'Star Wars' star John Boyega, other Hollywood stars know diversity needs to be more than a ticked box
As an industry, Hollywood has been saying the right things when it comes to improving diversity. But diversity alone isn't enough if the workplace remains a hostile environment for Black people and other people of color. Without meaningful cultural change, movie studios and TV networks are only engaging in surface-level efforts and giving the appearance of inclusion without addressing the messier reality that racism is endemic to the way Hollywood does business.
John Boyega spoke to this in a recent interview, describing his "Star Wars" experience as a bait-and-switch that allowed Disney to disingenuously pat itself on the back.
"What I would say to Disney," Boyega told British GQ, "is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed aside."
What he's describing is performative diversity. And it gives multibillion-dollar corporations cover to say: Look how diverse this project is - everything is fine!
Everything is not fine.
"I call it the philosophy of, 'Oh, let's just give people some jobs,'" said Aymar Jean Christian, a professor at Northwestern University and the author of "Open TV: Innovation Beyond Hollywood and the Rise of Web Television."
