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IF YOU’VE EVER thought that mainstream Hollywood films tend to feature mainly white cast members, you’d be right.
The scale of this is made starkly clear on the Tumblr blog Every Single Word, which is cataloguing on video every single word spoken by a person of colour in movies like Her, Black Swan, and Moonrise Kingdom.
The blog is the creation of actor (and star of Welcome to Night Vale) Dylan Marron, based in New York.
Marron has also been posting commentary on what the under-representation of people of colour in fiction means:
Using edited video clips – most of which are a minute or under when knitted together – Marron shows that people of colour not only spend minimal time on screen, but they are often relegated to specific roles.
Who goes to the cinema anyway?
When it comes to the representation of people of colour in movies, a 2012 US study showed that:
Across 100 top-grossing films of 2012, only 10.8% of speaking characters are Black, 4.2% are Hispanic, 5% are Asian, and 3.6% are from other (or mixed race) ethnicities. Just over three-quarters of all speaking characters are White (76.3%).
However, this doesn’t match with the demographic of those who actually buy cinema tickets.
In 2013, the MPAA said that in the US, Caucasians ”now account for less than 50% of frequent moviegoers and are underrepresented relative to their portion of the population”.
Hispanics are more likely than any other ethnic group to go to movies, but purchased fewer tickets in 2013 compared to 2012. African Americans and “Others” purchased more tickets in 2013 than in 2012
The site has been getting a lot of attention for focusing a spotlight on Hollywood’s representation of people of colour.
Marron is even being compared to Alison Bechdel, whose ‘Bechdel test‘ is often used as a way of denoting sexism in movies.
Here are just some of Marron’s videos – the rest can be found on Tumblr.
What do you think of his work?
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Build an underground like modern civilisations do
@Hipity Hop: That’s the plan also, will still need buses though
@Hipity Hop: while I agree with you that we desperately need to upgrade our transport system, how many people will agree to it ? Specially keeping in mind the way construction has a bad history in this country! There will be a lot of objections. The best way forward is for free reliable transport & that might improve on our carbon emissions also!
@Hipity Hop: there would be similar objections to the construction of an underground also, you only have to look at the Metro for that one
@Hipity Hop: no city would have an underground as far our as shankill is. Ridiculous suggestion
@Colette Kearns: that’s what they’re trying to do. Reliable is the key. No matter how free it is people won’t take it if it’s unreliable. Time is the most valuable thing we have!
You need to cause disruption to improve transport!
@Graham Carrick: theres already a train station in shankill
@Hipity Hop: They have it all wrong. Spines from the City Centre is not the answer. Buses in the suburbs at 30min/60 intervals is wrong.
The traffic congestion starts at the housing prices/rents being too high – large majority of people move outside of Dublin.
These people need to commute back in to Dublin.
Having buses every 30 mins / 60 mins on the outskirts of Dublin is not an incentive for the commuters to leave their cars at home and use public transport.
Buses leaving from Dublin suburbs, commuter towns, and even further out in the morning need to be every 5 minutes.
The hubs should be setup on the outskirts of Dublin – bus depots. With large and massive park and rides built to encourage people to drive to them and use the public transport.
That way – people living outside of Dublin, will only drive to a Park and Ride, park up – wait 5 minutes for their bus – and jump on.
The buses then head into the “Polar Grid”.
Well, the Spines are wrong – it shouldn’t be a spine grid eminating from the centre of the city. It should be a Polar Grid – with interconnecting bus stops and connections to get people too and from different places in Dublin.
What’s a polar grid? It’s a bunch of circles that get larger from the centre out, and this is divided into grids by intersecting lines that cross the centre.
Not everyone is going to the City Centre. A Polar Grid of interconnecting buses would be better.
@Eugene Tyson: The advantage of a polar grid is that not only you get “spine” from the city centre. You also get another wave of main buses that go around the city, not through it. Meaning you travel out from the city centre, then cross connect at a grid intersection.
It would be a very simple map to make.
And all Shopping Centres should be connected by express bus services. E.g., Liffey Valley to Blanchardstown, and vice versa, with LV to Square, SQ to Dundrum etc. EXPRESS! No stopping. Get on at Dundrum, get off at the SQ. and so on.
Bus connects will wreck the smaller villages and towns, turning them into just pass-through highways – there must be some better layouts that don’t involve such destruction of street layouts, homes and greenery.
