How Hollywood is responding amid George Floyd protests
Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal breaks down how media and entertainment giants are supporting the Black Lives Matter movement as protests continue to rage across the country in response to the death of George Floyd.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: Today, Tuesday, is marking Blackout Tuesday where Americans across the country are joining forces here to show support of the Black Lives Matter movement following the death of George Floyd.
And we've been digging into how entertainment companies, of course, as a movement that music companies were first going to start with, and then it kind of spread across the rest of the entertainment sector. Now, a lot of businesses joining in as well. And for more on that, I want to get to Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal who has more details. Ali.
ALEXANDRA CANAL: Yeah, Zack. So as protests continue to rage throughout the country following the death of George Floyd, prominent media and entertainment companies have voiced their support for the Black Lives movement and denounced racism on their public social media channels. Netflix being one of the first major media companies to do this releasing a statement on their Twitter account Saturday afternoon writing, quote "To be silent is to be complicit. Black lives matter. We have a platform, and we have a duty to our black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up."
Other companies that have issued statements of their own include Disney, HBO, AMC, AT&T just to name a few. With many of these brands going beyond just written words, YouTube, for example, pledging $1 million to fight racial injustice. Verizon, our parent company, donating 10 million to multiple organizations and causes including the NAACP. Yesterday, we saw Viacom CBS go dark on their networks and cable channels for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time that George Floyd was pinned down and ultimately killed while in police custody.
And Zack, as you mentioned, a very similar movement happening today called Blackout Tuesday. It was started by the music industry, but it seems to have spread to multiple brands, organizations, individuals alike as a moment to really disconnect from work and reconnect to the community. Warner Music Group along with several labels, radio stations, distributors all taking part. Spotify, in addition to blacking out, will also be curating playlists to promote black artists and podcasters. But all of these movements, all of these statements come at a time when the industry overall has been highly criticized for its lack of diversity and inclusion.
Remember, the Oscars so white controversy was not that long ago, happening in 2016. And although it did prompt the Academy to enact certain changes, if we take a look at this past Oscar season, the only person of color to be nominated was Cynthia Erivo for her role as Harriet Tubman in the movie "Harriet." Critics saying that certainly not enough. Others who have slammed the industry include CNN host Don Lemon who accuse millionaires and movie stars for just sitting on their couches as these protests continued. Although I do want to mention that big names like Ariana Grande, Halsey, and Nick Cannon all did participate in protests this past weekend with rapper Jay-Z confirming that he had a very candid and honest conversation with the governor of Minnesota as a quote, "dad and black man in pain." Zack.
ZACK GUZMAN: All right, Alexandra Canal, bring its latest on the entertainment and activism front there.
