What Matters
by Melody Cooper
Christian Cooper, Bird Watcher
I am one of Stowe Story Labs’ Tangerine Entertainment Fellows, who has been consistently supported by the Labs over the years.
As many of you might already know, I am also the one who posted the Central Park video on Twitter of my brother Christian Cooper, the bird watcher who videoed a White woman who tried to weaponize her racism by making false claims on a 911 call to police. The tweet I posted to draw attention to the incident now has over 44 million views from all over the world. I still get supportive messages every day, from the U.K., Ghana, Brazil, Korea, France.
The incident and my posting of the video happened on the same day as the horrific murder of George Floyd by police, which had been immediately preceded by the police killing Breonna Taylor in her bed, and police taking weeks to arrest the men who hunted and shot Ahmaud Arbery. These were just a few recent examples of pervasive violence against Black people in America, that were being addressed along with the disproportionate deaths of black and brown people from COVID-19. This time, however, a long overdue nationwide and international movement arose to fight both police violence and systemic racism. David Rocchio wrote to me to ask me to write about these “inciting incidents” for this Newsletter.
There are so many things I could say to speak to this moment. I’ve had the chance to address my fears for my brother’s safety, my thoughts on systemic racism, and the call for defunding the police via several outlets including a CBS special, on CNN with Christiane Amanpour, and in a NY Times Op-Ed I wrote. But when the outcry of Enough is Enough called to task our own industry -- especially TV -- I knew there was an opportunity to speak some hard truths about inequities we often don’t want to acknowledge in our own creative world.
The Writers Guild of America West co-chairs of the Committee of Black Writers, Michelle Amor and Hilliard Guess, and vice chair Bianca Sams, made a statement this month, both important and beautifully powerful, after seeing many networks and industry leaders make Black Lives Matter statements. You’ve seen them when you turn on Netflix or Amazon. There’s a BLM banner or a drop down of curated Black films. However, many of those networks have terrible records of not hiring Black executives and writers, so, while the co-chairs acknowledged the statements, they also demanded that Hollywood back them up with action that will result in meaningful change for the people the networks claimed to support. It is not enough to say the right thing. We need the industry to do the right thing.
Here’s why: the most recent Color of Change report on the state of Black writers in TV, shows that there is systemic racism. Color of Change has compiled important data in their mission to “transform the media landscape to create a more human, less hostile world for Black people.”
I am very lucky to be a working writer in Hollywood. But 65% of writers rooms have no Black people in them. Only 4.7% of Black people are hired. And we make up 5% of showrunners. We are expected to repeat staff levels instead of being promoted like our White counterparts are. We are nearly entirely excluded from shows about crime, although we are often included in the narrative of those shows, often as criminals. Our experiences and perspectives about police in the United States are left out of the equation. So, police are humanized (and often deified), but the communities that have to deal with them are not. These are all stories that go into America’s living rooms and devices and serve to shape the way people think about police.
Black writers who have “made it” in Hollywood have still been passed over for opportunities they were qualified for, are underpaid and often mistreated, and are historically ignored during awards season. Potential employers refuse to hire us based on the assumption that we can’t tell “mainstream” stories, yet at the same time, will hire a White writer to tell a narrative about Black people. We are unsupported when seeking to create content specifically for Black audiences, while also confined to only telling Black stories when we do manage to get hired. Black writers have been critically underrepresented and at the expense of authentic and diverse storytelling. With a few notable exceptions, there is a disregard of the depth and value we can bring to shows. Our human experience can bring illumination to any story or character. Essentially, we need to be treated not just as Black writers, but as writers who happen to be Black…and in that Blackness, there is no one stereotypical way of being, thinking, talking, relating. There is a vast range to be explored.
I’ve heard resentful comments from fellow writers who don’t think it’s fair that there are writing programs for people of color that they can’t get into. I invite you to read the Color of Change report available online to educate yourself on the actual reality for writers of color compared to the opportunities for White writers. Many organizations saw the need to create programs to rectify those inequities. But although programs are great, like the wonderful HBO Access Fellowship I just completed, they are not enough. We need to be hired and treated fairly. And we need a proactive effort and systemic change across the industry to make that happen.
I know some may say it’s hard for everyone. “I can’t get a writing job either.” You’d be right. It is hard. This industry is tough for all of us. But consider how much more difficult it is with additional hurdles that have nothing to do with the quality of your writing, or your tenacity or work ethic, and have always been there simply because of your race. And statistics bear out that the few programs and initiatives that exist are far outweighed by the hiring realities in the industry.
So next time you hear someone say “He just got that job because he’s Black” remember how racist that is in implying the person isn’t talented. I look to allies who understand this to point this out when they hear it.
Much like the #MeToo movement that has insisted the industry improve representation of women behind the camera, Black writers are demanding the same kind of representation. Yes, we matter, and it’s high time we see real action that backs it up.
Melody Cooper came to the Labs in 2017 as our Tangerine Entertainment Fellow, and she continues to rise in the industry. Melody is currently a staff writer on the second season of a CW Network horror TV series and is a 2019/2020 HBO Access Writing Fellow. Melody wrote two episodes of the upcoming 10-episode season of TWO SENTENCE HORROR STORIES. She has also been hired onto THE INSIDERS, a WarnerMedia and Bandwagon Media project to develop narrative content to stream on different platforms. She was the winner of the 2018 Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the Urbanworld Film Festival with her feature script NORTHERN CROSS. Her horror TV pilot SUNDOWN was a Semifinalist for Sundance Episodic Lab and Showtime’s 2018 Tony Cox Episodic Lab. Her short documentary, DETAINED, which she wrote, produced and directed, received a 2018 IndieFest Award of Recognition. Melody is also known as the one who posted the Central Park video of her brother, the birder Christian Cooper, on Twitter. The Twitter post garnered over 44 million views and over 500K responses from around the world and re-ignited a discussion about weaponized racism on the same day that George Floyd was murdered by police.