@Anthony Clark: you know people had the same unfounded fear when trains would roll out.
The town I live in rejected having a train link as people claimed it would kill the town, in hindsight we can see that trains benefitted towns far more then having a negative impact.
A bus to a town is no different.
1. It encourages more people to live in the area
2. It means a person can live in the area and may not need to buy a car if it has a really good transport libk
We should be seeking to have good public transport links, but it seems people want them without any change to our road systems. The problem is, so many roads are not fit for bus lanes etc without changes to the road layout and that includes the proposals here.
@Anthony Clark:
At the moment these towns are just slow moving parking lots. Having at least one or two modes of transport (bus and bicycle) actually working might benefit those in the community. Not withstanding the very real benefits to their health they are also objecting to!
@Tim Pot: Widening roads just encourages urban sprawl, and commuting by motor car.
In the 1950s Milltown Village was demolished to widen the road, to allow developers build in places like Dundrum.
Perhaps a congestion charge to cross the canal between 730 and 9am would be far more effective. Certainly cheaper, would raise taxes and lead to less fumes.
@Paul Kelly:
There needs to be a balance. There is a requirement for quick, reliable, safe and direct transportaion around cities for all its users. That means mass transport (bus, rail, cycle) and roads (public services, deliveries, trades ect.) Most people in Ireland still have a car and willcontinue to do so and so they also need to catered for.
We need bus connects, congestion charges, dedicated traffic routes in dublin (exclude rat runs) eliminate on street parking, provide off street parking, wider footpaths, drastically more dedicated cycle paths… We need it all.
@Barry Somers: You have not looked at the Bus Connects plans by posting that as it does the exact opposite to what you finish with
@Tim Pot: We don’t need Bus Connects it is unfit for purpose. Badly designed and a serious lack of thought behind it
NIMBY. This country is full of them.
@Ian Breathnach: I wouldn’t want any of those NIMBY types living near me for sure. Is there something to said about holding a the a march or something that i could go to , maybe saturday , maybe city centre and hold up the traffic – that’ll show them….. and the benefit of making the weekends around dublin even more congested …oh Ireland…
If they want a community, then make the villages pedestrian and cycle only, with buses away from the main streets altogether. Most opposition just want their cars to take priority over public and healthy transport options. Bias corridors should be on dedicated bus routes – no taxis, cars or bicycles – just buses and trams.
@Renton Burke: A lot of Dublin villages only have a Main Street- i.e. there isn’t a parallel street for running buses along.
@El_Duderino: yep, step off the main street and you enter a cul de sac housing estate. This is not easy to fix.
I’d hate to live in Dublin.
@Bull McCabe: we’d hate that too
In Ireland everyone knows that Bus Connects will never be built because politicians cannot ignore so many people complaining.
We need to stop wasting money on this proposal and find an alternative.
@Tim McCormack29: Ever thing that the people are complaining for good reason
Bus Connect plan omits to address the fundamental issue with urban commuting, ie.,that private car & commercial vehicle traffic is incompatible with any proposed logjam solutions, as long as everyone carries on in a laissez faire culture without affecting their habits
1/ All on street parking of vehicles needs to be eliminated, everywhere. If you choose to use a private vehicle, you need to have somewhere off road to store it.
Public Roadways are for travel connections, not open air storage for motor vehicles.
2/ Goods Distribution & Services. Instead of murdering trees, which provide a huge environmental benefit, or exposing business & homes to increased traffic noise/pollution by chopping back gardens, provide business with rates subsidies to switch to nighttime goods & services.Tbc
@William Kelly: 3/ The present Bus Connect outline plan makes no provision for home & business premises insulation from noise & light pollution, which is very significant even now. Be aware that these routes will have continuous increased traffic 24/7, & the removal of trees will expose more to the fog of emissions.The e25k average for gardens will not compensate & fund the protection of health, & is not proposed for all who live or work on them.
4/ To address the need for ease of access to urban retail & other business, free hop on hop off bus services within inner zones, increased taxi space provisions, & the business operators provide free delivery.
5/ All development plans for urban redevelopment for business purposes to have adequate site area for vehicles, including commuter access.
@William Kelly: so in a nutshell your proposal is to provide more space for cars which carry a max of 5 people and not buses which carry 50 +
Very sad to see they want to take all the beautiful trees from St vincents up to the rds and beyond too. Has to be a better way.
