“I don’t ever want to be cast because I’m black, I just want to go into a room and have the same chance as everyone else,” actor Alex Taylor said in response to the new Academy guidelines. “I want to say I like it in theory, but having it be a box checking thing is dangerous.” There’s no perfect method and trying something is better than trying nothing, but it’s a slippery slope.”

The Academy’s new diversity requirements, Academy Aperture 2025, provides criteria that films must meet in order to be considered for a Best Picture Nomination. The guidelines provide a quota for the representation of marginalized groups in four categories; on screen representation, creative/leadership team, industry access and opportunities, audience development (marketing). Films must meet at least two out of four of these standards. The requirements don’t go into effect until 2024 and only apply to Best Picture nominees. 

            “I think that I personally deal with more tokenization than being shut out of things,” Taylor said. “I feel like [I am] a good safe option to be the one black person in the play, because I have things on my resume, because I grew up upper middle class, because I went to private school, because I seem safe.”

            Critics say quotas attempt to increase representation without addressing larger issues of access. Taylor believes  that classical theatre is often made less accessible to people of color. This experience, which Taylor refers to as “gate-keeping,” was reflected in a video produced by the organization Broadway for Racial Justice (BFRJ) during which actors read anonymous submissions from actors of color.

“Coming up as a young artist, the first piece I learned was Macbeth’s ‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ soliloquy,” an actor said, sharing an anonymous reflection during the BFRJ video. “It was given to me by my director at an incredible youth program during our Shakespeare portion of learning. After that day, I took the same monologue to another program, and was told that I didn’t need to worry about doing Shakespeare; that I should stick to pieces that I’d be in, like Fences and Raisin In The Sun.”             

One aspect of the Academy’s new guidelines that actors say feel promising are the measures outlined in Standard C: “Industry Access and Opportunities.” It requires the distribution or financing company of the film to offer paid internships and training opportunities to; women, racial or ethnic groups, LGBTQ+, and people with cognitive or physical disabilities. BFRJ is making similar efforts with their paid 9-week Casting Directive Program for theatre artists of color. 

             “It’s a very specific thing, of being a non-white person in a predominantly white space because you just feel like there’s always a little bit of a disconnect between you and everyone around you,’ said Toronto-based actor Ziye Hu. “Inclusion is not an afterthought, it needs to be built into whatever project you’re working on, that is what I want white people who have the power to assume.”

Initiatives like BFRJ and the Academy’s industry access guidelines seek to increase access for marginalized groups and reconstruct the historically white/male system of power at the heart of Hollywood and Broadway, by providing more training and growth opportunities for people of color.

Meanwhile actors of color are finding strength in their communities by processing their experiences and moving forward more confidently in spite of the discrimination they’ve faced in this industry. 

“I’m so passionate about being an actor, especially now, despite its challenges,” Hu said. “The challenge of being an actor with this aesthetic actually makes me want to do it more.  I’m not going into these rooms being afraid of who I am. It takes a lot of self-love and self-affirmation to be exactly who you are and go into these rooms, knowing that you’re worth it, and if they don’t want you, that’s ok. I’m untarnished.”

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Kadija Kone,  still remembers the first time she read a book with a main character that looked like her. She had to read the book for her third grade class. The girl in the book from the reading had the same curly hair and dark skin.

Kone, 17,  of Queens, said she was teased by her classmates for resembling the girl. Her class made up black and latino kids found it strange to have a black character as the focus. But Kadija felt a sense of pride, familiarity and confidence that someone in her school book looked like her.

“We need to see characters that represent us because it is empowering,” said Kone, who is also a youth leader at the advocacy group, IntegrateNYC, that fights for integration and equity in city schools. “We need to know that we are beautiful and can go on to achieve anything we put our minds too. If I want to be a scientist, I want to read about a scientist that looks like me.”

According to a report by the Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) blacks and hispanics make up more than two-thirds of the public school enrollment but authors and characters that represent this majority are mostly absent from the elementary school reading list.

Parents and the CEJ are calling on the Department of Education to adopt a more culturally responsive curriculum city-wide. They want books to reflect students of color because they believe this form of positive reinforcement will lead to more success in their respective communities.

According to the CEJ report, about 84 percent of the authors used in elementary schools are white.

“It is not right that our books and curriculum do not reflect the most diverse city in the country,” said Natasha Capers, CEJ Coordinator, and mother of two elementary aged kids. “It’s not right that our kids can go through the system and not read about people that represent them until they chose to or are in college.”

The CEJ report goes on to show that 10 optional reading lists widely used in city schools are dominated by white authors and characters – 118 titles feature white authors and about 22 books are written by nonwhites.

In February, this frustration with the lack of a culturally representative curriculum boiled over, resulting in parents, students and the CEJ protesting on the steps of the Tweed Court in Lower Manhattan, which is the home of the DOE.

