The Time’s Up movement launched a campaign against the Golden Globes on Friday, highlighting the lack of racial diversity in the organization that provides awards for various movies and television series.
Two days before the annual Golden Globes awards ceremony, Time’s Up shared posters on Twitter that read, “Hollywood Foreign Press Association: Not a Single Black Member Out of 87,” with the caption, “A cosmetic fix isn’t enough.”
Other famous Black celebrities including Kerry Washington, Ava DuVernay, Sterling K. Brown, Shonda Rhimes, J.J. Abrams, and Judd Apatow too tweeted in support of the campaign.
DuVernay, who is the director of the civil rights movie Selma, wrote, “Old news. New energy.”
This came after an investigation was carried out by the Times into the process behind choosing members for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is the voting body that finalises the movies and television series that will receive awards.
The Times report pointed out the ethical lapses and lack of Black members in the voting committee since there were currently no Black people among the 87-member group of foreign entertainment journalists.
Ironically, the Golden Globes had earlier said this week that it was committed to “diversifying its membership”. Media reports quoted the organization as saying, “We understand that we need to bring in Black members, as well as members from other underrepresented backgrounds, and we will immediately work to implement an action plan to achieve these goals as soon as possible.”
The Golden Globes added in its statement that 35 per cent of its members were from non-European countries.
This is not the first time the HFPA is facing backlash over lack of inclusivity. The Golden Globe nominations had reportedly not acknowledged a lot of high-profile content by and about Black people earlier, including movies like One Night in Miami and Da 5 Bloods, and the series I May Destroy You.
However, the nominations had included multiple actors and directors of colour.
Time’s Up was initially a movement that began in 2018 to combat sexual harassment in Hollywood. Now, it has a charity with a wider mission to fight inequality and injustice at workplaces.