#HollywoodSoWhite: We’ve Still Got a Long Way To Go To Increase Diversity Behind the Camera

UCLA’s 2021 Hollywood Diversity Report tracked representation of women and minorities in four main industry employment categories: lead actors, total cast, writers and directors.

All categories showed progress in 2020, but the report finds that women and people of color remain markedly underrepresented in essential behind-the-camera jobs:

“Women made up just 26% of film writers and just 20.5% of directors. Minority groups were slightly better represented as directors at 25.4%. Just 25.9% of film writers in 2020 were people of color.”

With greater representation of people of color on-screen, why does Hollywood still lag in elevating underrepresented voices and retaining a diverse group of creatives?

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In September, I sat down with South Carolina-based filmmaker Zajwain Eugene to discuss the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards and the lack of diversity among winners (prompting a reprise of the #EmmysSoWhite trend) in my podcast, Getting Reel with Gabi.

The conclusion we both came to is that in our work, we want to uplift the talents of other Black creatives within our community because it is clear that we cannot rely on the system to provide those opportunities to the same extent and at the same rate that white creatives benefit.

This multifaceted issue is both personal and important to me as a Black person as someone who grew up with few faces to identify with on-screen. As an artist and someone who is more cognizant of the production side of things, it worries me that representation continues to lag dramatically.

Photo courtesy of Brands&People on Unsplash.

With its lack of minority representation, Hollywood continues to lose out on an immense amount of diverse talent as well as earning potential.

Main Issues

The Entertainment Industry Itself

Film and TV are insular industries by themselves, and it is not easy for anyone to break-in. That said, these industries cater to white talent by nature of Hollywood’s power structure, which remains overwhelmingly white.

A report on Hollywood diversity and inclusion from management consulting firm McKinsey & Company finds that 87% of TV executives and 92% of film executives are white. This has implications not only for what stories are told and who distributes those stories, but also for a perpetuation of the issue.

The problem extends to every end of the industry.

Actor Kendrick Sampson states:

“The lack of a true commitment to inclusion and institutional support has only reinforced Hollywood’s legacy of white supremacy,” wrote Sampson. “This is not only in storytelling. It is cultural and systemic in Hollywood. Our agencies, which often serve as industry gatekeepers, don’t recruit, retain or support Black agents. Our unions don’t consider or defend our specific, intersectional struggles. Unions are even worse for our below-the-line crew, especially for Black women. Hollywood studios and production companies that exploit and profit from our stories rarely have any senior-level Black executives with greenlighting power.”

This issue is social, it is financial, and it is racial, and it is the intersectionalities existing between these challenges that we should focus on correcting. But much like broader issues of equity, the challenges faced by minority talent are the result of historically racist institutions and practices that continue to disadvantage people of color.

The Opportunity Gap

Beth Johnson, who is an Associate Professor in Film and Media at the University of Leeds writes in a story for The Conversation that "recently published data from the UK-based Creative Diversity Network, found that diversity behind the camera is getting worse over time. Positions such as directors, producers and camera operators are being filled less and less by those who idenify as black, Asian or minority ethnic, disabled, transgender or the over-50s.”

Johson notes that a majority of the industry voices are CIS, white males, and how class and locaIon can have a negative impact on a person’s prospects for breaking in, and remaining in, this industry.

The McKinsey report also details how the few Black creatives working above the line positions are largely responsible for providing opportunities for other Black off-screen talent. The firm estimates that the film and TV industry could generate $10 billion in annual revenues by addressing the opportunity gap.

A Way Forward

The way I see things as of right now, I am certain that the main avenue for people of color to get work behind the camera will be from opportunities offered by the above the line crew with similar identity, as stated in the McKinsey report.

While this is an inefficient method, the studio system currently makes no concerted effort to increase diversity among crew. In this way, people of color are forced to resort to a “for us, by us” style of doing things because if no one else is creating opportunities for them, they must do it themselves.

This is empowering, especially seeing Black creatives such as Issa Rae challenge the studio system with her growing media empire, Hoorae Media. By not only creating work that is authentic and true to our experiences, having a cast and crew that live those experiences and create that work is critical at a time when our voices remain underrepresented by the powers that be.