“Racism and sexism in Hollywood remain so pervasive not because of men like Damon, who benefit from the system whether they like it or not, but from the gatekeepers responsible for clinging to a faulty system of judging talent. There are fewer women and persons of color involved in searches like this because their opportunities are reduced. It’s the same principle that necessitated the adoption of affirmative action, an attempt to even the playing field that is inherently unbalanced. The burden shouldn’t be placed on marginalized individuals to try and overcome the broken system, but on gatekeepers to prioritize hearing and supporting marginalized individuals. The problem, then, with Damon’s words is that on “Project Greenlight” he is not just an actor, he’s a gatekeeper. And that by trying to silence Effie Brown, he dismisses the voice of someone worth listening to, not only for her experience, but because she was saying, in essence, ‘There is value to seeking out the voices of those different from us.'”

September 18, 2015

I got the same dismissive reaction from WME’s all-white senior management when I suggested that the company’s lack of diversity [zero African American Agents in the NY office and I was the ONLY black Agent Trainee when I started] played a significant role in my inability to advance and be promoted to Agent. We are tired of having these conversations about diversity and any company in the United States of America that maintains an all-white workforce in 2015 is clearly violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 INTENTIONALLY.

Source: Libby Hill. “Commentary: Matt Damon Isn’t Racist, The System Is; ‘Project Greenlight’ Proves It.” Los Angeles Times. September 15, 2015. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-matt-damon-project-greenlight-diversity-20150914-story.html.

Written by MarcusLutherX Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with affirmative action, African Americans, antidiscrimination law, black God, black power, civil rights, Civil Rights Act of 1964, colorblindness, denial of job opportunities, disparate impact, diversity, economic racism, evaluations tainted with racial bias, global white supremacy (racism), gross underrepresentation of qualified people of color, HBO, Hollywood, Hollywood racism, implicit racial bias, inexorable zero, institutionalized racism, intentional, job discrimination, job opportunities, jobs, labor, longstanding, Matt Damon, melanin, myth of black inferiority, myth of meritocracy, myth of white racial superiority, new york city human rights law, occupational segregation, pattern and practice, pervasive, Project Greenlight, quotas, race, race conscious, race is a social and legal construct, race-neutral, racial caste system, racial discrimination, racial inequality, racism, racism is a learned behavior, racism is embedded into the DNA of American society, reawakening the black psyche, reparations, section 1981, skin melanin, social racism, standard operating procedure, statistical evidence, subjective decision making, systemic disparate treatment, unconscious racism, unemployment, unequal employment opportunities based on race, unintentional, white defensiveness, white privilege, white resistance, whiteness, widespread, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, word of mouth hiring, work culture defined by race, workplace discrimination