Read this: Hollywood staffers reflect on broken DEI promises

It’s almost hard to believe, given the recent spate of removing trans storylines from TV shows and disappearing content starring characters of color, that Hollywood made a very public effort to champion stories from non-white creators less than five years ago. The Black Lives Matter movement of course began long before the murder of George Floyd, but in the immediate aftermath in June 2020, Hollywood studios made a particular push to diversify the stories they told. Many studios invested in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, and hired non-white staffers in roles from writer all the way up to executive. So how’s that going?

Not great, argues a story published today by Vanity Fair. Aside from the general fact that people in privileged positions tend not to give them up willingly, the piece by writer Joy Press points to two big reasons for the sidelining of these initiatives: money and politics. In the case of the first, it’s no secret that Hollywood is not the gold mine it may once have been. Even before 2020, streaming was disrupting the revenue streams of traditional film and TV viewing habits. Then came the pandemic, and then a dual writer-actor strike. “Across the board, everyone has been suffering,” Thembi Banks, a director and Emmy nominee for her work on Only Murders In The Building, tells VF. “But there’s that old adage: ‘When white America has a cold, Black America has the flu.’” The piece notes that Warner Bros. Discovery’s North American vice president for DEI Karen Horne was laid off in 2023 due to restructuring, seen as a symptom of the industry’s willingness to give up on ideals when strapped for cash.  

Second, the specter of the second Trump administration is giving studios pause, and did even before this November’s election. In June 2023, the Supreme Court for all intents and purposes ended Affirmative Action, leaving some in charge wary about their promised initiatives. “I’ve heard people being very cautious about potential lawsuits that could arise from perceived quota systems,” Kristen Marston, a consultant for films like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Little Mermaid, tells the magazine. “There are even some concerns about people’s titles having ‘equity’ in them—being scared that that’s going to be illegal or unethical at this point.” Marston also suggests that companies are doing whatever they can to minimize “anti-woke” backlash, something seen across industries. 

Of course, there is more to it than that. The article also mentions how many of the DEI consultants hired in or post-2020 came in with suggestions of how to change—the task they were hired to do—but their suggestions fell on deaf or unwilling ears. Another problem is that Hollywood is a business very much run on personal connections, and white people tend to be most connected with other white people. You can take a look at the whole report here.