From Jon Sarpong of Inside Toronto:
- Canadian television must increase diversity
“You can judge the value that you place on something by the time and finances that you devote to it,” says (Annmarie) Morais. “So if we use that as the bar, we see that the Canadian TV industry doesn’t highly value black Canadian experiences. Our goal as black communities is to see ourselves reflected in some way. But disappointingly, perhaps the one way that Canadian networks do mirror the American television format is that you don’t see us on prime time; and you don’t see us being decision makers regarding what is televised during prime time.” Read more.
I didn’t read the article (bad Mona!) and I do agree that minorities should be represented on television, but with only 2.5 % of the Canadian population being black (compared to 12.5% in the US) there should be a different scale of expectations. Could it be that 2.5 percent of people on Canadian shows already are black? I can think of one right off the top of my head — the workout guy on Bulging Brides.