Of those few black writers, the majority work on shows led by black showrunners, who only make up 5.1 percent of the group. On the contrary, 69.1 percent of shows led by white showrunners included no black writers at all. Furthermore, two-thirds of all shows across 18 different networks had no black writers and 17 percent of shows had only one black writer. The study also includes insight from 15 black writers about their experiences working in various writing rooms: “isolated,” rooms led by white showrunners with only one black writer; “included,” rooms led by white showrunners with three to six writers of color; “liberated,” rooms led by a black showrunner with multiple black writers. As one might expect, writers’ rooms with multiple black writers and other people of color were able to create more complex and realistic characters, as opposed to writing rooms with zero or one black writer.

Source: Huffington Post November 01, 2017 22:03 UTC