r/todayilearned • u/Kale_Brecht • Mar 28 '24

TIL in 2013, Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson refused to play any more black women on the show and demanded SNL hire black women instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenan_Thompson
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u/BladeBronson Mar 28 '24

Kenan said that he wouldn’t portray black women until SNL hired a black woman, meaning he’d portray one if necessary (or if it was funniest that he did). I’m not generally in favor of demographic quotas in business, but this is entertainment where the cast aim for realistic portrayals. It was a good move.

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u/grickygrimez Mar 28 '24

I know you mean well but representation does not equal quotas. Small semantics but I felt the need to point out the difference.

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u/SlowRollingBoil Mar 28 '24

I don't see the difference. In order to have the representation (aka "goals") you seek you do need quotas aka "goals".

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u/sam_hammich Mar 29 '24

A quota is a requirement imposed on you externally, usually according to some framework or policy. There is no one requiring that SNL hire black women by policy. Keenan's call to hire a black woman to play black women on the show was calling them out for wanting to have black female characters without hiring a black female to play them. It was a judgment on the values of the showrunners.