“No White Kids”— How Racial Politics Pollutes Pop Culture

Two dissident non-white filmmakers speak out about the entertainment industry in Canada and the U.S.

“What’s the point of everyone looking different if we all think the same?”

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The industries I’ve worked in for many years—entertainment and media—have long suffered from narrow mindedness. But since 2020, that narrow-mindedness has become suffocating. 

I started Shiny Herd to document the enforced conformity that goes on, often behind-the-scenes, inside the culture-producing industries. 

I’ve spent my entire career in New York and Southern California, in environments where fear prevents many from challenging the monoculture. But if there is a place where dissent is more dangerous, it’s Canada. 

In this interview, I speak with two successful non-white Canada-based animators and producers who have created content for some of the best-known names in North America. They wish to remain anonymous because they fear their heterodox views might get them fired, ostracized, or charged with a hate crime. 

“J” is a male Mexican immigrant, and “E” is a woman of North African heritage. We decided on a written exchange, which allowed them to choose their words carefully. 

Below J and E explain the strange world of white-on-white racism, how racial politics hurts all races, and why speaking out about the corruption of art is even more perilous in Canada than in the U.S. 

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Why is it important to you to remain anonymous for this interview?

J: Even though Canada is a big country, the entertainment industry is very small and well-connected and tends to be homogenous in its thinking.

E: Yeah, the fear is that there would be intolerance for a different point of view on controversial issues and we would lose clients. It would be easy and even welcomed if our comments or disagreements would be directed towards the designated ‘bad guys’ and in favor of the approved consensus.

In your industry, how much of an issue is self censorship?

E: I think it’s a huge issue, because there is a perception, whether accurate or not, that a mob can be quickly and easily mobilized against you for perceived transgression—meaning a disagreement. 

We also do not have constitutionally protected freedom of speech in Canada, so in the last few years, you get the general feeling that you can be severed from your employment, ostracized, have your bank account frozen, or be accused of hate crimes for disagreeing with someone. 

I have censored my own choice of words in this document because the predictive text was alarming me.

J: I’ll also add that we don’t know any other openly conservative or true classical liberals in the industry. I find this statistically unlikely and I can only assume that they censor themselves out of fear. 

I wouldn't expect a lot to be out there as the arts industry selects for more left leaning personalities, but zero doesn’t seem plausible to me.

How does this new climate affect the creative process? Supporters might say that it improves the process because being more inclusive means that you’re drawing on the talents of a wider pool of people. What do you think?

J: My first question would be “inclusive of what?” From where I’m standing I don’t see much openness to including different ideas that stray from a politically progressive platform.

This climate has no room for diversity of ideas.

My second question would be “What’s the point of everyone looking different if we all think the same?”

E: One is incentivized to lean on or demonstrate one’s minority status (within an accepted framework). It makes me think of the cinema of the Soviet Union, where the quality of the performers was top notch, but the message had to be what the Party wanted it to be. 

How is the climate in Canada different from America?

J: In Canada the media production class is very homogenous when it comes to ideas.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of diversity of thought because most media production is funded by the Liberal government in one way or another (grants, tax exemptions, etc) so the incentives are to match what the party’s message is or lose the funding.

E: I think it’s easier to silence people in Canada, and Canadians are very conflict avoidant. I think people are more concerned with seeming “nice” and “compassionate” than they are with really examining different points of view.

You’ve told me you’ve been privy to various kinds of intolerance and outright racism. Can you share some anecdotes? 

Anecdote 1: I was told by one of the founders of one of the biggest animation studios in Canada that when they were down in the US trying to sell animated TV shows (these are people who work with the big streamers like Netflix, Apple, Amazon, etc) that they shouldn't expect the same level of success as in years past because they were white heterosexual males.

Anecdote 2: While on an industry Clubhouse group I brought up the issue of racial quotas and initially I got some pushback, but after a few minutes an anecdote was shared: a small studio started by three white guys had been successful and was able to expand due to some big projects. 

During their growth, they decided to deliberately do all the racial inclusion (diversity hiring) they could and tick all the racial/gender boxes. When business slowed down, they had to scale back down to the original three partners. 

When a new large potential project came their way, they were told they were not selected because they were not diverse enough. Even though in the past they did everything they “had” to do, it counted for nothing. 

They were frustrated but still believed in the hiring based on identity. But I pointed out that they could afford to take that stance as they were now millionaires and had made their money, but for three young white men just starting out, they would simply not have the opportunity.

Anecdote 3: While working on a children’s television show I was told to avoid vintage illustrations of hands that looked too white and male because the producers didn’t want to promote The Patriarchy. 

You’ve also told me about a not-so-inclusive casting call. Tell me how you reacted.

J: When I was working on an animated TV kids show that involved some live action footage of kids, I was forwarded some production documents and there was the casting call for one of the episodes and it had a note from the producers that said “no white kids.”

I had seen this type of stuff reported in the news before involving the CBC (Canadian equivalent to PBS), but I hadn’t experienced it on any of my projects.

It had been the first time I came across this kind of thing up close so I was fairly shocked. This came on the tail of a few other anti-white incidents. 

When I tried to gently bring this up to the producers by saying “I don’t understand the reason for the exclusion of an entire racial group,” I was told jokingly that it wasn’t exclusion, it was just limiting the racial group. 

Again, shocked, I had no answer at the moment.

At one point you were told that a straight nose is “too white.”

J: For the same kids’ TV show (funded by tax dollars) we were working on a science sequence to show how respiratory viruses get in through the nose. We designed a very simplified cross section of a human head with simple shapes (rectangle for the neck, circle for the head and a triangle for the nose). 

