Diversity game

I had to laugh when I read that execs from CBS, ABC, Fox and NBC are committed to improving their diversity efforts and are moving “aggressively” to place more blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians behind the camera (“NAACP Rates TV’s Efforts,” by Greg Braxton, Oct. 29).

Here’s how it works: Each network has its own division that deals with the diversity problem. Their job is to make calls to people of color in the industry and ask them for their input on either (1) how to reach out to more people of color, or (2) their possible involvement in the making of a script by, or about, a minority. Once they have completed their diversity efforts -- by making the call or contact -- they pat themselves on the back and go back to the same old, same-old: hiring whites and kids straight out of film school.

My husband, a Native American who has worked for 20 years in the industry, has been through this a hundred times. When it gets down to hiring him as a director or producer, he is told, “Sorry, we have to go with someone who has ‘experience.’ ”

Charlotte Hildebrand

Los Angeles