Despite major strides in diversifying television with “Empire,” “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Black-ish,” the stats on writers in Hollywood still are sobering: Minorities make up 13.7 percent of writers rooms, with only 10 individuals of color (out of 73) on THR's 2015 Power Showrunners list. To combat the problem, major networks have funded diversity initiatives to help writers rooms avoid homogeneity, funding a season's work for a minority writer. However, these programs have also have created a system that can condition showrunners to regard diverse writers as unpaid labor, leaving many jobless after their first year of work, as The Hollywood Reporter explained.
Additionally, to some observers, the opportunity to nab a diversity staff-writer gig can seem an unfair advantage. "People have said to my face, 'It' easier because you're black,'” says one female writer, “which is utterly dismissive of all the hard work I've put in.” While some champion the programs ("I'd hate to see what our statistics would be like without these diversity initiatives"), others feel like give participants a scarlet letter A for "affirmative action," ultimately hurting their chances for success. Read the full story here.
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