Diversity in Television: Quality is Better than Quantity, Part 2

In part one of this two part series I talked about why I'll only be celebrating the quality, not just the quantity of diversity in television. I know some of yall were wondering how we can do what I stated. I firmly believe that it starts behind the scenes. We need more diversity producers, writers, directors, DP's, etc. You can't just be willing to cast POC, women, etc in front of the camera, but behind it as well. This is how we create quality work. If these characters are not written well, their portrayal can do just as much harm as not casting them at all.

Once the behind the scenes of a show looks like the world we live in, then our shows will look like that as well. We need writers to tell our stories. We need directors to shape our stories for us. We need camera people to show our stories through our eyes. We need people who will think outside of the box and will cast POC, women and other minorities in roles that were originated for white men. We need people who are willing to give chances to those who want to make television that looks like our world.

In an interview, director Ryan Coogler talked about how important it was for him to have diversity on his crew. He spoke specifically about his DP for the film 'Creed.' He said that she saw things in ways that he didn't and came up with ideas that he never thought of. How else would this happen if he went with the norm?

So this is basically me encouraging those who want to get into this industry, whether in front of the camera, behind it, or both, to go for it. And for those already there, make room and opportunity for us to come in and make our presence known. Let us continue to make this industry better than it was years before.