In a world where Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday nights, Black Twitter dominates every Game of Thrones conversation and Hermoine Granger is black, CBS has missed the mark.
Every lead actor for each of CBS’ six new shows is a white male.
Even in a perfect world, there would be no excuse for this. Yet, here we are, being handed Laverne Cox’s role as a regular in Doubt as a remedy for the perpetuation of dominant male whiteness on our TV screens. Similarly, we see Johnny Ray Gil and Nikki M. James in regular roles on CBS’ BrainDead this summer, but they are not leads.
CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller attempted to defend the network’s decision when questioned about the lack of diversity at the 2016 TCA press tour. “Look, we need to do better and we know it,” Geller said. “In terms of year to year, looking at the leads, we are less diverse than last year.” This statement made the issue worse.
Finding black talent isn’t akin to rocket science, though many entertainment industry leaders might make it seem so.
If ABC, FOX and NBC could figure it out, why has CBS dropped the ball? This regression in diverse characters really means one thing. For CBS, like many other companies, diversity is only a “priority” when all eyes are on them. It’s easy to mask the real issue by putting a non-white face on a screen, which CBS hasn’t even bothered to do. Inclusion, however, is the real problem.
In the words of Diversity and Inclusion Consultant Verna Myers, “diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.” Here, CBS has invited Laverne Cox to the party, but she hasn’t been asked to dance. Inclusion is the act making diversity a priority by working from the inside out. Inclusion is the act of hiring non-white talent and treating them as regular employees, not diversity trophies. Inclusion is the act of dismantling the systems that keep us out of board rooms simply because we matter.
Had inclusion been the priority for CBS, Cox wouldn’t be the only diverse actor at the party.
Geller also addressed this issue on the other side of the spectrum. “We also need to look behind the camera as well,” Geller said. “We haven’t finished filling all of our director slots. We’re getting better and better in our director ranks; over half of our directors are diverse.”
But, what about executives at CBS? Hiring non-white directors is cool, but the real power is wielded by the network. The network sets the priority.
A probe into Geller’s team shows that 7 out of the 12 team members are women. However, only one is visibly non-white, and unsurprisingly, that person is Tiffany Smith-Anoa’i, the EVP of diversity, inclusion and communication. How can diversity be such a priority with a minimally diverse team?
Look at the production company behind Issa Rae’s upcoming HBO show Insecure. If Issa Rae can make the effort to have a diverse team behind the screen and in front of the screen, this long-standing network can as well.
When Facebook pulled a similar stunt last month, Twitter drank all of its white tears with #FBNoExcuses. The tech company attributed their lack of diversity to a lack of diverse candidates.
Perhaps #CBSNoExcuses will be the next trending topic, because Twitter already isn’t having this.
