2022 Grammys Will Now Have An Inclusion Rider To ‘Ensure Diversity’
The 2022 Grammys just announced that they will now feature an inclusion rider to ensure diversity.
According to the Recording Academy’s statement per USA Today, the rider will ensure that producers “recruit, audition, interview, and hire on-stage and off-stage people who have been historically and systematically excluded from the industry.”
Academy President and CEO Harvey Mason Jr. called the concept a “monumental step.”
Mason continued: “As the academy continues its transformational journey, diversifying our industry is at the core of every decision we make. We’re dedicated to fostering an environment of inclusion industry-wide and hope that our efforts set an example for our peers in the music community.”
The academy’s initiative will be partnered with several organizations and experts in diversity including: Color of Change, inclusion rider co-authors Kalpana Kotagal and Fanshen Cox DiGiovanni, and Ryan Butler, the founding director of Warner Music/Blavatnik Center for Music Business at Howard University.
“There are a lot of unwritten rules in the entertainment industry that create racial exclusion, and at Color Of Change, we know that to change society you have to change the rules,” said Rashad Robinson, president of the Color of Change. “This inclusion rider is a written rule that will change the culture of hiring at the Grammys, and will make inclusion the norm.”
Kotagal, who is a civil rights attorney, said that the entertainment industry has a long history of “exclusion and underrepresentation.”
Kotagal said that the inclusion rider will commit to “deepening and diversifying hiring pools, setting benchmarks and targets for hiring, collecting and thoroughly analyzing applicant and hiring data and implementing accountability measures.”
The full inclusion rider will be released publicly on Sept. 16.
