2021 Getting Played Equity Award recipient
Clifford Alexander
We are honored to be able to bestow upon Clifford Alexander this year's Getting Played Equity Award. From Bias and the Business of Show: Employment Discrimination in the "Entertainment" Industry (footnotes omitted):
"In a 1969 hearing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, via general counsel, announced 'clear evidence' of entertainment industry discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, following lobbying by the film industry, hearing chair Clifford Alexander was called before a Senate Justice subcommittee: [Mr. Alexander] was 'subjected to a tongue-lashing,' as one journalist described, by the powerful Senate Republican minority leader Everett Dirksen. 'Stop some of this harassment of the business community . . . like your carnival hearing out there in Los Angeles . . . or I am going to the highest authority in this government to get somebody fired.' President Nixon announced a week later that Alexander was to be replaced."
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Gratitude to Mr. Clifford Alexander for his service to equity and employment rights. We owe you deep thanks.
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About Getting Played, the Symposium on Equity in the Entertainment Industry and Awards
Getting Played: who's playing you?! - Honorary Mention recipient at the 2010 International Black Women's Film Festival - is Kathleen Antonia Tarr's feature length documentary about inequities in the entertainment industry and inspiration for her Getting Played symposia. When she first began acting - as "Kathleen Antonia" - Tarr was taken aback by what appeared in the Industry as rampant employment discrimination. Given Tarr's background as a human and civil rights attorney, she knew that key to some of society's greatest ills was intervening in these patterns to evolve the entertainment media that shapes so much of who we are and how we interact with others. Whether one compares the increased support of marriage equality to the number of LGBT characters on television, or the objectification of women in our society to the sexualization of female characters across all media, it is clear that the images we see every day - including those that are fictional - compel our thoughts and behaviors en masse. These symposia engage distinguished panels in conversation including about solutions to the current inequities from casting to greenlighting that shape what we see on screens and stages throughout the nation and world. Getting Played symposia also reserve time to honor a select few courageous heroes who advance Industry equity in their everyday lives through pivotal actions that are typically less visible and recognized.
Co-hosted by Kathleen Tarr, JD (Stanford University) and Myrton Running Wolf, PhD (University of Nevada, Reno), this year's Getting Played Symposium will screen clips from "Black Warrior of Pyramid Lake" (Running Wolf, 2020), feature a keynote by Tatiana Lee (RespectAbility), and engage distinguished panelists Michelle Kantor (Cinefemme), Nikko Kimzin (formerly of Transcendence Theatre Company), Margaret Lake (MarWin Films), and Rebecca Murga (American Film Institute), followed by audience Q&A. This year's theme focuses on anti-intellectualism within dominant entertainment industry practices from character development to efforts among even those considered to be social justice allies that disregard data and law. The imperative is clear: not only are Industry workers subjected to rampant employment discrimination, entertainment media shapes who we are. We must do better.
Speaker associations noted for identification purposes only.
This year's Getting Played Equity Award recipient will be announced at the event.
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For selected resources and previous symposia, visit Getting Played Symposium's host site and Facebook page.
