BLACK VOICES WITHIN POST PRODUCTION ARE OFTEN LEFT UNHEARD. MANY EXPRESS HAVING TO SILENTLY WITHSTAND TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENTS IN AN EFFORT TO KEEP THEIR JOBS.

BLACK PEOPLE WHO WORK IN POST LARGELY SHARE A COMMON EXPERIENCE. THEY ARE NOT TRUSTED WITHIN THEIR DEPARTMENT, CONSTANTLY FACED WITH RACIST MICRO AGGRESSIONS, AND NOT GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE.

BELOW ARE JUST A FEW OF THE STORIES WE’VE HEARD. THESE ACCOUNTS ARE ANONYMOUS TO PROTECT THE BLACK CREATIVES WHO SHARED THEIR STORY.

“I had worked on a Production for four months and had lengthy conversations with everyone on our crew, especially my EP. A new Black girl joined the crew. The EP went up to her, thinking it was me, and had a pretty lengthy conversation. She was standing about two feet away from the new girl, who was younger and shorter than me. We look nothing alike. The Post Producer had to tell my EP that it wasn’t me. I didn’t move from my bay. I sat there thinking how much harder it would be to get my work noticed, if my EP couldn’t even tell me apart from other Black women.”

– Anonymous

“A lot of these shows exploit our culture and act like they are so diverse because they hire a lot of Black PA’s. I am an Editor. We got this white AE that sucks and everyone knows it. He screws up all the time and nobody says anything since he is a political hire. If I do anything perceived to be wrong I get called out publicly. This AE will go to lunch when he knows he has to get something done, and they will come to me to ask me to help out like I’m some kind of Jr. Editor. I’ve been an Editor for 15 years. I get all the garbage assignments while the Golf Buddies get all the fun stuff that gets all the praise. I bite my tongue and suffer in silence cause I got a family to feed.”

– Anonymous Editor

“Black ambition in post is often met with belittling, hostility, discouragement, and lack of opportunity.  I watch as my white counterparts get to enjoy their ambition.  Some one is always there to help them achieve.  White Assists turned Editors tell stories of how they are “forced” to cut by their Editors.  I’ve barely slept in over three years, as I work on side projects, in addition to my demanding work schedule.  If you get a compliment from an EP, especially one that shares your complexion, you cut less.  Despite cutting many scenes, I’ve never gotten a co-editor credit.”

– Anonymous

“I was asked to interview for an editor’s spot on a TV show.  I was worried because my resume was great for an assistant but didn’t have many big editor credits.  I spent all week prepping for the interview and when I went in the post producer said I was there because her executive producer asked her to hire a black woman editor. However, my resume wasn’t very strong so thanks for my time.  I can’t really even call it an interview.  It lasted less than five minutes and she was annoyed when I tried to sell myself and f my resume, which she had before she brought me in.   She just wanted to go back and tell her EP that she tried to find a black female editor and there weren’t any out there.

I’ve been working for my editor for 2.5-3 years with the understanding that I want to cut and get in the editor’s chair.  I told him that during my interview.  He has let me cut a lot, which is great, but I have yet to even get an additional editor’s credit.  We talk at the beginning and end of every season and he promises that this is the season I’m going to get a co-edit credit.  What is the path to editor?  Without my editor as my advocate how do I get there?”

– Anonymous Editor

“I’ve worked in post for nearly 15 years. Over that time I’ve worked on a number of super successful shows. Despite my credits or my work history my abilities are constantly questioned on the job. In post, Black employees are often forced to prove they have knowledge and understanding of their job before anyone trusts them to do their job. I’m usually the only Black person on my entire team and as the head of the department, that comes with a unique kind of workplace prejudice. It has been my experience that non-Black subordinates do not take direction well from Black department heads in post. More often than not people under Black leadership overstep their boundaries and behave in ways they would never consider behaving if their Producer were white. As a Black post producer I have found that people have difficulty accepting and respecting my authority. On every show I’ve worked on, people would always assume that my white PA or Coordinator was in charge. Even if they had a fraction of my experience, White co-workers would continuously trust my White staff over me. There just shouldn’t be this much of a struggle to simply do our job.”

– Anonymous Post Producer

“I am a white male, who in 2014 spent four months Post-Coordinating for a documentary pilot. Working directly with me on deliverables and cuts was a black female Assistant Editor who was incredibly knowledgeable in every stage – from ingestion to final outputs and troubleshooting.
Both of us were working under an Executive Producer and Co-Executive Producer (older, white males) who would routinely ask for screeners and uploads with little-to-no warning, and with no sense of how long it takes to output an hour-long episode. The AE would have to fight these expectations every time, and constantly reiterate that a buffer time was needed to properly export and QC any uploads going to the Network.
The routine became this: Producers would ask the AE for a cut, she would reply that time was needed to finish the output, and unhappy with her answer, they would turn to me. I would tell them verbatim what our AE said, and only then would they be satisfied – it quickly became apparent that even if my response was the same as our AE’s, they were only satisfied after hearing it from me (a white male with a fraction of our AE’s knowledge and experience).”
– Anonymous Ally

“- My boss often telling me how I should wear my hair and actually being surprised when I don’t come in with the hairstyle she suggested.

– White coworkers never ever acknowledge Black History Month or MLK Day (a holiday that we ALWAYS have to work on) yet they put up decorations and celebrate every other holiday. 

– The white savior complex (!!!) Anytime I’m mildly inconvenienced in my personal life, my white boss volunteers to step in because “I’m sure they’ll listen to me,”as if I’m not educated or articulate enough to speak for myself. 

– Beyoncé’s “Formation” song comes out. My boss says to me, “It’s not fair that we can’t say “negro” even if it’s in a song.”

– A white male coworker saying out loud in front of everyone, “he needs to shut up and act, monkey!” about our black, lead actor.”

– Anonymous

“I was constantly micromanaged by those above me. I was rarely trusted to write an email without it being screened by White coworkers.  My work was scrutinized and triple checked, even if it was done correctly the first time. Anytime I attempted to take initiative to prove I could handle more responsibility – I was met with frustration and anger. I watched my White co-workers operate with a professional freedom I had no access to. They weren’t micromanaged. No one had to screen their emails before they were sent out. They could take on tasks without being asked, and they were applauded for their initiative. When White co-workers make mistakes on the job, it’s usually assumed that they simply made a mistake. When I make a mistake, it’s assumed that I don’t know what I’m doing. There is a fear that Black people are less educated and incapable of being professional without having their hands held. Not only is this absurd but it prevents Blacks in post from being able to properly grow and advance in this very competitive industry. I watched as my White friends advanced much quicker in their post career by doing half of the grunt work that I did. I felt like I was expected to be perfect at all times. Any mistake was grounds to not be trusted ever again. That rarely ever happened to my White co-workers. They could make mistakes and learn from them. They weren’t expected to be perfect. But I was. If I wasn’t perfect, I wasn’t trusted with my responsibilities. That just isn’t fair.”
– Anonymous