Writers rooms today are racist. It’s an undeniable proven fact that the modern writers room is mostly white. says 35% of Writers rooms in the 2016-2017 television season was made up of black writers. There’s obviously a problem here, with 65% of the Writers Rooms that were examined literally had no black writers at all, and 17% had 2 or more black writers. The problem is that black people, people of color, and women aren’t given the chances white men are. Quote from Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of Color Of Change: “The outrageous level of exclusion in writers’ rooms has real-life consequences for black people, people of color and women.” Robinson isn’t wrong, black people are not given the opportunities whites are, and it has large consequences. A 22 year old black man might not be given the chance to be in a writers room, and he could end up being the next Aaron Sorkin. These people of color who could be just as talented as one of Steven Spielberg’s writers, aren’t given the same chances as white men are. Why? Good question. Maybe these Hollywood Executives who make all the decisions have an anti-black phobia or maybe they actually can’t find black writers that are good writers. I would find the latter very hard to believe. You can’t deny that white men are the ones that are given the best opportunities, not just in Hollywood, but in Society. What can we do to change this though? their own Associate Features Editor had to say this: “Color of Change’s recommendations in the report include changing hiring practices by mandating genuine inclusion in outreach, application, interview and assessment processes, as well as setting public goals for inclusion in hiring and in talent cultivation, supported by real budgets and concrete shifts in practices and transparency. Color of Change also implores advocates and influencers within the industry to work together towards change.” The quote from Turchiano is essentially her summarizing what the report said about what Writers Rooms can do to change the issue. The report’s suggestions on what needs to happen to make an actual change in Writers Rooms is a change to hiring practices. They just need push inclusion to the max. This goes for the applications, the interviewing and assessment processes, and making goals for hiring and being inclusive with their talent. These changes will also need to be supported by actual budgets that are reasonable. Nothing will change if great efforts aren’t put into the matter, and that includes not only money, but involvement of people who work in the industry. Quote from Danielle: “Additionally, the report finds that in 17% of rooms that employ a single black writer, that writer is often excluded from influencing the creative process and passed over for advancement. Only 13.6% of shows led by white showrunners had two or more black writers in the room, but every room led by a black showrunner had multiple white writers.” This quote from the Variety article recaps that in 17% of Writers Rooms that employed one black writer, that writer was excluded from having influence on creative processes and would be passed over for advancement. The report also said that 13.6% of the shows that were lead by white showrunners had at least two black writers, but all rooms that were lead by black showrunners had several white writers. This is very interesting information, particularly the differences between black showrunners and white showrunners. The black ones are more inclusive than the white ones. The white ones had at least 2 black writers, but the black ones had several white writers. Yes, it could be a coincidence, but I doubt it. I think the reason for this is these white writers feel more comfortable when they outnumber the black writers. They don’t feel safe when the black writers outnumber them. Why? Maybe they believe blacks are less intelligent than themselves, or maybe they are just afraid of black people, but right now, we don’t know.
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