So, good news… I’m ready to answer the question as to whether or not I have seen any changes: Yes, but none of them are good, some could eventually backfire, and the vast majority are the usual fake diversity campaigns.

I’m not saying there aren’t people who take diversity and inclusion seriously, they do exist. I’ve had dozens of meetings over the past couple of months (courtesy of my amazing manager and a team of new high performance agents). These meetings are set up for me to talk about directing and developing TV, but nowadays almost everybody brings up an article I’ve written about women directors or my diversity activism on Twitter (more than a few times now I’ve been elevated to VIP status with an important executive because either one of their family members, friends, or children follows me on Twitter… which is quite amazing if you consider the wider connotation).

Some of the executives I met are honestly trying, some studios have even — on shareholders orders — created entire diversity task forces to increase their numbers and a good 60% of Hollywood companies still don’t care at all, convinced that they don’t have a diversity issue (pro tip: unless you work for ShondaLand your Hollywood workplace probably hasn’t mastered diversity and inclusion).

As for those who are trying, you can split them into two groups: Film or TV executives who have no understanding of the issue and haven’t bothered to educate themselves on what inclusion actually means… and real diversity experts who have no internal company support and are drowning in the stormy ocean as their carefree colleagues and superiors hit them in the head with their jet skis.

I met one of the latter, a WOC executive who knows what’s up and who recognized that I know, but since it was a meeting that included several of her superiors and colleagues who aren’t even close to being aware, it turned into a rather comical event where much was said between her and I with covert gestures and looks.

This is Hollywood’s biggest problem. It sucks to be the only aware person in the room and apparently it sucks even when there’s two of us. It’s that famous Matt Damon, Effie Brown moment or the lesser famous Wyatt Cenac and Jon Stewart moment… which is something that happens to all of us who understand the issue on any given work day, unless we cease to speak up about any issues we notice.

And it doesn’t take long for us to shut up, because there’s nothing like a confident, successful white male telling you he knows all about diversity and representation and that there’s nothing you can teach him. Especially when that person is also in charge of deciding if you get hired again or not.

So Hollywood pretends it wants to be an inclusive industry, but it consistently disregards and alienates the only people who really know what that means. And while I can’t speak for Effie Brown and Wyatt Cenac, I dare to assume that just like myself they don’t actually want that gig. We want to be producers, writers, directors not diversity oversight officers, but in an industry where sexism and racism still run rampant (don’t make me copy and paste the Sony hack emails here, you all read them) an industry without any discrimination oversight agency, who else can point out that it’s a bad idea to cast the only actor of color as chauffeur but the one lone person who recognizes this?

Nothing would make me happier than Hollywood getting serious with this and hiring proper diversity experts and giving them full power to create a safe, inclusive, diverse industry… but that looks like a pipe dream.

Instead we now have Hollywood power people organizing diversity camps, which we get to read about in articles that include hilariously gung-ho diversity quotes from the worst — no let me write this in capital letters — THE WORST diversity offenders of Hollywood.

And nobody bats an eye. Not a single entertainment reporter thinks to compare these people’s diversity record against the story they’re spinning.

So, that’s my long answer to your question. The short answer would be: We are still shit at diversity and inclusion.

But we don’t have to be. We really don’t.

If we could just for a minute remember that millions of studies have proven how diversity and inclusion will result in higher profits… then why not consider treasuring people who truly understand how to achieve that?

The next time you’ll come across somebody as wise and brave as Effie Brown, consider not shutting her up in mid sentence and instead opt to recognize that you’re in the presence of your very own diversity whisperer. If there was any other skill or knowledge that was proven to increase profits, every suit in Hollywood would be wining and dining its experts, right?

And to those of you enjoying Hollywood fare but who aren’t involved in making it, please continue to care who tells the world’s stories and join voices with us, the activists, troublemakers, rebels… or as the status quo likes to call us “outrage crowd.” This always makes me laugh because I haven’t heard of a single historical event where a marginalized group gained rights without outrage.

I say let’s grab fear, shift it and then turn the volume up on our outrage, shall we?