Coalition’s goals

AS chair of the Multi-Ethnic Coalition formed more than three years ago to tackle the issue of diversity on television, I am concerned that Greg Braxton’s recent article (“Diversity Coalition Now Under Fire,” Dec. 17) failed to include key pieces of information that would have given a more accurate and fairer picture of the work of the coalition with the television networks.

The article is never clear why some of the network executives believe the coalition lacks “credibility.”

What is clear, however, is that they seek to discredit a coalition that has been aggressively pointing out areas where network commitment to institutional change has been weak.

An unnamed Fox executive is also quoted as complaining that “the group’s various constituencies are more concerned with individual agendas than the greater good of the whole.” Our coalition works by consensus, so it’s hard to see how that charge could be true.

Perhaps the charge stems from the resistance on the part of some executives to the fact that the coalition defines diversity to also include Latinos, Asian Americans and Native Americans, whose progress even in front of the camera has been generally marginal at best.

Incredibly, some network executives seem to believe that we should be content with the increase in numbers of African American actors and not pay attention to the lack of progress made in other behind-the-camera positions such as writers, directors and entertainment executives -- positions in which African Americans are also marginally represented.

Esteban Torres

Los Angeles