Hollywood: No Blacks Need Apply?

Fighting racial discrimination is always a worthy endeavor. But I wonder if anyone really serves such an objective in this case:

Frank Davis, who worked on Universal Pictures' 2003 street racing movie 2 Fast 2 Furious, is heading to a Los Angeles court to seek compensation for his dismissal. ...

"From the very beginning it was pretty obvious they didn't want me [a black man] on this film," Mr Davis told the BBC. The film was directed by John Singleton, who is also black. ...

[W]ithin weeks of starting work on the film, Mr Davis claims another assistant director was being lined up to take his place. "It was as if I was being set up. I was fired for no reason and I was given no reason and I was definitely treated differently as a black man than any of the white men there in similar situations to myself."

2 furious, indeed.

Universal Pictures has insisted that Mr Davis was dismissed purely on the basis of his inability to do the job. The studio believes that he lacked the organisational skills necessary to manage the crew, a key aspect of the assistant director's responsibilities.

Perhaps details will emerge that'll make Mr. Davis look like less of a self-pitying opportunistic dickwad. Meanwhile, I can't help but believe that he has dramatically decreased minorities' likelihood of getting hired in Hollywood, thus doing more damage to the cause he professes to champion than, say, Louis B. Mayer in a Klan costume. After all, unfortunate though it is, studios can now be forgiven for being a little gun-shy about hiring deluded individuals who may think that any obstacle in their path is deliberately put there because of the color of their skin.

What a miserable way to lead your life.

It hardly lifts my spirit to learn that the federal Equal Employment Opportunities Commission is involved, egging Mr. Davis on, and calling him a "courageous" man who deserves to be recognized "for his bravery." EEOC lawyer Anna Park certainly may have a fact or two I don't, but with things as they stand now, I find her mutterings and insinuations unconvincing, even suspicious.

And this statement of hers is just laughably unrealistic:

"The Commission has been informed that over the years there have been flagrant violations... very few people have been willing to come forward for fear of blackballing and unfortunately it has come true. Mr Davis has not worked in the three and half years that he has brought this to our attention."

I'm as sympathetic to whistleblowers as anyone, but come on — choices have consequences. It takes guts, I suppose, to call one of the biggest studios in the world a hotbed of racism (even though said studio habitually hires strings of black actors and directors and crew members), and to then put your money where your mouth is and go to court. But unless you're an incorrigible whiner, you subsequently ought to (at least until the case is resolved) stoically accept that other industry employers will shy away from putting you on their payroll. It's simple enough: especially if you have a reputation for litigiousness and allegedly doing poor work, it isn't your birthright to get hired.

It galls me to think how many of your and my tax dollars the EEOC is wasting on this multi-year, tendentious, and probably meritless nuisance suit.

Comments

What are you talking about? There are no blacks in Hollywood. Seen many around lately? Oh, they must be on TV. No, wait. TV is segregated. Oh well...