There's a huge push for inclusion behind the scenes in TV/Film recently, & I can't stop thinking about ways non-inclusion/institutional clauses keep us from feeling truly "safe" at work. I hope production companies actually make an effort to adjust things like these (a thread):

1. The obvious: lack of diversity. An entirely white staff maintains what is already an 'othering' space for us on those rare occasions that a token black person or POC is added into the mix. But something else insidious, ESPECIALLY as a marginalized person in a white-only space:

2. Deal Memos and contracts that keep people from speaking up. Productions begin w/signing a deal memo/contract, all of which include an NDA and "whistleblower clause" that is supposed to exist for people to speak up if something happens...

The problem is, a lot of the time these clauses are written in a way that the person signing it is told that they can only report wrongdoing to their superiors w/in the project or company. What if their superior is the one guilty of the wrongdoing?

What if the cause of the marginalized employee feeling a lack of safety in their work environment is a direct reflection of those 'higher ups'? It then feels like there is nobody to turn to, both within the production and legally, because the contract has muzzled you.

If a project is well-known, sometimes companies have a meeting w/all employees & threaten them that if they say ANYTHING about the project to anyone, they'll be sued. If the thing a person has to share deals w/speaking up against discrimination they will be sued.

An NDA makes sense so you don't share secret details about projects, but when those details deal w/discrimination, it serves as damage control & only stifles already stifled voices.

3.A culture of fear, punishing people for speaking up. Jobs in this industry are treated like "you're lucky to be here", or "this person built my career & I owe them".There's fear, especially as freelancers, that if we speak up we'll be reprimanded, or won't find work ever again

Everything is word-of-mouth & who you know, so the fear that work will dry up is a real one. For POC, since it's already hard for us to get these jobs in the 1st place, it makes it extremely hard - one wrong move & your career could be decimated. This applies outside of POC too:

4. Lack of people who speak up for those experiencing discrimination due to this culture. I can't even count the number of times white employees have watched something problematic happen & then later told me how messed up they thought it was.

Whispering amongst one another doesn't do a single thing to help tilt the scales. By not calling this stuff out, it only continues, making all of us who are not white and male feel unprotected.

5. This applies to fear of speaking out against problematic content as well.

6. Diversity & inclusion programs creating "training" for up & coming POC. Most incoming POC are ALREADY just as trained as you are, you're just giving us another hurdle & obstacle to prove to you that we are worth it. Your diversity program should consist of you hiring us.

7. Lack of diversity up top, lack of understanding up top, & stifling the few diverse higher ups who are hired. If a majority of executives are cis white men, how often are they having conversations about representation?

When increasingly diverse employees speak up about problems, how prepared are execs to deal w/them, ESPECIALLY if those problems are nuanced microaggressions? How many problematic scenes & storylines could be avoided by having diverse representation that's actually listened to?

This is obviously a huge brain purge/rambling on my part, but please list more thoughts below if you have them.