On 21st June, 5000 members of the U.K.’s film and TV industry have signed an open letter urging them to make various “strategic commitments” to reshape the landscape and improve representation. Signed by producer Nisha Parti, actor and writer Meera , “Patrick Melrose” actor Indira Varma, playwright Tanika Gupta, actor-director Pooja Ghai and presenter Anita Rani, this letter comes after 700 members of the BAME Task Force had written to the culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, besides other major television networks blaming them for not tackling the “culture problem” within the media.
The recently established ‘BAME TV Task Force’ dispatched the letter speaking up about the “cultural problems within the UK television industry” as leading Director Steve McQueen claimed that the UK is “far behind” America in representing its black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) population.
“For many years we have stayed silent, due to fear of being blacklisted. But in the current climate we feel emboldened to say something and this time we want to be heard,” the letter noted.
The Taskforce slammed the film industry of racism and listed a set of proposals to tackle discrimination. Besides the culture secretary the letter was also addressed to media watchdog Ofcom and broadcasters such as BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, STV, Sky and UKTV, and platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and YouTube.
“After initially creating a safe space where 200-plus BAME employees, were able to share their stories without fear of repercussions, we soon realised that we all shared toxic experiences where our race had been held against us or held us back.
“For years, we’ve heard the buzzword ‘diversity’ – entry level schemes are put in place, targets are set, reports are published – yet little changes. Why?” said the task force, led by mid-level representatives of the BAME workforce in departments such as development, commissioning, casting and journalism.
Discrimination, the task force said, also hampered growth of BAME professionals, noting that “only 9 per cent of people in senior positions being BAME, indicating a lack of progression”. The task force’s proposals included:
- An increase in the number of BAME commissioners to 25 per cent across all genres
- A clear place where channels and production companies post their jobs that can be accessed externally
- Increasing the number of BAME talent managers to 20 per cent by the end of 2021
- Setting up an independent body for workplace grievances to encourage employees to report their experiences without fear of repercussions
- Making monitoring mandatory for development and production, broken down into non-editorial and editorial roles
- A new and improved yearly report on the percentages of BAME talent working in various roles
- Mentoring scheme for mid-level workers with networking events, leadership training, an industry mentor, and events for the alumni of the scheme over the following years
The task force said these proposals were “a good starting point for discussion and that they will be a catalyst for real change”.
In the meantime, McQueen, the first black director to win an Oscar for best film, is calling for the immediate fast-tracking of BAME trainees within both film and television as he criticised the dominance of white workers on the sets.
Whereas, booker prize winner Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge have become the first black British women to top the UK’s fiction and nonfiction paperback charts at a time when black and authors of colour have labelled the British publishing for its “hostile environment”.
