Working in the world of TV, a small core of black writers, including myself, often find ourselves dismissed and undermined. It is time for change
Ask any black person in the
UK how they are feeling, and they will probably tell you they are exhausted. Aside from the usual struggles of being black in
Britain, we’ve found our inboxes filled with messages from white people discovering
racism for the first time, apologising for their complicity or stating passionately that they must do better. We know it comes from a good place, but your white guilt has become black admin.
The plus side is that it shows there seems to be a genuine shift in the conversation. However, I worry that many individuals and companies don’t know what real solidarity is. It was just a few weeks ago that vast swathes of the
British TV industry were flooding their
Social Media feeds with black squares and statements of solidarity. Unsurprisingly, with the industry’s poor track record on diversity, the vast majority of us met this with side-eye (the black equivalent to a raised eyebrow), knowing that it would probably mean little more than a few extra jobs for black and brown actors.