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Tweet About Lena Dunham Opened Conversations About Privilege in Entertainment

A 2017 Tweet by the Hollywood Reporter recently came under fire for its deaf-tone praise of Lena Dunham, the creator of the popular TV series, ‘Girls.’ The Reporter’s post pointed out that Dunham was just 23-years-old when she successfully pitched Girls to HBO with no character or plot.

Black and POC creatives were quick to point out that Dunham was upheld by an industry that values professional connections and whiteness over talent. Dunham’s father, Carroll Dunham, was a well-known painter with a network in the arts.

In contrast, users pointed out that non-white creatives are often forced to show up fully prepared to prove themselves and even then are often turned away from opportunities.

Some mentioned well-known Black creators such as Issa Rae to prove their point. Rae had a YouTube channel called “Awkward Black Girl” with millions of views and a pilot for “Insecure” before she was given a similar platform by HBO.

On Sunday evening, Dunham responded to the Tweets about her in a thread. In it, she agreed that Hollywood was “rigged” in favor of white people and that she didn’t realize at first that her whiteness allowed her career to take off with “relative ease.”

She ended by advocating for more change for Black people.

“Listen,” she wrote. “Make art in private for awhile- no one needs your book right now lady. Give reparations widely. Defund the police. Rinse & repeat.”

 


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