Black Journalist Of Southern California Signed On To
Recruit Diverse Journalists To Serve As Voting Body
On Thursday, the LA Daily News‘ cover story, “New Film Awards Aim For Diversity,” announced plans by DSD Publicity’s Darren D. Dickerson to team with the Los Angles chapter of the Black Public Relations Society (BPRS) to launch the more inclusive “Myriad Honors” award show to recognize the outstanding achievements of actors in Film, Television, Commercial and Digital.
For more than seven years Dickerson cultivated the idea of an award show that completely leveled the playing field and allowed all actors to compete head-to-head without any racial concerns, cronyism or foreign language barriers limiting who wins. His only goal is to ensure minorities are considered, nominated and hopefully will win more acting honors as a result.
“I was the agency rep for Chandra Wilson (“Grey’s Anatomy“) when she was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards (2008) and left with neither,” said Dickerson. “I was so invested in her winning the loss hit me harder than it did her and that day I resolved to do something about.”
Dickerson began surveying over 500 actors, producers and media professionals to understand two things, “why minority based award shows like the Image and Alma Awards are not bigger” and what will make top actors interested in earning a new award multiple times.
“The answer was obvious, who presents the award and the voting process,” says Dickerson. “The actors a concerned about the judges, their knowledge of acting and the level of integrity of the organization hosting the event.”
To address the concerns of Hollywood and the glaring omissions of the mainstream award shows Dickerson turned to the Foreign Press and Golden Globes for inspiration. He solicited the Southern California Black Journalist Association to recruit journalists of color to serve as the Myriad Honors voting body. The group will also invite Caucasian Journalist to be members and they will comprise up to 25% of the body. The plans is to keep the organizations managing the event execution (BPRS) completely separate from the journalist groups in charge of nominations and voting.
“Minority Journalist Associations represent some of the most respected broadcast and print media personalities in the business, with high ethics and a healthy respect for balance,” says Dickerson. “Add non-minority media to level the playing field and the Myriad will be a coveted honor.”
With no Foreign Language category The Myriad allows non-English language content to compete equally. This is based on a core belief that acting, “great acting supersedes language” and can be judged fairly in all categories. Dickerson points to films like “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” as proof that language barriers are arbitrary.
“Allowing the world to see their favorite actors and projects compete against American actors in a star-studded, truly Hollywood style award show will attract a global audience,” said Dickerson. “I think we will do Super Bowl viewer numbers, which is why I am live streaming first–to prove it!”
As an official kick-off to the award show series, Dickerson and DSD will host “A Salute to Diversity in Hollywood” with the Black PR Society in February and send out official invitations in March to recruit media to serve as voters.