“Were kind of bored seeing the same thing and the same faces over and over again. If you want to generate income and profits, you have to tell new stories.” says Justin Simien, Director of Dear White People, at PromaxBDA’s The Conference 2017.

With Dear White People now on Netflix, Justin lives his words. After touring the film and constant Q&A sessions with audiences, he wondered to himself “What if we got the chance to do this as a TV show?” He felt there were more stories to tell, more avenues to go down. Like most content creators, Simien admits his show was born out of a void. “I felt like there was a big void. Theres a story we all talk about in private.”

If you sit through enough sessions at this year’s conference, whether it’s with Jess Weiner or Stacy Smith, there’s a theme; audiences desire new, diverse, characters. But even as these diverse characters come out, it doesn’t come without its critics.

When Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic sat at a roundtable, he admitted he’s not a fan of the concept. “I didn’t see the movie, and I didn’t see it almost entirely because of the title, Dear White People.” said Coates. He continued “What I mean is that blackness in Netflix’s Dear White People is largely a mode of protest.” But when asked about that roundtable on stage by NPR’s Eric Deggan, Simien thinks differently. “I’m not tackling what its like to be every black person in America.”

And, indeed, there’s room for all of these stories. With NBC’s The Carmichael Show, FX’s Atlanta, HBO’s Insecure and ABC’s Black-Ish, there is no shortage or box for the black American experience.

“What my show is about is the black experience. The knee jerk reaction is part of the experience that I as the artist want the audience to have. I’m going to enter the ring, invite this controversy, but my intention is to make a show about the black experience.”

And all of this success can make you wonder; “Has Hollywood changed?” asked Deegan.

“It hasn’t changed at a fundamental level. We are in that space where Hollywood was in the 50’s, where they’re not quite sure what it takes to get audiences. There’s an opportunity here a lot of us have rushed in to take advantage of. We’re not going anywhere. I think whether or not we’re still ‘en vogue’, there’s still going to be opportunity. It depends on how audiences respond, it depends if people of color are a part of these marketing, advertising and publicity firms. It’s going to take all of those things for this to be what we are now. I think we’ve got a running start. It’s great to see so many shows dealing with black experience but couldn’t be more different.

Hollywood hasn’t changed fully, but, if we keep it up, we’ll be on a better path.

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