment sections where some say people are too sensitive and others feel blacks and minorities are everywhere.

While I would love to dive down the rabbit hole, there was an aspect of the article which makes so much sense but is frequently ignored. When the general public thinks about Oscar winners, they think about the actors, the best picture and maybe the director. No one debates the winner of the best short film, or the best costume designer. Those are regulated to the technical Oscars geeks like myself. A complaint given about many Oscar telecasts is why do they spend so much time on categories people don't care about.

The article I read, posted on the USA Today website, mentioned that with the availability of cheap digital cameras and other equipment, young people today have to be shown they have the ability to tell their stories. Only by doing this can some work their way up and become the writers, techs and directors who can make decisions in casting. A few days ago, at Whitney Houston's funeral, Kevin Costner reminded the congregation how difficult it was to cast Houston in The Bodyguard, because executives and others wondered in whispered tones if having a black woman in the lead would sink the project. It proved to be wrong, but if Costner didn't take a chance and stick to his instincts with Houston, and if he wasn't a big box office draw at the time, the role probably would have been recast.

The discussion Costner mentions still happens in Hollywood. The people making the decisions, the people green-lighting projects, they still are cut from the same cloth. The argument has been that a Spike Lee, a Denzel Washington, or name any other high paid minority actor, can get any movie made they want to, or they could pool their money together and start a studio. Well, ask George Lucas about that. Ask him about how hard it was to get Red Tails financed. The sad realization of the Red Tail behind the scenes story is, in the long run, the film didn't make as much money as people had predicted, so all of the issues brought up about having a black cast in a film will be reinforced. There will be no nuanced examination of why the film didn't do as well. The thriving narrative will be that black films can't make money.

Others, of course, will bring up Tyler Perry, saying his films make money and they are predominately black. The bigger problem with any black film is the fact they have to be labeled black films. Just like going to school in the 70s, if a black kid went to a predominately white school, they became the font of knowledge for everything black. If that child was a super smart student, then the child was an exception to the thought of blacks being less than intelligent than their white counterparts. If the child was average or less than average, then it confirmed the prevalent thoughts about black people. Only when you had lots of minority students around white students did people start to realize everyone is an individual and can't be lumped in group think.

That is what is happening with minority films right now. A film comes out and it has to represent everything about the race instead of being judged as a movie by a person. People get their panties in a bunch when Tyler Perry does his Medea movies, and for the record I'm not found of them, but he is getting paid for those films, people seem to like those films, but the films aren't the be all and end all for black films. If all I knew about American culture was watching Jennifer Aniston films, I would have a skewed view of American culture. Jennifer Aniston isn't the only semi blond, former TV show actor making tepid romantic comedies. I can't judge all movies, or even movies in the romantic comedy genre, only by her films. For the record, Jennifer Aniston's new film, Wanderlust, did a dismal 6 million dollars this weekend of the Oscars. It won't be a career killer; she will surely have a new film out within two years. By the way, Good Deeds, a non-Medea Tyler Perry movie also opening this weekend, came in with 16 million dollars.

Because of the box office of Red Tails, it could be years or even decades before there is another large cast minority film telling a story from the minority perspective.

The way of changing this trend is encouraging young kids to get cameras and tell their stories. If they get behind the camera, learn the craft early, they can bypass the Hollywood system and film their own stories. In that way, you can get the people with the experience to climb the ranks and get more diverse films produced. Even if the ceiling is Hollywood is hard to break, with the access we have we can make the films outside the system if needed.