Fox Corp. highlighted its inclusion and diversity efforts during a recent panel discussion in which talent from its news, sports and entertainment divisions cited the need for an inclusive and authentic approach to diversity issues.
Moderated by Harris Faulkner, host of Fox News Channel's The Faulkner Focus, the March 23 panel -- part of Fox Corp.’s Content Drives Commerce Brand Partnership Summit -- discussed the importance of authenticity in addressing on- and off-screen inclusion issues.
“Authenticity is the most important word when you’re talking about diversity,” Fox Sports on-air personality Joy Taylor said. “You can very much placate to diversity and check a box and create a scenario where you’re welcoming people, but if it’s not authentic, the people you are trying to include … are very quickly going to walk into the room and realize this isn’t really it.”
Miranda Kwok, creator and executive producer of drama series The Cleaning Lady, said she had concerns that distributors wouldn’t allow her to tell the story of an undocumented immigrant trying to provide for her family, but she found a willing outlet in Fox.
“I thought I was going to pitch it to cable and streaming where I thought these stories would land, but [series producer] Warner Bros. said there is a greater appetite right now for more diverse stories and different perspectives on broadcast television,” she said. “They [Fox] totally embraced the fact that it was a story about a southeast Asian woman who is an undocumented immigrant. So it’s been a very, very exciting time to have all of that support to tell a story [of someone who is] normally marginalized, pushed into the shadows and told they don’t matter."
The panel also said that the industry needs to continue to push for more diversity and inclusion in front of the camera and in the producer’s chair. “The more voices and background through diversity moving forward doesn’t just help us win, but it drives home the point that we count, especially when it's hard,” Faulkner said. “We bring something to the table that not everyone does, so let’s pull up some more chairs and create a bigger table. The power of the voice matters, and it can’t all be the same because then people begin to tune us out.”
Tammi Mac, host of talk show Business of Being Black with Tammi Mac on streaming service Fox Soul, also said that diversity needs to be the norm rather than the trend within the industry. “A lot of times when we experience a television show that’s diverse, we think of it as a trend … but that does a disservice to diversity and inclusion because that means that it's in and then it’s out,” she said. “You want to think about diversity for the long haul. This is how you will continuously include people of every race, age, gender to be a part of your program, and to tell those stories in an authentic way so that those people who are those people will be tied in.”
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Joel Kuwahara, co-founder of animation production studio Bento Box -- which Fox acquired in 2019 -- added the industry has to find ways to give more opportunities to people and voices who aren’t being heard. “I personally would like to be able to help these young artists, some of these diverse voices to help make something they may not know how to make in the animated space,” he said. “It can get very complicated to do the kind of work we do, but they need an opportunity.” ■
