Fanshen Cox and Kalpana Kotagal co-authored the Inclusion Rider. Cox is the head of
strategic outreach at Pearl Street Films and co-host
of the Webby nominated podcast Sista
Brunch. Kotagal is a partner at national civil rights law
firm Cohen Milstein Sellers &
Toll.
As Frances
McDormand accepted another Academy Award this year,
it gave us flashbacks to the last time she was on the Oscars stage.
In 2018, when McDormand won Best Actress for her role
in Three Billboards Outside
Ebbing, Missouri, she gave an unexpected endorsement
of the Inclusion Rider — a moment we, as the Inclusion
Rider co-authors, thought could never be beat for us
professionally.
We had been developing the Rider since the Fall of 2016 after
a meeting in a conference room at Pearl Street Films in Santa
Monica. Growing up as Black and Brown girls, we experienced
othering, erasure, and questions about where we and our families
were "from." This was compounded by the fact that our
families were virtually invisible in the media and entertainment we
consumed. When we did see images of Black and Brown people, they
were mired in the limitations of harmful stereotypes. We knew
change was essential, and we knew that people in positions of power
should contribute to this change.
"
We knew change was essential, and we knew that people in positions of power should contribute to this change.
"
Shortly after the meeting at Pearl Street, we began our work
on the legal template that McDormand would eventually mention that
night at the Oscars. Once she did, major talent like Paul
Feig and Brie
Larson announced they would adopt the Rider. Endeavor
Content used the principles of the Rider in several of its
productions. It was all the most incredible roller coaster ride for
us. And we have been pushing Hollywood and other industries to
adopt this template ever since, with myriad lessons learned along
the way.
People in entertainment ask for riders to be added to their
contracts all the time. It's basically an addendum to the
contract asking for certain provisions. Someone might ask for
certain food on set. Others might ask for cruelty-free makeup for
the cast. The Inclusion Rider asks for the production
to consider diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in
its hiring practices. It is a flexible template that can be
tailored to fit the various ways that productions differ, from
locations and storylines to budget and size of production, for
example. Although it's flexible, there are four essential
elements for successful use of the Rider: 1) deepen and diversify
hiring pools, 2) set benchmarks for improving diversity of
representation through hiring qualified people, 3) collect, measure
and report data about representation, and 4) adopt accountability
measures that contribute to improving representation moving
forward.
We've now been working and reworking the Inclusion Rider
for almost five years, creating an accessible template that will
hold Hollywood's biggest names accountable to turning empty
words into systemic action. As women of color in law and
entertainment, we know firsthand that speaking out against
discrimination and injustices is not enough. That's why this
new iteration of the Rider Template incorporates additional tools
for hiring crew from underrepresented backgrounds, and adds
accountability measures and advocates for intersectional
inclusivity, including gender, race and ethnicity, LGBTQIA, age,
and disability considerations.
Since the powerful uprisings for George Floyd and Breonna
Taylor last summer, we've received renewed interest in and
outreach about the Rider. We also learned that Dr. Tasmin Plater,
Head of Human Resources at Endeavor Content, had not only used the
Rider for productions, but was developing a policy guide for
company-wide use. The three of us were brought together by Color Of
Change's #ChangeHollywood and for the last several months
have combined our efforts to create the toolkit we are now sharing
publicly for anyone to use at inclusionrider.org.
This toolkit includes an updated Inclusion Rider for individuals, a
new Inclusion Rider Policy for production companies and studios to
adopt, and a package of guiding materials with templates, FAQs and
a consistently updating list of hiring resources.
"
We know the Inclusion Rider alone will not rid Hollywood of its exclusionary practices, but it presents a critical opportunity for companies to step up and open doors for those who have been overlooked and underrepresented.
"
We are grateful for the ways that early adopters like Michael B. Jordan's Outlier
Society have helped to spur progress. Their advocacy
played a critical role in facilitating the systemic change that was
always part of our ultimate plans for the Rider. And now with this
updated version, companies and studios themselves are incorporating
these principles into their hiring practices. Major entertainment
companies, including AMC Studios, Scott Budnick's One
Community, Forest Whitaker's Significant Productions, and
Stephanie Allain's HomeGrown Pictures, have already committed
to using the Rider.
At Pearl Street Films, we are bringing the Inclusion Rider
into negotiations, often from as early as the development stage.
This includes on the sci-fi/horror
series ReaverxSpecter, created by Kholi Hicks and
co-produced with the company Portal A. We're also using the
Rider on a children's TV series based on MathTalk founded by Omowale Moses and rooted in his
work with his father - civil rights activist Robert
Moses. We're also working with tech entrepreneur Sian
Morson and with the Black and Brown woman-owned production company
Culture House, which has already signed on to the Rider, for the
docuseries Raising about Black and Latinx
businesswomen.
We know the Inclusion Rider alone will not rid Hollywood of
its exclusionary practices, but it presents a critical opportunity
for companies to step up and open doors for those who have been
overlooked and underrepresented for far too long. This is one
important resource of so many others led by the incredible people
and organizations with whom we collaborate, and we look forward to
continuing to learn from them as we strive toward deeper
inclusivity.
We realize now that Frances McDormand's Oscar speech
wasn't a moment that could never be beat, it was actually just
the seedling of what is taking shape now: people and organizations
with a passion for true, sustainable change coming together to make
a more inclusive Hollywood. And as Black and Brown women leading
this effort, we could not be more proud of this new Rider or our
coalition that's made this change possible. It's time to
establish a new legacy for Hollywood, and we're confident the
Inclusion Rider will be a driving force in creating it. This is
just the beginning.
Originally published in Refinery 29
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