This year's Oscar nominees make up the whitest group in years, but panelists at a discussion on the black experience in Hollywood were upbeat Wednesday.
"With the advent of technology, there's so many ways to get your stories out there," said Don Cheadle, the actor and one of the producers of "Crash," which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2006.
A Feb. 11 New York Times story raised anew the issue of race in the movie business, noting that 2010 "was perhaps the whitest year for Hollywood since the post-Richard Pryor, pre-Spike Lee 1980s."
Indeed, none of this year's Academy Award nominees for best actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress or director is black.
But while panelists said that black actors continue to face obstacles -- and that Hollywood continues to segregate "black movies" from other films -- they were generally optimistic. And they said the way to succeed in the entertainment industry is to prepare, work hard, have faith and put ego aside.
Cheadle advised actors to write and do anything else they can.
"You need to be a hyphenate," he said. "You need to be multifaceted in this business...Go buy an $800 camera and make a movie. There's no impediment now."
The goal of the panel discussion, sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild National Ethnic Employment Opportunities Committee, was to celebrate Black History Month and to motivate actors.
"We want you to leave inspired. We want you to get yourselves into a whole new space about who you are as creative artists and actors," SAG National Executive Director David White told more than 250 people at the organization's headquarters.
Panelist Taraji P. Henson, who was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for her role in 2008's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," expressed frustration with the notion of "black movies."
"I want the industry to stop with the labeling the movies," she said. "I don't say, 'Hey! Go with me to see this white movie."
The panel also included actress-producer Marla Gibbs, Academy Award-nominated director John Singleton and former Casting Society of America president Chemin Sylvia Bernard, and was moderated by Emmy winner Wayne Brady,
The group agreed that despite advances, black performers face unique difficulties. Before the session began, Co-Chair Vivicca Whitsett told TheWrap that she recently booked a guest spot on a television program, but that her role was cut when producers decided that it didn't make sense to have an African American person in the scene.
"The scene was an airport in Minneapolis," she said.
And Bernard, responding to a question, told the audience that she has seen a troubling change over the past few years.
"I have a theory that has not failed me," she said. "I watch commercials. Commercials will always be the harbinger."
"If you look at commercials right now, you don't really see us very much, do you?" she asked.