@ash doyle: What is this better way, Ash? This is a balancing act. Trees can be replanted. There can’t be any more delays to improving the public transport infrastructure.
@ash doyle: you’d have to laugh at some of the residents on telly recently complaining about the removal of the trees: suddenly they’re environmentalists. Look behind them and you’ll see 2 or 3 big SUVs parked in a driveway that was, once upon a time, their nice environmentally friendly garden. Hypocritical NIMBY’s the lot of them.
TDs, nimbys and clueless me feiners are gonna ruin dublins best chance at getting a functional modern bus service
@Ian McNally: you want a functional modern bus service? Easy, stop motorists from using the road.
@Ian McNally: Bus Connects is not a functional bus service by any means.
Most congestion is on the main routes going in and out of city centre at rush hour and much of the congestion is caused by cars with single drivers. They should look at much greater restrictions on cars as part of the solution.
@paul o’brien:
It is incredible to look at the Dublin traffic streams morning and evening and notice how many cars have only one person alright.
I am lucky in being able to get DART and/or bus with one change practically door to door home to work – hate the odd time I drive it.
But as a lot of folk live way out now – places the buses dont go or dont go too often. The congestion charge stick would have to be combined with a decent city perimeter ‘park’n'ride’ carrot.
Might be cheaper than the bus connect works – all them 25K garden purchases and massive messy roadworks must add up!
@Michael Kavanagh: fellas the idea is they build a bus connects plan so the single car use has something genuinely worth considering as an alternative…..there is a clear chicken and egg decision that needs to be taken….build modern public transport system and then use the stick to beat motorists to stop using cars…..it wont work the other way around….we cannot seemingly agree to the building public transport plan yet….all the other stuff is waffle….the trees need managing but so much nonsense being thrown around…typical ireland…..we will have 10 years of faffing instead of agreeing a sensible solution and building the f****** thing.
@Michael Kavanagh: They are paying tax on their cars. They are entitled to drive it wherever they want with only the driver in it.
@Wild Goose: this misguided notion of driver entitlement is endemic in Ireland. Its simply not true. Transportation budget comes from general taxation. Commuters who use trains, darts or cycle are statistically likely to earn more money than those who commute to work in their car. (according CSO recent report). Therefore they pay more tax. They are in effect cross subsiding what is for many, a non essential, but a lifestyle choice to drive to work, and often in large completely unsuitable for the city cars.
And not a Dublin Bus in sight…..privatise it, its the only way just look how good things are “Going Ahead” at the minute………yeh right
@Boris Becker: ah yes, because privatisation solves it all. There’s no reason why the State cannot deliver a functional public transport system, delivering effective public services is part of their duty. Privatising is a cop out by a largely unaccountable government.
@Boris Becker: privatisation of transport has failed in the U.K. so why on earth would we follow their lead?
@Aisling Bruen: did you miss the bit at the end, “yeh right”
I was being sarcastic, or trying to be anyway…… Go Ahead a prime example of leaving Dublin Bus well alone
@EillieEs: have a read again, slowly… Im with you
@Aisling Bruen: public servants and unions are the reason they cannot run an efficient service. Wait an see the drivers will be going on strike for more money because they have to drive in a different direction
@Boris Becker: “.privatise it” lol – like the bin collections? That went well – not.
@Boris Becker: Thats the underlying plan is to privatise the public transport system just like the Tories in the UK did and Leo was called a Tory by his own party members
@john s: It has nothing to do with unions, NTA screw things up
Funnily the people complaining about this are probably the people who don’t want a metro, busses are grand. Tbh these spines should be metro lines, not trams, actually underground trains. But it’ll never happen. Dublin tragic is already ridiculous.
@Keith Michael Gregg:
Metro lines would be the best quality solution but you are talking 10x multiples of the current cost.
However dedicated bus lanes and dedicated bicycle routes will be able to take a huge amount of traffic off these roads. These spines could in the future be upgraded to luas trams, further increasing capacity and reducing the private motor car traffic.
@Tim Pot: Hub and spie straight out of the NTA handbook and it has proven to be a disaster in New Zealand
We need a lot more trees , not less!!
My God, what a Gobsihte to have making decisions ,this woman was actually DEMOTED by Leo, where are we going here?. A Clown that will never be returned to the Dail, now talking skutter . When will we learn??
