Institutional racism in the film industry: a multilevel perspective

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2017-0108
• Date: 20 August 2018
• Pages: 551-565
• Published date: 20 August 2018
• Author: Sophie Hennekam,Jawad Syed
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity, equality, inclusion

Institutional racism in the film

industry: a multilevel perspective

Sophie Hennekam

ESC La Rochelle School of Business, La Rochelle, France, and

Jawad Syed

Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences,

Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Purpose –While the notion of institutional racism typically focuses on racial discrimination in institutions

such as governmental organisations, academic institutions and courts of law, there is a need to complement

this organisational (meso) focus with the investigation of relevant factors at the societal (macro) and

individual (micro) levels. The purpose of this paper is to examine the multilevel factors influencing

institutional racism in the film industry.

Design/methodology/approach –Drawing on 16 in-depth interviews with individuals working in the film

industry, this paper develops a conceptual perspective of multilevel racism.

Findings –The findings highlight how power structures, network-based recruitment practices, as well as

formal and informal learning lead to and sustain racism in the film industry. However, agency on an

individual level is observed as a way to break those patterns.

Originality/value –The findings highlight how individual agency pushes for more equality and diversity in

the film industry, despite the barriers encountered on macro- and meso-levels. In addition, the important role

of informal and formal learning through observation is stressed as a means to sustain the discriminatory

practices in this industry.

Keywords Gender, Multilevel perspective, Racism, Film industry, Agency

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Recent research has highlighted strong inequalities in the film industry ( Jones and Pringle,

2015; Randle and Hardy, 2017; Wing-Fai et al., 2015). The existence of racism in society and

organisations alike cannot be denied and the film industry is no exception (Bhavnani, 2007).

The film industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking,

such as film production, screenwriting, acting, distribution; and actors, film directors and

other film crew personnel. Focusing on the film industry, a recent study reveals that only

28.3 per cent of all speaking characters in films and TV series are from under-represented

racial/ethnic groups (Smith et al., 2016), which is about 10 per cent below the proportion in

the US population (37.9 per cent) (USCB, 2015).

While studies on institutional racism have typically focused on racial discrimination in

social institutions such as governmental organisations, schools, police and judiciary

(e.g. Lopez, 2000), this organisational (meso) focus needs to be complemented with the study

of relevant factors at the societal (macro) and individual (micro) levels in order to provide a

more complete picture. This paper addresses this gap by developing a multilevel

perspective of institutional racism in the film industry. By adopting a multilevel approach,

we are able to shed light on how inequalities are produced and sustained thereby developing

an integrated understanding of institutional racism (Nkomo, 1992; Phillips, 2011).

We make two inter-related contributions. First, we draw on multilevel insights to develop

a holistic picture of institutional racism in the film industry. We argue that unless racism is

understood and tackled at multiple levels in an integrated manner, instances and challenges

of racial discrimination and under-representation are likely to persist. Second, our study is

also a response to calls for more research on intersectionality (Chow et al., 2013;

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 37 No. 6, 2018

pp. 551-565

© Emerald PublishingLimited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2017-0108

Received 11 May 2017

Revised 3 August 2017

14 November 2017

Accepted 29 November 2017

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Institutional

racism in the

film industry