The sequence of moving eulogies for the late and great actor/activist Ossie Davis this past weekend were all very eloquent and moving. Among the most memorable was that of his daughter, Hasna Muhammad, who spoke of how her mom and dad, Ossie and Ruby, would bring the current events and harsh realities of the world to them at the dinner table.
She spoke of how they would challenge the children to come up with viable solutions to problems like how they could use their resources to hire more film and television crew and stage hands of color, and how they could make the Black and Latino billion dollar spending potential work for them and improve the world. Also, how Ossie and Ruby didn't buy their children a television set until there were enough people of color in the entertainment industry to watch.
I thought it was an extremely valuable statement that really needed a public platform to be voiced.
Yes, hiring talented writers and production staff who are of color as opposed to the Hollywood default of "cedar circles" (see Jon Stewart blog entry), is rare because they are not actively recruited--at least I haven't gotten the word, and not for lack of reasearch on my part.
If any of you can find a mainstream production company that does that, please enter a post with the info, and I will stand corrected.
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