Petition to Have Paramount Studios Include Latinos in their Films

Sign the petition to the C.E.O. of Paramount Studios telling him that his is the worst studio in town in hiring Latino actors, writers, and directors and that you want him to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Latino Media Council and the National Hispanic Media Coalition outlining how the studio is going to increase the number of Latinos in front and back of camera.

The NLMC, along with its allies, the NAACP, Asian Pacific American Coalition, and Indians in Film and Television, signed MOUs with ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX in 1999-2000 to evaluate diversity and inclusion performance on an annual basis.

MOUs are agreements signed by parties detailing programs the network or film studio commit to instituting to diversify their workforce in front and back of, camera. Meeting with television networks continues to this day and progress in diversity and inclusion is evident, more for some groups than others, but progress nonetheless.

Without an MOU, a network or studio is not committed to anything and is not accountable to anyone. An MOU commits a studio to agree to meetings throughout the year with the expressed purpose of evaluating their diversity and inclusion performance in back and front of the camera.

How Latinos are perceived and treated by non-Latinos is directly linked to what non-Latinos know about us and they gather their information first and foremost from film and television. Latinos are practically absent in both media. We are 18% of the U.S. population and only have 2.7% of speaking roles in film (2016) and 6% in television. The numbers of writers and directors behind the camera are even more dismal, particularly in film, and so without a noticeable presence many non-Latinos believe and act on the racism coming out of the president and his minions on a daily basis. No one can dispute that Latinos are the most vulnerable and favorite target of this administration's actions and policies.

The perceptions non-Latinos have about Latinos has to change and it has to come through media. Our presence on television is bad, on film it is far worse. Latinos buy 24% of all tickets sold at the box office and yet we only participated in 2.7% of the speaking roles in 2016. The numbers of Latino writers and directors are worse, which means our stories are not told, our artist’s are not hired, and our children lack role models. Sign our petition and let’s make Latino inclusion in film a reality.