In 2020, Black People were asked to lead. A few years later, we are now being fired for it.

2020 felt like the beginning of the long awaited, much fought for change the US needed.

The overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations in defense of Black life erupted not just across the nation, but the globe. Chants of “I can’t breathe” and “say their names”. Books about race, Black history, racism, and structural inequality, flew from the shelves. It felt like everyone from everyday people to stars to politicians were saying Black Lives Matter.

It felt like a true racial awakening.

Organizations took note, making their own shifts, many choosing to open their own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices and hiring for those positions exploded.

Less than a few years later, many of those efforts have disintegrated. The feelings of a national shift deteriorated to a painful reality: that alleged racial reckoning did not really reckon like it was supposed to reckon. DEI offices or positions, many of which were relatively new and ready to effect change in the organizations that created them dissolved, leaving those called to those positions bewildered, but not surprised.

Hollywood’s loss in DEI leadership was one of the most noticeable. In 2023, over the course of mere months, multiple leaders…