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How to Get Fired for ‘Cultural Insensitivity’ By Netflix

Ava Duvernay
Photo by John Lamparski/Getty
Matthew Belloni
April 3, 2022

It’s no secret that a quiet culture war is raging in Hollywood. The forces of inclusion and greater accountability are squaring off against those who believe the pendulum has swung so far that otherwise good people are being marginalized and, in some cases, purged. Check out this cautionary tale of a TV showrunner who was fired after an investigation into “cultural insensitivity” in a Netflix writers room. Your reaction will probably depend on your side in the battle.

Netflix has quietly been developing a show based on Roald Dahl’s Matilda property. Conceived and pitched by filmmaker Ava Duvernay, the animated series will follow a grown-up Matilda and an 8 year-old, gifted Black girl who travel the world, X-Men style, and recruit other special kids for their boarding school. Duvernay hired a white female showrunner (I’m not using her name, or the names of the other writers on the show, because they aren’t influential people and I don’t want this story to follow them around), and developed a pilot with her. The showrunner—who, admittedly, was not the most worldly person—then hired a diverse, five-person staff, with writers representing the global backgrounds of people who might be featured on the show.