00:56And congratulations to all of the recipients,
01:01the scholarship recipients, today's honorees and awardees,
01:05the participants in the mentorship program.
01:07I love this event.
01:09Every year, I love being in this room filled with women
01:15and a few of our allies, like Will.
01:18Thank you to all of the evolved men in the room.
01:23Usually, when I come here, I really love to, you know,
01:26like just like hang out and kiki and network a little,
01:30see some friends and listen and get inspired.
01:34But it occurred to me like a week ago that I guess this year,
01:39I'm supposed to be one of the people doing the talking,
01:42not the listening.
01:44So I went back to my email because I was like,
01:46what is this award for?
01:48And I reread it.
01:51Thank you, publicist.
01:52Thank you, Katie Michelle, for sending me that.
01:54And it said equity and entertainment.
01:56And so like my fellow nerdy friend, Ariana,
01:59I looked up like, what is equity?
02:02What is it?
02:04So I have three kids.
02:06They range in age from seven to 18.
02:09But last year, my nine-year-old, Gracie,
02:11she was in third grade, and they were talking about equity.
02:15In fact, the whole class was talking about the difference
02:18between equity and equality and justice.
02:22When my husband and I went in for parent-teacher conferences,
02:25there were all these drawings hanging on the wall done by the students
02:28to help explain exactly what the differences are,
02:31equity, equality, justice.
02:33It really helped to make the distinction clear.
02:35So it made me think a lot.
02:36So I'm going to try to paint a similar picture for you today.
02:39But I really want you to be able to see this.
02:41So if you don't mind indulging me,
02:43I'm going to ask each of you to close your eyes for just a moment.
02:47I want you to try to see this in your mind.
02:50Picture a wooden fence.
02:53It's about four feet tall.
02:55And on the other side of that fence is a beautiful orchard
02:58filled with apple trees.
03:00Now picture three kids, all about the same height.
03:03And they're standing on this side of the fence with us,
03:06and they're trying, they're struggling to get a better view
03:09of what's on the other side of the fence.
03:11Now remember, the fence is four feet high from ground level.
03:15But the problem is the ground on this side of the fence is uneven.
03:20It slopes down along the fence.
03:22So that even though the kids are the same size,
03:24only one of them can see over it.
03:27The next kid is about one foot from being able to see over the fence.
03:32And the third kid is kind of in a ditch,
03:34about two feet below the top of the fence.
03:37So the two kids who are not on level ground,
03:40they're like jumping and bouncing and standing on their tippy toes
03:44because they really want to see over the fence.
03:47You can open your eyes.
03:50So first let's talk about equality.
03:52When we talk about equality, what we usually mean, as Ariana said,
03:55is that everybody should get the exact same thing all the time.
03:58Same, same, same.
03:59Same resources, same opportunities.
04:00So in the story of these three kids,
04:02that means that maybe somebody comes along with a box
04:04that's about one foot high, right?
04:06Three boxes.
04:07They give the exact same box to all three kids.
04:10Is it helpful?
04:12You tell me.
04:13Maybe you need to close your eyes again.
04:15The kid who could already see over the fence
04:18is now towering over the fence and is like,
04:21huh, maybe I should just jump this fence,
04:24climb inside the orchard and get some apples.
04:26The second kid can now just barely see into the orchard
04:31and is amazed.
04:32She's trying to make sense of it.
04:34She's wrapping her head around the vast landscape of apple trees
04:37that she wasn't able to see before.
04:40And the third kid, well, she still can't see over the fence.
04:44The problem is that that ditch, it's deeper than one box can fix.
04:51So everyone has gotten the same resources, equal assistance,
04:54but not all three kids are going to go home with apples.
04:57Not unless they work together and maybe not unless we step in
05:00and acknowledge that they each need a different level of support,
05:03a different kind of assistance.
05:05That's the challenge with equality.
05:07Giving the same thing to different people who are at different starting points
05:10doesn't allow everyone the same opportunity to succeed.
05:14Does that mean we shouldn't give?
05:16Of course not.
05:17We have to give.
05:18What's happening here today in terms of giving is extraordinary.
05:21I'm so moved year after year by the generosity in this room.
05:25So many of you offering your time and your talent and your treasure.
05:30But now let's talk about equity.
05:32From a social science, civic justice perspective, equity, the equity model,
05:37is not about giving every person the same box.
05:40Equity is about taking the time and paying attention to who needs what kind of box
05:45and how many boxes and how and maybe why.
05:49It's not a simple formula that can be cut and pasted from person to person.
05:54Equity requires presence and awareness and patience and vulnerability and listening.
06:03Equity is not simple and it's not easy to get it right all the time.
06:08It's nuanced.
06:10It can be complicated.
06:12Sometimes it's scary.
