Diversity in Hollywood exists in cycles of booms and busts. There are moments of abundance when Black people are particularly visible on the big and small screens, with the Blaxploitation era in the 1970s and the reign of Black auteurs in the 1990s as prime examples of this. However, as soon as Black creators and actors find their footing, the industry no longer deems them valuable, and they vanish once again. In his new MGM+ four-part series, “Hollywood Black,” which is based on historian Donald Bogle’s book, director Justin Simien argues that cinema as a medium is not possible without Blackness. Walking audiences through film history with anecdotes from
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