Culture Shift: How to Picket Accessibly and Intersectionally: “It’s Only Through Relationships and Connection”
Angela Harvey had one job at the Think Tank for Inclusion and Equity’s picket at the Disney lot last Friday: to take photos and document the event on social media. “I get here and go to take photos, and I left my phone in the car down on Riverside,” says the TV writer and co-chair of the advocacy organization composed of working television scribes from historically excluded backgrounds.
Katherine Beattie, a member of TTIE’s steering committee and also a Writers Guild of America strike captain, offered to retrieve it for her. “Katherine uses a wheelchair and was like, ‘I’ll be faster.’ So she went and got my phone, and it was really fast!” Harvey laughs. “She could do that because this place is accessible.” (The Disney lot, with its wide sidewalks, is considered one of the most accessible picketing locations.)
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Accessibility is one of the core values for TTIE, whose July 28 intersectional picket, which originated as an idea from members, WGA captains and lot coordinators Danny Tolli, Anupam Nigam and Niceole Levy, provided visibility for historically excluded writers and the ways in which they are particularly impacted by the deal points at stake in the guild’s collective bargaining agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
“We’re out here today because we have made great strikes in the DEIA space, but the ladder is disintegrating as we climb it,” said Tolli, standing on a cooler to address the picketers. “The issues at the core of this strike disproportionately affect people like us. Room size matters, because fewer voices means less depth and nuance on our shows. Writers on set and in post matter, because we need that experience to be the showrunners of tomorrow. Protections against AI matter, not just to safeguard our presence but to prevent the regurgitation of problematic, racist and dangerous stereotypes and tropes that harm our communities.”
These points are among the informational resources provided by TTIE, which is steadily increasing its footprint since it quietly came together six years ago and then in 2019 published the first of its now-annual reports on the behind-the-scenes experiences of historically excluded writers. “When we first started, we were scared to even talk in the open. The survey was done almost on the downlow,” TTIE co-chair Y. Shireen Razack tells The Hollywood Reporter. “In order to get the data out there, we had to go on the record, and now we have people – other organizations, the studios when we weren’t on strike – coming to us and asking for our help. The community that we’ve built has also been helping historically excluded writers who otherwise would feel isolated to feel like, ‘Oh, I’m not crazy.’ Because so often, you’re gaslit. So being able to come to one of our community events to hear what other people are going through has made people feel so much better.”
About 215 people RSVPed for the TTIE Together picket, although program director Maha Chehlaoui estimates many more stopped by the organization’s table and/or made their way to the afterparty at Forman’s Whiskey Tavern in Toluca Lake afterward. “There was a writer [at the picket today] unfamiliar with the organization who clicked into it immediately,” TTIE’s community building captain MW Cartozian Wilson later said from Forman’s shaded patio. “She felt seen and is now connected with us. You feel a sense of resilience building.”
TTIE’s official presence on the picket line served as a visible reminder that people from historically excluded backgrounds continue to exist as part of the industry. “I’m a captain, but for the first couple weeks of the strike, I feel like people would see disabled writers on the line and be like, ‘Oh my gosh, thank you so much for coming, it means so much that you’re supporting us,’ and I’m like, ‘No, I’m in the guild,’” says Beattie, who has been a full WGA member since 2017. “So having the entire union out on the line together has really raised the profile of disabled writers just by virtue of the fact that we’re now in community with everyone.”
David Radcliff, another member of TTIE’s steering committee and co-chair of the WGA’s disabled writers committee, notes that making the picket line – or any space – accessible should be a group effort. “It’s only through relationships and connection and building more time around other disabled people that you’ll start to think, ‘Why isn’t this video captioned? Why aren’t there curb cuts here? What’s the lighting situation like so that people who read lips can have an easier time?’” says Radcliff, who uses a wheelchair. “A lot of disabled writers are still lower-level writers, when you just want to keep your head down and do a good job. Your access needs might be difficult to advocate for because you really just want to focus on your work. So that sort of advocacy can happen best in community, when people who don’t have your needs are the ones speaking up.”
Many of the attendees at TTIE’s picket event note that marginalized writers are already making personal sacrifices to strike in solidarity with the whole union. “It’s not fair for anyone, but when you’re talking about historically excluded writers who may not have as much existing wealth to rely upon, the onus is even larger,” says co-chair Tawal Panyacosit Jr.
And TTIE’s organizational support of the strike has also come at a cost. “A large percentage of our budget comes from working with struck companies, so we’ve definitely taken some pretty big hits there,” says Chehlaoui. “We’re willing to take them because the strike is so in alignment with our mission. As much as we have enjoyed working with all kinds of teams, this is a larger moment.”
And when that moment has passed, the TTIE leadership urges their constituents not to forget the bonds forged in solidarity on the picket lines. “In our business, part of how writers succeed is we’re able to backstop each other,” Levy says. “After the strike, we want to make sure people aren’t in such a rush to get back to work that they forget their DEIA priorities. Seeing all of us together is a way to send that message.”
As Chehlaoui put it to the crowd assembled on the Forman’s patio at the TTIE Together afterparty: “When this is over, there is going to be a mad rush to staff up and make up for lost time. So please, remember to advocate for one another and keep building on the momentum of getting more of us into rooms, moving more historically excluded writers into positions of power in a moment where more and more of our communities are under attack, our stories are banned, our rights are being legislated away. The fight to build power is imperative, so that’s our work for when this strike is over. Look around you. When it’s time, these are the people you’re going to be rebuilding with.”
Culture Shift reflects coverage dedicated to diversity and inclusion. For more, subscribe to the weekly Culture Shift newsletter.
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