Adofo Muhammad, principal at Bedford Academy High School in Brooklyn said that parents and students shouldn’t be the ones protesting. He said teachers should recognize what will engage their students and lobby for the DOE to diversify the curriculum.

“It’s our job as educators to demand that we have culturally representative works for our students, everyone has to be included,” he said. “We are molding the minds of our future generations.”

He added that when students of color see themselves positively represented it breaks down years of mythology that their superstardom is only reached by sports or music.

“It’s all about positive reinforcement to students to allow them to dream bigger than they ever could,” said Muhammad. “No matter what happens to children in life we should always give kids the best tools to be the best them.”  

Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza since being appointed has expressed support for a more diverse reading list and the DOE has noted that the city has set aside $23 million for anti-bias and culturally responsive training for school staffers.

“Our students should see themselves in the books they read and the lessons they’re taught,” said Danielle Filson, spokeswoman for the DOE in a released statement. “We’re prioritizing a culturally responsive curriculum that includes a diverse range of voices.”

The DOE did not respond to emails asking how or when they plan to make the curriculum more culturally responsive.

Kiesha Griffin has a child enrolled in a District 9 elementary school in the Bronx. She wants her child and students of color throughout New York City to know of where they come from. She said that direct representation opens up their imaginations and keeps students engaged.

“It engages them, they pay attention,” said Griffin. “We have had enough of teaching our kids about Europe and how they colonized the world. Stop whitewashing our history to our kids.”

The CEJ and parents want the DOE to start culturally responsive curriculums by this summer. They also request that the DOE stop working with textbook and publishing companies that refuse to diversify learning materials.  

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Everyone loves Batman. He has managed to keep his swagger for 77 years. But as times have changed, Batman has remained a straight, rich white male who transcended the death of his parents by becoming a straight, rich white man in a bat suit.

Some fans are longing for a change.

“I feel comics in general have this problem,” said Thomas Tremberger from Midwood, Brooklyn, about the lack of diversity in lead comic book characters. “It’s so hard to get people invested in [more diverse] characters that until pretty recently [DC comics] didn’t have any faith in.”

Longtime fans of the character waited outside of Midtown Comics yesterday on DC Comic’s Batman Day, to meet the creators of Batman. The line was a block long hours before it began.

Some fans want to keep Batman straight and white.

“There’s room for change without having to change the characters themselves,” Anthony Ceddia of Crown Heights, Brooklyn said.

A fans wore a complimentary blue capes to celebrate New York Comic Con and Batman Day. Fans lined up at Midtown Comics hours before Batman writers and creators Frank Miller, Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Tom King showed up yesterday .Photo by: Sophie Herbut

The DC Universe is a web of multiple fictional worlds and dimensions. They’ve used this system to create new diverse characters like a Muslim Green Lantern, black Batwing, and a transgender wedding in Batgirl.

“They’ve introduced a lot of new characters, a lot of diversity, and each character is amazing in their own right and at the same time they’ve never had to change Batman,” Ceddia said. “Which is what I think is great about it.”

These diverse characters have their own stories that run parallel to the original. But these minority characters don’t replace the old characters and they rarely break into the mainstream of movies and television like the Batman has done time and again.

“It’s not really the fans’ fault if they’re not really buying stuff because it hard to be invested in [a new character],” Tremberger said. “You have to sort of build from the ground up to get characters to be like, beloved.”

Tremberger did not think DC’s approach to diversity worked because it kept the minority characters separate and made it difficult for fans to attach themselves to them.

“There’s always room for diversity,” said Bill Spinelli of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “However, I’d be happy with [DC] going the opposite route of what Marvel’s doing where they need to put diversity into characters that are long established and alienate [the] fan base.”

Marvel, on the other hand, has been making their main characters more diverse. They replaced Thor with a female and Iron Man with a young black woman.

“When you’re introducing new characters, you’re always going to have people getting paranoid about us ruining their childhood,” Marvel writer, Brian Michael Bendis, told Time.

Spinelli preferred DC’s approach to diversifying its characters by creating separate universes and having those gain as much popularity as the original and widely known characters. He said this was the best way to bring in more fans without angering existing fans.

“Is separate but equal ever equal?” Tremberger retorted.

Some fans were more attached to Batman’s character than his appearance.

“[If DC] change[s] him,” said Keith Martinez of Crown Heights, “bring in someone new—a girl maybe—that would be pretty awesome. Some people overthink it a lot. If they change the color of his skin, it still has the same impact.”

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As bombs of bigotry erupt in the Middle East, some fear that tolerance will never be restored.

But imagine a school where Muslim first grade boys sit at their desks coloring in pictures of a Rabbi, a Muslim man and woman, and a Christian boy below the words: “In Islam, everyone is equal.”

