Shaking Things Up: The Case For Diversity panel took place on Saturday, November 20, in the XR Lounge on the show floor at LDI2021. Panelists were Brite Ideas CTS lighting designer, project manager, and virtual event lead Ebony Madry and Disney Live Entertainment production manager and partner at Production On Deck, David “DStew” Stewart. The session was moderated by multi-award-winning lighting designer and Texas Christian University associate professor of professional practice, classical & contemporary dance, Roma Flowers.
The important discussion and Q&A was sponsored by Claypaky, Pathway Connectivity, PRG, and Main Light.
See also Diversity Q&A: Looking For Solutions, Part II
The session kicked off with six of the seven Pat MacKay Diversity in Design Scholarship winners who were able to attend LDI2021 describing what the scholarship meant to them. The consensus was that they each felt more visible and therefore less powerless, but they also felt a responsibility to pave the way for others.
The Impact Of The Pandemic
Moderator Roma Flowers began the discussion by asking what impact the pandemic had had on diversity and inclusion. Flowers found that the move to virtual actually helped her find places where people could share grievances and perceptions with other people and gave her the ability to create virtual communities with people about grievances, actions, perceptions. Madry agreed, “We got a sense of community. Pre-Covid, I knew five other black lighting designers and through Covid I was able to connect with many others.” She asked, “Why didn’t I know people who looked like me before? People who can mentor me and I can mentor?”
Stewart called it a twin pandemic of Covid and racism, but says that while a lot of predominantly white organizations realized that they had to embrace diversity, he is not sure that that will translate into action. He said that Production on Deck, which represents professionals who are underrepresented in the industry, was curious to see if hiring practices had improved. Unfortunately, a Production on Deck survey found that when theatres reopened and called people back to work roughly 28 percent of all professionals decided not to return. He said, “People are tired of being treated poorly. BIPOC numbers have dropped from 11 to 3 percent of representation.”
Location Can Be A Barrier To Diversity
The problem is both work expectation—people no longer want to work 80-hour weeks—but they also don’t want to move to a new community where they may not fit in and run the risk of getting stranded if the job doesn’t work out.
Madry gave specific examples of why it is difficult for people of color to move for a job, especially to some locations, and asked how companies are supporting a diverse workforce once they leave the venue. “As a black woman I need to get my hair braided and that’s a ten hour undertaking. Who can do it in certain types of rural places?”
”I see a lot of job ads coming to my inbox but there are in places where people of color may not be comfortable” said Flowers. “Where will our children go to school? Where will we go to church? Diversity in the workplace requires some discussion about a whole organic community effort.”
Diversity Versus Inclusion
Stewart believes that, “Diversity is about numbers, it’s about optics. Inclusion is about people, making people belong where they feel seen and heard within the organization.” Some organizations just want the photo opportunity with people of color without addressing what inclusion really means. He says that when you interview for a job, you should also be interviewing the organization to see if you belong and be listened to because his entire career has been about being the first and the only. That might not work for many creative people. Another way companies can pay lip service to diversity is by putting obstacles in the way of qualified candidates. For example, asking for a master’s degree, or requiring previous experience managing a certain number of staff or a multi-venue space, that way they can justify hiring a candidate they already had in mind. Stewart points out that at Production on Deck they eliminate all educational requirements for jobs they do outreach for because they are often unnecessary barriers. He asks, “What are you looking for when you are asking for an MFA candidate? Being able to budget and plan are skills that are not unique to people with an MFA. By asking for those things the organization knows exactly who is going to apply for the job and very frequently those candidates are not diverse.”
Flowers added that transparency about the hierarchy and funding is key for candidates to know if they will have an uphill battle to collaborate and be heard. “When you are looking at a company believe in your gut, your intuition,” says Madry. “What we do is already exhausting work so if you feel under attack from the people around you it is not worth that energy. How can you be creative if you are always defending yourself?”
Examples Of Optimism
According to Flowers, people of color in the industry need to be resilient and not get beaten down or demoralized but there are signs of hope, including the diversity scholarship winners. Stewart said that when he first began going to USITT he didn’t see a lot of people who looked him. The late Tayneshia Jefferson introduced him to the People of Color Network where he was in a room with seven black people out of 7,000 attendees. “After Tayneshia passed away we took donations and built the Gateway Program which finds mentees and pairs them with mentors. On the heels of that program, the network is so big now we need a bigger room. Now there are hundreds of people, so I have a little bit of optimism.”
“You Cannot Compare Levels Of Oppression”
In closing the panel discussion, Flowers said that during the pandemic she had the opportunity to examine her own biases and perceptions. While there were three African Americans on the panel, she had yet to see someone in a wheelchair at the show, and industry bias was not always visible, for example, classism, meant that people with fewer opportunities growing up often did not see a way into the industry. Madry agreed, “You cannot compare levels of oppression. There are multiple ways that people can be oppressed, and it is detrimental to growth and change to compare them.”
Stewart urged the audience to be forever learning. “We all have unconscious biases. My male straightness is an unearned privilege. If I don’t study around the LGBTQ community and the disabled community or women then my life and society does not change. I need to use my privilege to not stand in front of, but stand beside, others.”