Tagged: favortism

“The entirety of this exchange is one that many professional Black people have experienced, when they find themselves “the only one” in a room full of white colleagues. Many of us have felt the pressure of challenging the ways that whiteness is operating unnoticed, even as we are also saddled with the baggage of representing for our race/gender. When we demand, politely of course, that diversity take place on every level from the boardroom to the stage, frequently we are met with white defensiveness. Matt Damon’s defensiveness showed up in the way he spoke over Brown as she was speaking, the manner in which he then suggested that the directing team she wanted had no problem with the film script, the condescending way that he explained diversity to Brown as though his (erroneous) view was the only possible one, and then the condescending and dismissive way that he later offered his ‘appreciation’ for Brown ‘flagging diversity’ for her colleagues. To add insult to injury, Brown then felt compelled to quash all perceptions of her as the angry Black woman. Despite Damon’s defensiveness, it is Brown who tells her colleagues that she is not angry, reaffirming the love in her heart. It is Brown who must make her white colleagues not feel guilty or uncomfortable for the ways they are enacting their whiteness. Unmoved, Damon plays the merit card. The merit card is the white equivalent of a race card – it is the highest trump card, in a game of spades. Merit is the supposedly race neutral rubric that everyone should naturally agree is the best way to judge candidates, all questions of race aside. The myth of meritocracy is one of the foundational and erroneous ideals of white supremacy. “

Source: Brittney Cooper. Salon. “Matt Damon’s Staggering Meritocracy Lie: What His “Project Greenlight” Blow-Up With Effie Brown Really Shows.” September 16, 2015. http://www.salon.com/2015/09/16/matt_damons_staggering_meritocracy_lie_what_his_project_greenlight_blow_up_with_effie_brown_really_shows/.

“Issues of race have long bedeviled Hollywood, which has been criticized for not giving minorities enough opportunities for work, and for not doing enough to represent African Americans, Latinos and others in films and television shows. Darnell Hunt, a sociology professor at UCLA, said he was not surprised by the nature of the emails. ‘This is where we are in Hollywood,’ said Hunt, who is director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, which produces the annual Hollywood Diversity Report. ‘We have a diversity problem … the fact that you can have these perceptions that are made jokingly give us a peek into the underlying culture of the industry.'”

Everyone wants to write about Sony’s hacked e-mails, but the media doesn’t want to discuss the fact that William Morris, Creative Artists Agency, their attorneys and counsel for the plaintiffs in Rowe Entertainment v. William Morris Agency et al. (98-8287) concealed smoking gun evidence showing Agents and other employees from two of Hollywood’s biggest talent agencies referring to African Americans as “nigger,” “nigga,” “coon,” “Uncle Tom” and “monkey” hundreds of times in incoming and outgoing e-mails.

Above is the document Leonard Rowe found on his attorney’s desk, now known as “Exhibit 31.” What makes the actions of Rowe’s attorneys so unethical, is that the class of black concert promoters paid $200,000.00 for this search and were told by their own white attorneys that “no derogatory terms” were found. Clearly the plaintiffs in Rowe were defrauded because this document is authentic. If not, Arbitrator David L. Gregory would have never admitted this document into the evidence of record in my case when the federal judge in Rowe — Robert P. Patterson — refused to do so eight years earlier. Twelve years after the search was conducted, the underlying e-mails have never been produced.

Source: Daniel Miller. Future of Sony’s Amy Pascal Questioned After Hacked Email Revelations.” Los Angeles Times. December 11, 2014. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-sony-amy-pascal-apologizes-20141212-story.html.

CHRIS ROCK “explains what it’s really like to be black in the entertainment industry.”

chrisrockwhitehollywoodreporter

There were definitely a few moments that made me cringe (“[Hollywood]’s a white industry. Just as the NBA is a black industry.”), but overall, Chris Rock’s essay for the Hollywood Reporter simply discusses the same issue that I have been addressing in my lawsuit against William Morris Endeavor Entertainment [the oldest and biggest talent agency in Hollywood] for the last four years: the lack of diversity throughout all levels of Hollywood and the deleterious effects William Morris’ unlawful employment practices had on me, the African American community, as well as society as a whole.

Rock has been acting for more than 30 years, and it’s clear that as much as things change, the more things have stayed the same. It’s funny that Rock and others can STATE THE OBVIOUS, but when I rely on historical, statistical, anecdotal, circumstantial, smoking-gun, documentary and other forms of evidence to demonstrate that William Morris’ has engaged in 116 year pattern and continuing practice of excluding qualified African Americans from meaningful positions such as Agent and Agent Trainee IN AN EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATON CASE, they never refute this evidence while simultaneously arguing that I am “anti-Semitic,” “racist” against whites and that I am nothing more than a liar that’s engaging in “bad faith” and raising “frivolous” arguments — to which the “impartial,” Republican appointed federal judge P. Kevin Castel agreed while violating numerous Canons under the Judicial of Conduct and never discussing or citing any of our nation’s antidiscrimination laws. Smdh.

So essentially, William Morris, Loeb & Loeb LLP, P. Kevin Castel, other predominately all-white/”Jewish” institutions like the Anti-Defamation League, etc. are calling ALL OF US liars and that if this industry IS STILL overrepresented by whites and “Jews” of European descent in the 21st century, it’s NOT because these companies are CONTINUING to violate our nation’s antidiscrimination laws by maintaining employment practices, policies and procedures that create a disparate impact against qualified African Americans and people of color — it’s obviously due to our inherent inferiority.

Click the cover to read Rock discuss his experiences as a black man in Hollywood.

even if I had been an Uncle Tommy, it doesn’t change the fact that African American Agent Trainees had a ZERO PERCENT rate of promotion to Agent at William Morris’ New York office between 2000 and 2010. #FACTS

“With the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Congress reiterated that ‘[i]t is in the interest of American society as a whole to assure that equality of opportunity in the workplace is not polluted by unlawful discrimination. Even the smallest victory advances that interest.'”

Nothing but empty rhetoric…

Source: H.R. Rep. No. 102-40(I), at 46-47 (1991), reprinted in 1991 U.S.C.C.A.N. 549, 584-85.