Like everyone else during the pandemic, my mate and I and binge-watched our way through lockdown. The only difference is, we did for a grander purpose: to rank the top IMDb movies by how diverse their casts are. And so, The Beige Index was born.
What is The Beige Index? Well it’s sort of like the Bechdel Test — but for race.
And if you don’t know about the Bechdel Test, created by Alice Bechdel
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless MindA Star is BornMinions: The Rise of GruFun fact: French director of four Despicable Me movies Pierre Coffin actually voiced a bunch of the minions. Source: Universal Pictures.Jonathan O’BrienThe Shawshank Redemptiona whole website
#Creamy AKA the whitest category, which represents a whopping 60.8% of the dataset (think It’s a Wonderful Life, Toy Story, and Inglorious Basterds).
#Beigefever AKA a little less white, with 30% of the dataset (think Dances With Wolves, Inside Out and Everything Everywhere All at Once)
#Middlebeige AKA way less white, with 3.2% of the dataset (Whiplash, Coco and Gandhi).
#DownToBrown AKA “where’d the white people go?”, with 2.8% of the dataset (Hamilton, City of God and A Separation).
#WelcomeToBeigewatch AKA “what is white people?”, with 3.2% of the dataset. (Hotel Rwanda, Dangal and Jai Bhim)
Harry Styles
Should I tweet every time a trailer comes out for something where I auditioned for a role specifically written as Asian American but they went with a white person instead
