Michael B. Jordan to Protesters: Hollywood Must “Commit to Black Hiring”
Michael B. Jordan spoke out against police brutality and racial injustice on Saturday at a protest organized by the Big 4 agencies in Century City.
The actor, who played an African American man killed by a police officer in the 2013 film Fruitvale Station, called on Hollywood to put its words into action and hire more black people.
“You committed to a 50/50 gender parity in 2020,” Jordan said. “Where is the challenge to commit to black hiring? Black content led by black executives, black consultants. Are you policing our storytelling as well? Let us bring our darkness to the light.”
The agency rally was one of more than a dozen today in the Los Angeles area, as thousands of people took to the streets demanding an end to systemic racism following the May 25 death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis.
A massive crowd gathered in downtown L.A., which has seen crowds gathering over the past week outside City Hall and nearby LAPD headquarters. Some protesters interviewed on local TV news today said they had been marching downtown for “hours.”
In Highland Park, Grammy-winning musician Billie Eilish joined protesters and carried a sign saying “Stop Killing Black People.” She was surrounded by demonstrators who wore masks and holding signs supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
At Hollywood and Vine, a few thousand people chanted, marched and invoked the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other African Americans recently killed by police officers.
Meanwhile a large crowd gathered in Pan Pacific Park and walked through the streets of the Fairfax District.
Hollywood is a neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California, notable as the home of the U.S. film industry, including several of its historic studios. Its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry and the people associated with it.
Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903.It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, and soon thereafter a prominent film industry emerged, eventually becoming the most recognizable in the world.
