Written by Jesus FigueroaDid Disney/Marvel invite ANY sites aimed at minorities to the Marvel tour last night? Or a PoC writer? I'm looking...and nada.— Yolanda Machado (@SassyMamainLA) April 18, 2017
Midway through the day on April 18, about 14 hours after watching "Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2," I was made aware of a tweet from a fellow minority outlet which called out Marvel and Disney for excluding any press from outlets targeting minorities or people of color.
At first I was reluctant to comment because not being invited doesn't phase me.
Being a smaller outlet means not being invited to every event and that's fine, apparently my time and efforts are worth less because I'm not generating millions of hits.
Still other established outlets were not invited.
So I responded with a simple question no one had posed or has an answer to (as of the time this is posted):
For all the sites, bloggers and outlets who are outraged, will they continue to support Disney and Marvel Studios?@SassyMamainLA What do we as minorities/PoC do about it? Should we all not attend the #GotGVol2 press day? #TakeAction @NukeTheFridge @SassyMamainLA— Jesus Figueroa (@Thisfunktional) April 18, 2017
From talks with publicists it's become clear that even when 32% of revenue for a movie comes from minorities less than 10% of promotional budgets go towards minority targeted promotions.
While publications who target an audience of minorities get a shirt and hat to give away for promotions a general market publication gets boxes and boxes of promotional items to give away.
The issue isn't about one single event which happened recently. The problem stems from years of exclusion.
Movies as an art form should have no barriers, no ethnicity and no prejudice.
As a minority, a person of color, a journalist and a human being, I look to those who are tired of these thoughts of separation to take action.
The internet is great for getting a message out there. Internet activist, hashtag activism, has been on the rise, but with strong words should come definitive actions.
Doing this for the years I have learned that there's very little action taken and so much talk.
Why wasn't Disney and Marvel tagged or @ mentioned in the original post? Was there a fear of backlash?
Was this not supposed to be a serious post to try and cause change?
Am I supposed to be scared that I will be put on some list to never cover anything ever again?
Even if I am, doing so would prove that the words I have written have some justification.
I enjoy the work I get to do.
I have come to be friends with many of the people who are around me — journalists, actors, publicists, writers, directors and content creators.
I support movies I like, I explain what I don't like about other movies and I am not afraid to speak my mind.
I may not always have the popular opinion, studios may dislike what I have to say, I may stop being invited to events for the opinions I may have, but I will always stay true to who I am, stand by my morals and keep providing the most honest coverage possible.
