Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

Hollywood and Racism: The Diversity Checkmark

Picture of Oghenefego Ofili

Oghenefego Ofili

All Posts

Hollywood and Racism: The Diversity Checkmark

The death of George Floyd and the national protests against police brutality and racism across America drew my attention to how institutionalized this issue is across sectors in the United States. While a lot of mentions were made about how African-Americans are not able to buy or rent homes in certain parts of a city, inequality in the health service, unequal employment opportunities and the disparity in funding for black-owned businesses, little has been said about Hollywood.

I researched the cast of a few TV series and noticed a pattern that seemed as though, the producers just wanted to get a checkmark for diversity on set. Most actors on these productions were white Americans or of other racial categorization, with one black actor to represent that race. Only Suits had two African-American as part of the main cast.

Here are the TV Series I checked out and the cast member who is African-American:

NCIS: Rocky Carroll as Lean Vance

NCIS New Orleans: CCH Pounder as Lorretta Wade

Bull: Chris Jackson Chunk Palmer

NCIS Lost Angeles: LL Cool J as Sam Hanna

Rizzoli & Isles: Idara Victor as Nina Holiday

Suits: Meghan Markel as Rachel Zane; Wendell Pierce as Robert Zane and Aloma Wright as Gretchen

Emergence: Robert Bailey Jr. as Officer Chris Minetto and Donald Adeosun Faison as Alex Evans

SVU: Ice-T as Odafin Tutuola

Bones: Tamara Taylor (African-Canadian) as Camille Saroyan

These are the ones I had the time to check out, I wonder if you will find a similar pattern in other Hollywood movie productions. The number of blacks then increase when it comes to casts for crime-related scenes.

This brings to mind Tyler Perry and the significance of his success in this industry to African-Americans who are in this industry. He literally had to build his own table when he was not given access to the existing tables.  I think this is what other African-Americans should aim at achieving in different sectors as they continue to push for reforms that ensure equal treatment across board.

The goal should not be consideration in the name of diversity; it should be freedom in all sense of the word.

Share:
Picture of Oghenefego Ofili

Oghenefego Ofili

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts

Hot News

Trending

Subscribe

Sign up for regular doses of latest information from Teo-Inspiro International

Client

Ubongo International

Role

Content Producer (Nigeria Chapter)

  • Created community engagement videos and digital learning content
  • Produced human-interest features on early childhood learning in underserved communities
Client

International IDEA – Impact of RoLAC Programme (EU-Funded)

Role

Documentary Production Consultant

  • Produced documentary film showcasing justice sector reforms in Nigeria
  • Developed content strategy for visibility and dissemination
  • Coordinated interviews with government actors, CSOs, and international partners
Client

Save The Children

Brief

Provide media and coverage and content development for the Stop Diarrhoea Initiative in Lagos State.

We provided video and photo coverage for all project events assigned in Lagos. A group of 50 children were also trained on content development and storytelling as part of awareness for the project.

We successfully managed the production of events under the project using top-notch professional equipment. The Save the Children team in Lagos had enough videos and photo content for the campaign.
Client

Sanlam of Nigeria

Brief

FBN Insurance was rebranding to Sanlam Nigeria after a merger with the South African company and we had to provide event media production services suitable for an international event.

We shared the brief with all vendors who qualified for the different aspects of the event. We ensured all set up was ready and a dry-run done six hours before the event started.

The South African team was impressed with our professionalism and the event was a huge success with news mentions across platforms within and outside Nigeria.
Client

Helen Keller International

Brief

Ensure professional videography and photography coverage of all projects

Teo-Inspiro International ensured our production team understood the brief for each event and delivered professional coverage and content for all media platforms.

All HKI project events assigned to us were produced successfully. All vendors engaged provided excellent service to the client on every occasion. A short documentary of the 5-year Nutrition and Healthy Lifestyle project was produced.
Client

FirstBank of Nigeria

Brief

Provide media content development for the digital marketing team of FirstBank of Nigeria.

Photography coverage of all events hosted and sponsored by FirstBank, live edit and share content with the digital media team for posting on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook live at the event.

Since 2019 we have successfully provided over 2.5million images used on FirstBank’s social media platforms. Due to the quality of content this has increased engagement on the bank’s social media platforms and recently achieved 1million followership on Instagram.

 
 
Client

British Council ACT Programme

Brief

Media Engagement Consultancy to support the delivery of the EU-ACT communication and visibility under five (5) objectives. ACT Programme wants to use new and traditional media platforms to create awareness and visibility on the importance of CSOs in achieving the SDGs

We developed the “Civic Action, Sustainable Communities” campaign aimed at showcasing the contributions of CSOs to sustainable development in Nigeria. Digital marketing was deployed across all social media platforms and relevant content curated from the 200 benefiting CSOs on the ACT Programme. A weekly interactive radio program was produced for thirteen weeks across four locations (Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt and Abuja) on Nigeria Info and Arewa Radio. About twenty-five CSOs and other stakeholders involved in the ACT Programme featured in an international documentary showcasing the impact of the programme. Investigative journalists and feature writers were supported to publish stories and reports covering the thematic areas of the ACT Programme on AIT, Guardian, Vanguard, ThisDay, The Nation, Leadership and BluePrint newspapers. A website was also designed to serve as a repository for all campaign project activities.

The campaign resulted in more recognition and appreciation for CSOs contribution to development in Nigeria by citizens, open dialogue between CSOs and regulatory agencies and other CSOs wanting to be part of the campaign. Asides the social media campaign a documentary about the ACT Programme and its impact on CSOs across Nigeria was produced. Teo-Inspiro leveraged her relationship with broadcast and print media organization to publish feature stories about the positive impact of the Programme in Nigeria. The campaign had over 5,000 followers on social media and over 200,000 reach across platforms. The radio program reached over a million people during the 13-week period.