“The students learn the difference between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and that everyone is your neighbor no matter what religion they are,” said Denise Frazier, 40, a parent of a first grade girl at the Razi School in Woodside, Queens. “They teach them that they can have friends that are Christians and Jews, that they are all the same, and all equal.”

The Razi School, a Muslim pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade private school, encourages its students to learn the different religions of the world.

Recently, the students participated in International Day, where they celebrated cultural diversity and the many nationalities that are represented at the school.

“International Day is a celebration of people from all walks of life to teach equality and tolerance for one another no matter where they come from or what religion they are, “ said Frazier. “It amazed me that there were 32 different countries represented in a school with 300 students.”

According to Frazier, the students were able to experience the different cultures through food. With their sense of smell and taste, they could immerse themselves onto the streets in Egypt, the food markets in Tanzania, and the sidewalk cafes in the United States. The aroma of koushari lentils and rice, chapatti flat bread, and apple pie cobbler brought the students closer together.

But International Day is not the only way the Razi School addresses tolerance. The students are also required to take religion class.

“You are going to be good guys,” said Sheileh Wessam, the first grade religion teacher at the Razi School, to his 15 students. “Look guys, you have to respect your friends and help other people.”

Wessam’s first grade students read out loud their lesson of the day, a story about Prophet Musa (or Moses in the Hebrew Bible). At the end of the lesson, the students were instructed to color images that represented different religions.

But not all schools are this dedicated to cultivating an environment that teaches tolerance.

According to Teaching Tolerance magazine, religion class is not a requirement in most schools.

“We have a crap structure in teaching religion in this country,” said Adrienne van der Valk, managing editor of Teaching Tolerance magazine. “When students have the opportunity to interact with other students who practice religious beliefs that are different from their own, their fear goes down and their understanding goes up. But it’s not mandatory.”

Van der Valk encourages teachers to allow their students to see themselves and others who are not like them in their work.

“It is much more difficult to label a stereotype if you have regular contact with that group,” said van der Valk. “This can occur by watching movies or reading books about that group. We encourage teachers to do this.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the future of achieving equality and justice lies in the hands of educators.

When schools do not require a curriculum that fosters tolerance, students are more vulnerable to social injustice and religious prejudice.

Jordana Loft, a masters student in elementary inclusive education at Columbia University, experienced the effects of this vulnerability while substitute teaching at a charter school in the South Bronx.

“I was wearing a red kabbalah bracelet and one of the girls, who was wearing a hijab asked me if I was Jewish,” said Loft. “I said ‘yes, why do you ask?’ She responded asking me that if she’s Muslim and I’m Jewish, does that mean we can’t be friends?”

Loft explained to her student that she grew up in a community where they embrace different cultures, attend difference schools and go to different places of prayer.

“Those differences make people unique and special,” said Loft to her student. “They enhance my life. I get to learn things I didn’t know before.”

Loft told her that when she was away at school her best friend was Muslim. They used to speak about the different places they would pray.

“She immediately got excited,” said Loft. “She was able to see herself in my story. We could now be friends.”

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It was 10 p.m. on a recent Friday night and business was booming at The Experience Unisex Salon in Crown Heights. An interracial couple held an intimate conversation in French while they sat in the waiting area. A stylist tightly sewed wavy blonde extensions into her African-American customer’s hair. VH1 Soul played on the two large flat screen televisions filling the spacious salon with R & B.

Black-owned businesses like The Experience Unisex Salon are all over this working class neighborhood, which, according to the 2010 Census, is 72 percent black. But as gentrification seeps into the neighborhood, diversity has brought hope and new clients to this busy salon.

“We have clients of all backgrounds, Indian, White, Latinos, and Blacks,” said Khalil Wright, 37, the salon’s co-owner.

Wright and his partner Zakeyah Ryan, 32, opened the salon in 2006 and within three years noticed a change in clientele.

Blue-eyed and blond-haired, Nate Olson,29, has been a client of the Experience Unisex Salon since he moved to Crown Heights from Iowa three years ago.

“You can come here and talk to anyone about anything,” Olson said. “It’s definitely a place where all types of people catch up to talk about things going on in the community.”

The number of white residents in Crown Heights has increased 20 percent, according to the census data. For many of the black salon customers, this was their first time sharing a salon with white neighbors.

“I grew up in Crown Heights and before this shop, I’ve never been to a barbershop and a white man was in the chair,” said Amaechi Aneke, 30, as he watched his barber cutting a white customer’s hair.

On a recent visit, every customer was greeted with a hearty welcome from the staff and then waited patiently for a free stylist in one of the red, blue or yellow chairs.

“We are a black-owned business, but we don’t focus on the color of people, we see hair,” Ryan said.

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