06:14Because equity asks us to pause and to see each other.
06:19To consider each other's unique circumstances.
06:22Because let's be clear, this is not a level playing field.
06:26We are not in real life on equal ground.
06:30Many of us, because of our gender, because of our race, our socioeconomic reality,
06:36our zip code, our sexuality, our religion, our physical ability, our personal traumas.
06:41Many of us are born in a ditch.
06:44A deep ditch that has been carved out by systems of inequity.
06:48And don't get me wrong.
06:50I know who we are.
06:51We are scrappy.
06:52We know how to climb.
06:53We jump.
06:54We reach.
06:55But we also need boxes.
06:57We might still need some of those boxes.
06:59At times, my box came in the form of a mentor.
07:03Or a scholarship.
07:05Or a therapist.
07:06Or a manager.
07:08Or maybe even a movie I watched.
07:11Or a novel that I read that helped me to see over the fence and beyond the limitations
07:16of these marginalizing systems.
07:18I needed that support.
07:20I needed it to see into that orchard and climb over that fence and eat.
07:26No matter what neighborhood we were born into or how much money our family has or how we
07:31identify or what we believe, we deserve our apples.
07:35We deserve entry into the orchard.
07:38That's what equity looks like.
07:41But, listen, we have a long way to get there.
07:46So what does this mean for entertainment?
07:48Well, I don't think we can unlock equity until we're able to really see each other and understand
07:53who we are and where we come from and what we need.
07:56We don't cultivate equity without making space for each other's truths.
08:01When stories from all different people and backgrounds are told and people see their story reflected
08:06in media and in culture, that starts to weave a thread where everyone is included.
08:11That's the path to equity.
08:13That's why centering stories about marginalized people is so important.
08:18This is why heroes have to look like all of us.
08:22Our stories, our movies, our music.
08:25Art teaches us to stop and slow down and really see ourselves and see each other.
08:31I'm being given this honor today for amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities.
08:37I guess in a way for using storytelling and narrative entertainment as a box
08:42that uplifts characters and communities to get them to get us over the fence and into the orchard.
08:50At Simpson Street every day, we're asking people to step into these stories with us
08:54and consider each other's deeper humanity with projects like Confirmation and American Sun
08:59and Little Fires Everywhere and God bless Norman Lear live in front of a studio audience
09:03and Unprisoned and Reasonable Doubt.
09:06We're asking people to pause and reconsider assumptions.
09:11The assumptions we make about history and identity and family and power
09:16and the criminal justice system and feminism and abortion rights and immigration.
09:21But we aren't trafficking in these themes because we want to be overtly political or singularly focused on equity.
09:29We just believe that stories about everybody and about the complicated truths of our time are worth telling.
09:36So we tell them with a lot of laughter and drama and danger and sex appeal and beauty and cliffhangers galore.
09:48Whether it's the stories we're telling or the advocacy work that we do around civic engagement and voting justice,
09:54at my company, across verticals, we believe in agency.
09:58In developing people's own power to transform their lives.
10:02In encouraging people to see themselves as the lead character in the story of their lives.
10:08But I know that that's not always easy.
10:11I wrote my memoir, Thicker Than Water, partly because I realized that I wasn't living my life as the protagonist of my story.
10:21But if you know anything about the book, then you know that I also struggled with what it meant to center myself on my own hero's journey
10:28while still honoring the full humanity of my parents.
10:32Ironically, in the end, my parents are the heroes of my memoir.
10:38But I think that's so much of what the battle for equity is going to require.
10:44That we, as we step into the center of our lives and of our stories, as women, as people of color, as members of the LGBTQ plus community,
10:55as people with differently abled bodies, from marginalized religions, that we then also be willing to uplift others.
11:04And to be supporting characters in their stories so that they can be the lead characters in their own lives, too.
11:13And I think when I stand up here and look at you guys, I think that's what today is about, right?
11:21It's about stepping into our power and then sharing it with each other.
11:26It is so beautiful to be here and to feel that, that sense of community and generosity.
11:32And I think that's how we get to that third word.
11:35I think that's how we get to justice.
11:37Because justice isn't about giving everybody the exact same box.
11:41And it's not even about giving out the right kind of boxes to exactly who needs them so that everybody can get over the fence.
11:47Justice is about leveling the ground and ripping the fucking fence down.
11:54Justice is about dismantling the systems that prevent us from getting to the other side of our greatness.
12:06And we have to do that together.
12:08Mornings like this are so special because they are a glorious glimpse into what that might feel like one day.
12:14So thank you all for being here.
12:16Thank you for this honor.
12:17I'm going to do everything I can to try to live up to it.
12:20And I pray that all year long we continue to celebrate one another and support each other and lift each other up as we work together toward a world with more equity and more equality and more justice and apples for all.
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