On the heels of issuing a critical report about Hollywood’s minority hiring, the president of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People threatened the entertainment industry Thursday with unspecified political actions if it did not increase diversity.
“At a time when the country is excited about the election of the first African American president in U.S. history,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, who was appointed in May to head the civil rights organization, “it is unthinkable that minorities would be so grossly underrepresented on broadcast television.”
The statement came shortly after the organization’s Hollywood bureau released a 40-page report called “Out of Focus, Out of Sync — Take 4″ that found blacks and other minorities continue to be underrepresented in “nearly every aspect of the television and film businesses.”
Today, only three network series — CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “The Unit” and ABC’s “Ugly Betty” — have minorities in leading roles.
Source: Los Angeles Times
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If you aren’t happy with it, do it yourself:
Television representation is a problem. A small problem, but one worth discussing. Here is the answer. Either produce your own programing or leave the medium as a whole and venture to the next frontier of education, the internet. Webisodes will be the next major media platform. Be first and make a lasting imprint there.
Although I do think traditional TV is going the way of the dinosaur, the internet has a long way to go before it becomes the next frontier of education. For one, the majority of the text you see on the net is written by a non-authority – which basically means a whole bunch of false information floating around with no one to regulate it.
I have been saying this for years about how successful TV shows that are on major networks get cancalled not because of the rating But, because of the color of the cast networks llike CBS and ABC have been doing this for years if a show with a black cast beat out white shows then that program start getting jumped to different nights where people can’t tune in to watch. it’s good to see the NCAAp stepping in but, honestly I think it won’t change.