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"People wish there were a quick fix": How DEI in Hollywood and publish
source link: https://www.fastcompany.com/90791510/entertainment-publishing-industries-found-no-easy-dei-fixes-after-2020
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Entertainment, publishing industries found no easy DEI fixes after 2020
During a panel at the Fast Company Innovation Festival, Black leaders across Hollywood, publishing, and the music world talked about how their respective industries have reckoned with diversity issues since 2020.
In 2020, when protests against racial violence and police brutality erupted across the country, corporate America responded with a wave of unparalleled financial donations and diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.Nearly every industry was forced to reckon with its diversity issues; and for the first time, it seemed like business leaders were prepared to go beyond lip service and take steps toward lasting change.
Two years later, however, some of those efforts have faded or proven more complicated than business leaders might have hoped. “People wish there were a quick fix to this,” Orion Pictures president Alana Mayo said during a panel at the Fast Company Innovation Festival on Tuesday. “They wish there were a DEI hire plus a couple of trainings and a seminar—and yay, we solved [systemic racism],” Mayo said. “And as I hope everybody in this room knows, that is not the case.”
![06-90791510-rethinking-representation-the-future-of-inclusive.jpg](https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/wp-cms/uploads/2022/09/06-90791510-rethinking-representation-the-future-of-inclusive.jpg)
But there are no easy solutions when it comes to revamping industries that have a long history of homogeneity. And some of the actions companies and executives took in 2020 were, in hindsight, short-term solutions to more pervasive, systemic problems.
The publishing industry, for example, sought to diversify its ranks by recruiting new people into the field, which some people believe wasn’t the right approach to cultivating a pipeline of talent.
![05-90791510-rethinking-representation-the-future-of-inclusive.jpg](https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/wp-cms/uploads/2022/09/05-90791510-rethinking-representation-the-future-of-inclusive.jpg)
At the same time, many white editors were tasked with editing more books from underrepresented authors, some of whom received outsize advances that they wouldn’t be able to earn out—which could, in turn, hurt their chances of getting another book deal. Sherrod said white editors tended to overestimate how well those books would sell, and whether white readers would pick up the book.
That optimism may have come from a lack of understanding of the audience for books by underrepresented authors. “My publishing friends whose homes I’ve been to—I don’t see Black books on their shelves, even the ones that they published,” Sherrod said. “I think their perspective is one of optimism, and we have to pay the price for that.”
![08-90791510-rethinking-representation-the-future-of-inclusive.jpg](https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_596,c_limit,q_auto:best,f_auto/wp-cms/uploads/2022/09/08-90791510-rethinking-representation-the-future-of-inclusive.jpg)
On the other hand, he noted, addressing diversity issues at work could also impact how people move through the rest of their lives. “You’re learning about different holidays that they don’t even teach at your kid’s school, [but] you haven’t gone to the PTA meeting to ask, ‘Hey, I was learning about Juneteenth this year at my workplace, but we don’t do that at school. How come?'” Darden said.
“You come to the workplace and put on the charade because you kind of have to, because inclusion and diversity is en vogue,” he added. “But if we really want solutions, aren’t we going to do this at home?”
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