Gail Lerner, co-executive producer on ‘Black-ish,’... - Official Tumblr of We Need Diverse Books

"Gail Lerner, co-executive producer on ‘Black-ish,’ praised showrunner Kenya Barris for encouraging open dialogue in the writers’ room and pushing the staff to ask difficult questions of each other. Those conversations led to pivotal episodes like ‘Crime and Punishment,’ about spanking, and ‘Elephant in the Room,’ about whether black people can be Republicans. 'All our experiences are so different,’ said Lerner. 'It makes a conversation. That conversation makes a show.’"

– ‘Empire,’ ‘Black-ish,’ ‘Jane the Virgin’ Stars & Writers Talk Diversity On TV by Debra Birnbaum of Variety Media, LLC

Difficult conversations need to happen so that space is created to hear and then showcase different viewpoints and experiences.

These conversations are pivotal when creating any type of content, and children’s book publishers are having them in their editorial, marketing, and sales meetings.

We’re working to increase the number of open discussions by ensuring that there are more voices from different cultures in the room through supporting efforts like the WNDB Internship Program, providing resources like Diversity 101 posts, as well as creating more spaces and opportunities to speak freely in the industry through in-house diversity committees and events like CBC Diversity Dialogues.

(via cbcdiversity)

(Source: cbcdiversity, via brandycolbert)