Tessa Thompson, Kendrick Sampson, and 300+ Black Artists Call on Hollywood to Divest from Police

Hollywood is due for an overhaul.

In a letter developed by Insecure‘s Kendrick Sampson, Westworld‘s Tessa Thompson, and Black Lives Matter cofounders Patrisse Cullors and Melina Abdullah, Black entertainers are demanding that Hollywood divest from the police and invest in anti-racist content, Black careers, and the local community.

More than 300 Black artists and executives, including the likes of Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis, Issa Rae, Billy Porter, Idris Elba, and Janelle Monáe, have signed the letter, which was first published by Variety.

“To our allies in Hollywood,” the letter begins, “Hollywood has a privilege as a creative industry to imagine and create. We have significant influence over culture and politics. We have the ability to use our influence to imagine and create a better world. Yet, historically and currently, Hollywood encourages the epidemic of police violence and culture of anti-Blackness.”

It continues, explaining that the stories Hollywood represents contribute “to the criminalization of Black people, the misrepresentation of the legal system, and the glorification of police corruption and violence has had dire consequences on Black lives. … It also includes the perpetuation of transphobic stories which are used to justify the murder of Tony McDade in Florida, Nina Pop in Missouri, Dominique Fells in Philadelphia, and Riah Milton in Ohio. We must end the exaltation of officers and agents that are brutal and act outside of the law as heroes. These portrayals encourage cops like Derek Chauvin, the murderer of George Floyd.”

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HOLLYWOOD. I have been heartened to see the swell of interest in our stories recently. I look on virtually every streaming platform and see curations of our work, meant to educate and inspire during this time of excavating systemic injustice. This recent amplification of Black centric media is a direct result of the Nation and globe finally fighting to protect the dignity and value of Black life. How will you do the same? This letter is merely an invitation to begin the real work, of negotiations around how to make change actionable. The industry is a microcosm of society at large. I have watched Hollywood morph into a space slightly kinder to its non-white members over the course of my career— and still, too often it’s efforts fall short of addressing what’s at the root. A way forward—is mandated, measurable change. ‘Hollywood’ is not an idea, an amorphous institution — it is a collection of people with power who can decide to do better. We are talking to you. — Read our letter and full list of demands at www.BLDPWR.com.  #Hollywood4BlackLives #DefundThePolice

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The letter adds that the entertainment industry and its agencies serve as “gatekeepers” who don’t hire, recruit, support, or advocate for Black workers. “Even with the recent successes of Black-led and produced films and television, myths of limited international sales and lack of universality of Black-led stories are used to reduce our content to smaller budgets and inadequate marketing campaigns,” the letter reads. “White people make up the smallest racial demographic globally, yet their stories are seen as internationally universal. When we do get the rare chance to tell our stories, our development, production, distribution, and marketing processes are often marred, filtered, and manipulated by the white gaze.”

And the letter also lists their demands: to divest from the police, including on sets or at events; invest in anti-racist media content, from hiring “culturally competent social justice consultants to inform projects” to creating “a system of public disclosure for anti-racist efforts”; invest in Black careers by providing support for Black agents and managers, reckoning with internal racism within unions, and more; and invest in communities, starting with contracting Black-owned businesses, expanding workplace protections, and more.

“In light of continued systemic, brutal murders of Black people, members of the Black community in Hollywood are standing together with the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of community-based organizations from all over the country including Black Lives Matter, and with the families and loved ones of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Kenneth Ross Jr, Wakeisha Wilson, Rayshard Brooks and countless others in the movement to Defund Police and Defend Black Lives,” the letter concludes.

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