Through an Accurate Prism

WASHINGTON — When all of the senior executives of the major studios--Columbia, Disney, DreamWorks, Fox, MGM, Miramax, Warner Bros. and Universal--and their counterparts at ABC, CBS and NBC gather on Mondays in their respective corporate boardrooms, there are few, if any, faces of color. Out of 1,000 top executives in the industry--including writers, directors, producers and agents--a handful are black. This virtually homogenous group of white males exerts control over a more than $20-billion industry that influences the culture, commerce and values of virtually every nation in the world. When Hollywood projects an image, it becomes global reality. Television and movies possess the inherent power to define what the world sees and how it should feel about it.

The absence of minorities from Hollywood’s executive suites means they are powerless to control their own global reality. When the NAACP chided Hollywood for not featuring minority actors in leading television roles, it was only half right. The debate centering on diversity for diversity’s sake ignores the issue of power sharing in American society. The focus on the number of black actors as symbols of diversity is a shallow measurement. The more accurate measurement, perhaps, would be the level of control black executives have over film and television budgets.

In the television and film context, minority demands for diversity have been minimized to concessions by networks to shoehorn some characters of color into fall sitcoms. This is much too facile a solution for a complex problem. What Hollywood’s executives hold onto more dearly is their power to define. This power leads not only to influence over the images, but influence over the economic equations that are the lifeblood of the entertainment industry.

Opening up the network and studio boardrooms to qualified minorities would have an astounding effect both within and beyond the broadcast industry. With the unencumbered power to define their characters, black writers and producers would be liberated to present a richer pastiche of the African American experience to the global audience. No longer would black images be filtered through the lens of formulaic stereotypes that so often result in one-dimensional characters--usually criminal or comedic.

The presence of black executives would likely put an end to a television practice that rarely highlights black intellectual skill or expertise. Networks send a subtle message when they promote white males as the only experts we see commenting on economic affairs, world events or public policy. Black analytical skills have been reserved for sporting events.

To be sure, throwing open the ramparts to black directors could easily produce more of the sort of low-brow, in-your-face comedy that comes from the Wayans brothers. The creative control exercised by a few young black producers is not really a major step forward, since blacks have been allowed to master the comedy art form. But power sharing could also result in a proliferation of engaging, dramatic and quality programs, much like that produced by Tim Reid and Carl Franklin. Ultimately, American audiences would be free to examine African Americans through the prism of real-life experiences.

This power would also tear down the Mason-Dixon line between white and black television programming, because for most Americans, life is not nearly so segregated. Removing apartheid from TV and film production also yields an economic benefit to the entire Hollywood community. For black film producers, the financial support of the studios would allow them to explore nonblack themes in film, and more significantly, give them the opportunity to interstitch whites and blacks into true-to-life scenarios. The liberalization of this market, alone, would take black writers and producers from the margins of the industry into the mainstream.

The presence of minority executives in decision-making positions at networks and studios also means that ancillary economic benefits and revenue in the industry could begin to find their way to minority communities. Minority agents, attorneys, accountants, advertising executives, insurers, caterers and contractors would be poised to receive a reasonable share of commerce from the networks simply because a minority executive was conscious of their existence. Not to be confused with quotas, this type of economic benefit is what has been lost when there is a lack of access to opportunity.

Why does it matter, and what is at stake? In the final analysis, the participation of minorities throughout the television and film industry should be viewed in a broader context other than as employment for a few actors. As the grand projector of American values, movies and television should reflect our diversity, if not celebrate it. African Americans, Latinos and Asians, while portrayed as such, are not merely walk-ons in our society--they are woven into the fabric of what has made this country great.

No other industry in America has been allowed to perpetuate the wholesale exclusion of minorities from executive ranks. It is time for Hollywood to change.