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Ellen Pompeo calls on ‘white Hollywood’ to fix Golden Globes diversity issue

By Sarabeth Pollock

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 02: Ellen Pompeo attends Save The Children's "Centennial Celebration: Once In A Lifetime" at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 02, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 02: Ellen Pompeo attends Save The Children's "Centennial Celebration: Once In A Lifetime" at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 02, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images) /
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Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo knows how to use her voice and her public platform for good, and she’s using it to urge her white Hollywood colleagues to take action in the face of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association diversity scandal.

Pompeo took to Instagram on Saturday, penning a powerful call to action to her white colleagues in Hollywood, urging them to help “right the wrongs” that are present in a HFPA organization that hasn’t had a Black member in two decades.

The 78th Golden Globes Awards ceremony takes place on February 28. Pompeo’s message, posted the day before the ceremony, reminds her colleagues that they have benefited greatly from their privilege. “I would kindly ask, all my white colleagues in this industry, an industry that we love and has granted us enormous privilege…to pull up, show up and get this issue resolved.”

“Now is not a time to be silent,” she added in closing.

Ellen Pompeo calls for immediate action on the Golden Globes diversity issue

As Hollywood prepares for the 78th Golden Globes ceremony that serves as the unofficial start to awards season, a spotlight is shining down on the lack of diversity among HFPA members. There are no Black members in the nearly 90-member voting body and there haven’t been for two decades.

Given the impact – positive and negative – that the Golden Globes can have on an actor’s career, it’s unacceptable that there is so little diversity among voting members.

Toward the end of the week, several prominent Hollywood figures including Ava DuVernay, Sterling K. Brown and Dakota Johnson all expressed outrage over the lack of diversity at the HFPA, forcing the organization to issue a statement late Friday evening that promises, in part, to address the matter during Sunday’s ceremony.

dark. Next. Hollywood unites against lack of diversity at Golden Globes

Pompeo, though, is taking things one step further in asking her colleagues to take action. “This is Hollywood, we are master problem solvers,” she wrote. “We have a real action item here, let’s get it done.”

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