By Samantha Sidi ‘16, Arts and Entertainment Editor

When Masters of None was awarded the Best Comedy Series at the Critics Choice Awards, the co-creator and producer Alan Yang jokingly thanked an unexpected group of people in his acceptance speech: straight white guys. Yang stated, “Thank you to all the straight white guys who dominated movies and TV so hard, and for so long, that stories about anyone else seem kind of fresh and original. Because you guys crushed it for so long, anything else seems kind of different.”

Yang’s joke brings up an important question: is his content innovative or just inclusive? In a broken system like Hollywood where every actor nominated for an Oscar is white, it is not hard to be suddenly labeled as ‘fresh’ and ‘original’ if the content is expanding upon narratives of real-life people of color, not just sticking to the narratives of white, heterosexual characters who are normally represented.  Masters of None has a diverse cast with Aziz Ansari as the main character who explores interracial relationships and discusses relationships with his best friend, who is a black lesbian. A television show like this would not have appeared five years ago, yet its popularity with the public and critics demonstrate how people are sick of watching shows that only represent straight white males. The success of Masters of None and other shows like Empire, Jane the Virgin, Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat, and anything on Shondaland, demonstrate how the landscape of television is expanding, but also that people want to view these shows and will support television that has three-dimensional actors of color.

So while television is making great strides towards inclusion, the fact remains that Hollywood is still restricting opportunities for people of color to succeed on the big screen; #OscarsSoWhite is trending for the second year in a row. Through limiting recognition of people of color with the Oscars (despite successful movies like Straight Out of Compton) the only way change can occur is through a dialogue about the lack of diversity. With his gratitude for the historical lack of diversity that makes the critical acclaim of an inclusive show so groundbreaking today, Yang brings to light the changes that are occurring in television.  Hopefully, progress will spread and a paradigm shift in the film industry will follow.

Check out Alan Yang’s full acceptance speech below!