Kerry Washington discussed how Hollywood is still ‘centering whiteness’ and admitted that the film industry definitely still needs a lot of work before it can properly represent all races and skin colors on the big screen. Here’s what she had to say!
This week, the actress was a guest on Hollywood: the Sequel podcast’s first ever episode and she expressed that she was rather hopeful when it comes to Hollywood’s future.
That’s definitely not to say it doesn’t need a lot more work, as she went on to point out.
As for her sense of hope, it looks like it’s coming from the fact that the country is much more focused on the Black Lives Matter movement than it’s ever been due to the protests.
Kerry can’t help but hope that they will end up having a notable positive effect on the entertainment industry as well.
‘We have to be willing to look at ourselves, regardless of what industry we’re in. We look at ourselves to do better. When we say that we are committed to diversity – it is diverse from what? We are still centering whiteness as the most important thing and just inviting diversity around it. When we talk about inclusivity, there is still an in and an out,’ she said during the podcast.
The star went on: ‘So we are still centering certain kinds of people and maybe in fractions allowing other people to be at the table. There is just so much of it that needs to re-examined.’
She also admitted that the protests in the aftermath of the tragic deaths of such people as Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and George Floyd have unfortunately not changed the lives of black Americans that much at this point.
‘I’m grateful the world is showing up for Black lives in a different way, but this has been the only reality – this level of danger, anger and fear, trauma and lack of safety – it has been the reality of Black-Americans since there were Black Americans.’
As far as she is concerned, a real change in society and Hollywood will not come as a direct result of the protests but of dismantling the system that inherently puts people of color at a disadvantage from the very start.