I’m a native man and I have something to say. #OurVoiceCounts

Native people have close to NO representation in media, and most of the times, the representation we have is filled with harmful stereotypes. +

According to the University of California, Native American representation strike at 0,8% of top films in 2018 and 0,9% in 2019.

There has been NO native women nor native directors on ANY top film during those years.
+

Native American television writers comprise 1,1% of working staff and in screenwriting just about 0,8%.

Being Native American creatives mostly hired only as cultural consultants. According to 2020 writers guild of America west’s inclusion report.

Having all this in mind, it came as no surprise when the new @TheCW series “Walker” came out, who’s main character is strongly related to his Cherokee ancestry, they hired a white man to play it.+

No hate towards @jarpad who plays the main character, but instead this goes to screenwriters that have apparently decided to eliminate all “Nativeness” from the story to adequate it towards a white centered audience.+

Having once again not only whitewashed an already once whitewashed story, but furthering it into complete erasure.

I aspire to one day see myself represented fairly on TV, where the native character isn’t just a sideline to the white main character.

Representation matters, and this isn’t like marketing, the only representation that matters is good ones.

Make it happen.

Here’s the work from the University of California: https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2020-Film-2-6-2020.pdf

This article by Rehana E. Asmi from the University of Montana also talks about so much important stuff such as indigenous cultures being almost exclusively told by others often in negatives ways and much more! Please read it!

https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1186&context=utpp