Latino Discrimination in Hollywood and the Impact of Underrepresentation of Latinos in American Media

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Why this is important

Latinos represent a good part of the population in the country. However, his

presence in the media and Hollywood is almost imperceptible.

Democratic Rep. Joaquín Castro says this affects how Americans see Latinos,

“and also, quite frankly, how Latinos see themselves.”

While many media companies now recognize the importance of diversity on screen and in print, Hispanic workers were underrepresented in the media workforce from 2010-19.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Communications Commission share responsibility for protecting media workers from discrimination. But EEOC no longer shares data on discrimination complaints filed against the media companies that FCC oversees.

Also, EEOC doesn’t know if all unions that are required to file member demographic reports are doing so. But it needs the reports to investigate discrimination complaints.

Despite making up nearly 19% of the population, Latinos continue to be underrepresented or misrepresented in Hollywood, news and book publishing, according to a new report released by the Government Accountability Office.

“Latinos are effectively excluded or sidelined from much of American media,” says Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which requested the report. Castro told NPR, “That’s not only culturally inconvenient for this community, but also, I think, dangerous. Because in the lack of visibility, in the lack of Latino stories that are told in American media, there are stereotypes that fester and grow from that invisibility, from that black hole and narrative. And that’s dangerous for Latinos, but I think it’s also dangerous for Americans in general.”

The report

The first such report, released last year, found that only 7% of workers in the media are Latino, and only 3% are Latina. That includes talent in front of and behind the cameras in film, TV, and in news, and as book authors, editors and publishers. The new report found that from 2010 to 2019, the percentage of media workers who are Latino or Latina grew only by 1%, compared to a 3% percent rise for Latinos in other fields. The report found that most Hispanics in media are service and craft workers.

The new report recommends that, among other things, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Communications Commission share data about discrimination complaints against media companies. And it recommends the unions file demographic reports.

Castro has been meeting with dozens of media companies to try to get them to do better by the Latino community. He told NPR he was spurred to act on the historic imbalances after the mass shooting in El Paso in 2019.

“You had a mad man who drove 10 hours to El Paso to kill 23 people and injure more than 20 others because he considered them ‘Hispanic invaders,'” Castro said. “You ask yourself, how does somebody come to that conclusion? American media, from hard news to Hollywood, has been running what I would consider a kind of negative ad over generations against the Latino community … Over the generations, Latinos have been disproportionately characterized as criminals, as gang members, as ex-convicts, Latinas as prostitutes, as hypersexualized on screen and on film. Those portrayals have been lopsided, they have predominated much of the media coverage.”