Russell Simmons slammed “progressive” Hollywood as an “incredibly segregated” place and said, “the lack of diversity is costing money.”
“They’re lacking culture in Hollywood,” the 58-year-old legendary music producer said in an interview with LinkedIn, when he talked about people who work in Hollywood and how the same people who pride themselves on being “progressive activist’s,” who “want to make the world better” have created the most segregated place he has ever seen. (VIDEO: Russell Simmons: Bernie ‘Insensitive To The Plight Of The Black People’)
(Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation)
“I see the world this way: I think Hollywood is incredibly segregated,” Simmons said. “I’ve never seen any place like it. The gatekeepers who are the most progressive activists inspired to make the world better … they’re better people, right?”
“They’re segregated,” he added. “It’s self segregated in some cases, but there’s nobody black in charge of anything in Hollywood. I shouldn’t say there’s no black agents.”
“There’s one or two and they represent the black client until the black client becomes big and then they lose that client.”
Simmons went on to say that because of this, Hollywood is “losing money.”
“The lack of diversity is costing money,” he said. I think that the bosses, the chairmen, want the CEOs to create and the CEOs want people to create success and money. Without a diverse team then even if you’re a good story-teller, you’re telling a story that is maybe not cultural.”
“If it’s not cultural then you have a big hurdle to jump like [with the movies] Carol or Brooklyn,” he added. “It’s not Straight Outta Compton. They’ll see that before they find out if it’s good or bad.”
“Urban pop culture is its own phenomena that is for some reason is left out of Hollywood,” he continued. “It’s the most mainstream thing there is.”