NAACP Report Finds Hollywood’s Lack of Black Executives Is "Harming the African American Community"

A new report commissioned by the NAACP Hollywood Bureau in collaboration with Dr. Darnell Hunt, Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA, and MEE (Motivational Educational Entertainment) Productions, was released recently, stating that the lack of Black executives in Hollywood has led to damaging depictions of Black people on TV and in movies.

It also states that the “absence of Black control of media has rendered the community vulnerable to a host of debilitating impressions, ranging from negligent disregard to deliberate degradation.”

The report is titled "The Black Executive: A Partial Solution to the Psycho-Social Consequences of Media Distortion.”

For statistical evidence, Hunt pulls data from the 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report from UCLA, which found that in 2020, 91% of film studio CEOs were white, and 82% of them were male. In management, 93% of studio senior management teams were white and 80% of them were male. Building on that, 86% of studio unit heads were white and 59% male.

When it came to TV, 92% of network CEOs were white and 68% male, and 84% of network senior management teams were white and 60% male. Finally, i86% of network unit heads were white and 46% male.

The NAACP report goes on to say:

“Media content informs and misinforms opinions about Black people, ultimately influencing perceptions and behaviors, followed by laws and policies that govern and define social circumstances with steep psycho-emotional consequences. The most damaging consequence of the industry’s faulty approximation of genuine Black experiences is the absorption and adoption of those characterizations as misshapen forms of self-identity, worthy of emulation.”

It expounds on the issue of representation with emulation, saying:

“Black youth culture has been co-opted by corporate America to sell products and services, while also over-indexing in the consumption of TV shows, movies, and other media content. This is a key profit reservoir for Hollywood, despite African Americans having little control of the content that broadly defines them.”

Hunt wrote that this harms Black communities and needs to stop.

"Instead," Hunt said, "media companies must dedicate themselves to a wholesome alternative—including more Black executives in green-lighting and development decisions, since their voices lend the perspective that’s all too often missing.”

An unnamed Black executive posed this solution in the report.

"Everybody's going to have to start asking themselves the question, ‘Should I be the one making these decisions, or do I have the right people here to caucus with to make decisions?’ These are the hard things, right? So, what can be done better? Let’s start with those questions."

You can read the full report here. Let us know what you think in the comments.