This episode, Cheryl and Manon break down what Diversity, Equity & Inclusion departments do at the studios and other production companies, and how they have become yet another tool in the toolbox of Hollywood gatekeepers.

In our hot tea segment for premium subscribers, we talk about Uber’s “Don’t Call Me Karen” event, and how that led to their DEI Officer being suspended. Oof. And what about that “backlash” from Asia about casting Halle Bailey as the Little Mermaid? Our thoughts may not be what you expect.

Links mentioned:

• Chief Diversity Officer Demographics and Statistics [2023]: Number Of Chief Diversity Officers In The US (zippia.com)

  
  



• Pocket Change: How Women and Girls of Color Do More with Less (forwomen.org)

  
  



•  “Diversity Within”: The Problems with “Intersectional” White Feminism in Practice | Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society | Oxford Academic (oup.com)

  
  



• I am a Woman of Color and I am not endorsing Nithya Raman by Cheryl L. Bedford

  
  



• Book: But Some of Us Are Brave Edited by Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith

  
  



• Screenwriters Contest Transparency Initiative 

  
  



• Uber Suspends DEI Chief After Employees Complain of Insensitivity - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

  
  



• Box Office: The Little Mermaid Doused in China After Racist Backlash (The Hollywood Reporter)
  

  
  

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The Women of Color Unite Podcast is produced by Nwabata Nnani and edited by Lauren Bonett. It’s hosted by Cheryl L. Bedford and Manon de Reeper.

If you want to submit questions or responses to any of our episodes - either written or a voice note - you can send them to podcast@wocunite.com. 

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Music by Oh Yeah featuring Nyuta 

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Recorded with Riverside