One of the design notes that came back was that the nose (being a triangle) needed to change because it read “too white”. When we confronted the producer about it and said that my mother’s nose was that shape, the producer laughed and said that “there must be some white in there” — which was a presumption and seemed to imply a negative.

Did you change the nose? 

J: We did as we were contractually obligated to address the producer’s notes. BUT… we changed it to the shape of my mother-in-law’s aquiline middle eastern nose. The note that came back was that it was now “too scary”. 

How often are these instances of anti-white racism committed by white people?

J: Mostly always. I’ve gotten subtle anti-white statements from non-white people at parties, but most of the decision makers have been white themselves.

How do others in the industry react to the kinds of intolerance you’ve told me about?

E: I don’t know if they believe us, or if they think our perception is overblown. I think most people have bought into this idea that “it’s time for white men to step aside,” even though Canada is 69.8% white according to 2022 Census data. 

J: I think most people understand that the anecdotes we have are a problem, but they don’t think it’s widespread even when they are affected by it as well. Mostly they think it’s a one off.

What’s your guess regarding what percentage of your associates are on board with this worldview versus those who are too afraid to speak out?

E: I think maybe 15% are afraid to speak out, but that most are at least partially on board with the world view. 

J: I agree with E about the percentage. I’ve seen the needle move a bit once this comes and affects them directly. 

But even then, they feel guilty about recognizing the injustice and try to justify the reason why they’ve been passed over for a job or if they get castigated for their skin color.

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Why are people afraid to speak out?

E: When there is a land acknowledgment in front of every cultural exhibit, place, art, or film, and openly Marxist organizations get government funding, and requests for board members of arts organizations specify non-white or indigenous people should apply or are preferred, there is very little incentive to speak out. 

You’re speaking out against the status quo and all the funding bodies.

J: I think after decades of Marxist capture of the education system, there’s a learned cultural guilt that is hard to shake off. That and the fact that there’s a deep belief that no evil can come from the Progressive movement makes any introspection almost impossible.

That plus the fact that in our industry there is a very real risk of losing your job, your clients and your friends. That relates to why we want to remain anonymous.

Tell me about your experience with a major US broadcaster regarding a project about a little Mexican girl. The execs apparently wanted a Mexican director. How do you know that’s what they wanted?

J: The recruiter for the production company specified it to me. She said the broadcaster wants a Mexican director for this and it’s non-negotiable. 

To add to this, because of the provincial tax breaks, this Mexican director had to be a resident of the Canadian province in which the production was taking place.

How did it make you feel when you discovered why they were pursuing you like they were?

J: I was curious. In some ways I DO understand wanting someone who knows the cultural details of a character to make the show better.

What I objected to is that in comparison to other people I know were available, I was clearly underskilled for the job as I’ve never held a directing position on a production that scale. 

In many ways I felt I was being set up to lose or to be a prop. It got worse after they realized that my skillset was not what they needed, but they still needed a Mexican on the crew. 

They kept pursuing me, but they never specified what my role would be even after asking them directly. Their answer was that they’ll figure it out later.

Some people might say, “So what, white people have been getting jobs because of their skin color for a long time. It’s fine that the tables have turned.” How do you respond to that line of thinking?

J: I would say that, if this were true (which the data shows it hasn’t been for decades) I see no ethical difference between the two positions. If it’s wrong one way it’s wrong the other way too. 

When people say this what they seem to mean is that they have no problem with race-based hiring but they do have a problem when it’s not THEIR race that benefits from it.

Is this new climate helping people from different races, sexes, religions and so on get along better or is it making relations worse?

J: According to statistics, people were already getting along quite well and for the most part in the West everyone had pretty much equal opportunity.

I think the artificiality of it creates doubt and suspicion about why people are being hired, fired or awarded grants or scholarships.

E: I think it demands contortions and an unhealthy pressure to divulge or hide aspects of themselves or what may be irrelevant details on the part of the applicants. 

Is it better to use my middle name or hyphenate my last name? Do I mention where my parents were born but omit where I was born? Do I share what my grandparents achieved, or how much they suffered? 

Do I have to share whether I grew up in a particular economic stratum, or what jobs I had, or what traumas I did or did not face, and what disadvantages I may or may not have had? 

I think it also means that you doubt your own assessment of people and of art. 

Let’s say you don’t have time to mentor someone, but you feel pressured to do so to avoid appearing prejudiced in some way.

Or maybe you are on the jury for a festival or a competition and you’re afraid to say what you think of the films based on who directed them or the ideology in the film.

How does this climate affect your nonwhite colleagues? How does it affect your white colleagues? 

J: I think if you’re non-white and haven’t bought into this ideology, at minimum, it plants doubts on whether you were hired because of your talents or because of your skin color. 

At worst it sets you up for failure because you’ve been placed at a position where your skillset, as good as it could be, may not be the one that the job requires.

If you are non-white and have bought into this, I think it ethically corrupts you into thinking you deserve something solely on the basis of your skin color.

As for white colleagues, so far I’ve only seen guilt and a sense that they don’t deserve what they have. A close friend of mine was feeling guilty of being “just another white guy drinking out of the colonial trough” until I reminded him that not only had I seen him earn everything he had, but that I had been his boss for over 10 years.

Ted Balaker is a filmmaker, and former network newser and think tanker. His recent work includes Little Pink House starring Catherine Keener and Jeanne Tripplehorn, Can We Take a Joke? featuring Gilbert Gottfried and Penn Jillette, and a soon-to-be-released feature documentary based on the bestselling book, The Coddling of the American Mind, by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.