@Eugene Comaskey: the real gobsihte is you, who doesnt realise that Mary Mitchell and Maria Bailey are different people
@Gerald Broflovski: I’m afraid Eugene is correct. Mitchell was minister for Jobs, innovation and training until Varadkar became Taoseach. He demoted her to a “super ” junior minister role. She is now minister of state for higher education.
According to Dublin Bus figures, the average bus is carrying only 22 passengers per hour! Tearing the city to pieces in not justified for busconnects. Manage traffic properly. Give buses/taxis(bus lanes) priority at traffic lights during peak hours and problem solved. Change the timetable to reflect demand. There is no need for a bus every 10 mins between 10am to 3 pm. Lots of simple, non destructive changes would sort out most issues.
@Fred Coloe: It took me 30 mins to get from college green to the rotunda last week on a bus,the bus lane was full of tourist coaches offloading who then had to try get over to the other full lane,the Dublin buses were taking on passengers who didn’t have their money or leap card ready slowing the bus down,on top of that the luas is trying to get around the top of o connell st but couldn’t as the cars just through the lights from the right were on the track.A frustrating disaster of something they spent millions on telling us it would be seamless.The planning infrastructure here is a joke
@Fred Coloe: The services I use must be irregular as they are always packed
Leaving aside the genuine concerns that residents may have – the level of ignorance and intolerance displayed in some posted comments is disgusting.
Shankill isn’t the problem. Buses pass through quickly enough even in rush hour. Bray and n11 are the bottlenecks, not Shankill.
How about building an underground? Or is Dublin too special for that?
@Marc Power: theres too many services just under the roads that would need moving,also you wouldn’t know what the roads were built in top of.When they were running the green line down hardcourt street most of it collapsed, so many cellars and tunnels under it that were used in civil war times,how many other spots would be the same
@Marc Power: I’m not an engineer but I’m pretty sure it’s not that simple, other cities with underground built them on existing victorian infrastructure . Dublin is very built up and parts of it very old I imagine it would be very difficult timely and extremely costly
@Marc Power: Cost and pop density are the issues. A metro would need a min of 3/4 lines to be built at the same time. I would imagine this would cost 15 billion or more and take 10-15 to construct given we have no expertise in this area. Look at the delays/cost over-runs in London on Crossrail for an example of how these projects can go off track even with the expertise they have.
@Fred Coloe: excuse the pun bah da dum
Rah rah rah sort out the congestion but don’t cut down that tree outside my house I really like how if provides a dappled shade when I get out of my suv.
Who elected Bus Connects? Nobody. They have minimal evidence that their destruction of urban villages will have any benefit for commuters. Yes, we need to discourage cars. Chopping down trees and bulldozing roads through communities is not the way to do it. First thing to do? Fire the eejits in Bus Connects who a) haven’t a clue b) won’t hold a general meeting because it would demonstrate the scale of opposition to their “plan” c) build an underground for the South West city
We need underground network asap !
Uzbekistan is one of the poorest countries in the world as per GDP per capita.
Capital city Tashkent population over 2 million has a metro.
We are pishing around chopping trees.
Geniuses.
Bus Connects plan will change villages, loss of tress etc. Transport is important and the project will have a positive effect on commuting, BUT, it will only be effective for a few years as they keep packing in more workers into Dublin instead of spreading it around.So the damage to villages, loss of trees, CPO on people’s front gardens will be for nothing after a couple of years, it needs longer term planning, this is just a band aid and probably going to be used an election propaganda piece by our incompetent government.
@Eddie O’Neill: It may have been but its turned into a total disaster as TD’s and councillors give their feedback from their supporters.
The NTA said at the release of Bus Connects that it was a take it all, or leave it deal.
They seemed to have changed their minds about that.
The NTA must be looked at seriously to see if they are capable of doing their job.
College Green, fail.
Bus Connects, Uproar,
Bus design and purchase failures.
Gotta to look at who is making these decisions that are constantly wrong and not supported by the general public. The very people they are supposed to take care of.
An alternative is to reduce the roads by one, so it is one way for car traffic. Keep the bus and cycle lanes. Encourage people out of their cars. Provide free public transport for children so they can get to and from school. Start a societal change where kids are used to public transport so are less likely to buy cars in the future. Abolish free parking on Sundays and have normal schedules on public transport that could be free for the day.
have your say