How do you snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? By winning on the battlefield and losing at the peace table. That
was my critique of the gigantic struggle against apartheid when
compared to the economic and political situation that prevails in the
Republic of South Africa today.
In the U.S., a young man is on the verge of a huge victory on the legal
battlefield and he must not become a loser at the peace table. That
young man, a veritable "David," is about to topple a "Goliath!" I'm writing
about Marcus Washington, a young African American male who is going up
against William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (formerly known as William
Morris Agency, the oldest talent agency in Hollywood) and its bevvy of
politically connected lawyers: 6 attorneys and 3 paralegals at the
elite law firm, Loeb & Loeb LLP. Also, for the second year in a row,
one of those opposing attorneys, Michael P. Zweig, has been named "Best
Lawyer" in Labor & Employment Litigation by The Best Lawyers in America (2013-2014)
and last year, he was named "New York Super Lawyer" for Employment
& Labor by Thomson Reuters. Laughingly, this same celebrated
attorney was the Chairperson of the Loeb & Loeb Diversity Initiative
Committee between 2002 and 2010 and is the Co-Chair of the Employment
and Labor Practice Group, while for three years, he has adamantly denied
that William Morris has engaged in any unlawful conduct.
Amazing.
William
Morris Endeavor Entertainment is headed by Ari Emanuel, the very
same outfit that, I was told, stepped in to dampen enthusiasm and
support for an excellent documentary by Ian Inaba about my life in
politics, "American Blackout." Well, Marcus alleged in his complaint
filed with the Southern District of New York on December 21, 2010 that
this little racist outfit has discriminated against Blacks for more than
a century by denying qualified people of color equal employment
opportunities, particularly by excluding them from higher-status, higher
paying positions such as Agent, thus giving this Hollywood talent
agency a race-based monopoly in representing Black talent in all areas
of entertainment – from the concert stage to the box office! No wonder
so many Black "superstars" are going broke and worse, going to jail!
Let's see if the ones so afflicted also just happen to be the Black
celebrities that have a heart for Black people.
Marcus Washington, representing himself as a pro se litigant
in a case alleging employment discrimination and institutionalized
racism against William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, is on the verge of
winning! Look at their client list here (http://variety.com/2009/film/news/wma-and-endeavor-s-top-clients-1118002902/) and see just how big a case this is! According to this 2009 Variety
story, William Morris clients include Eddie Murphy, Tyler Perry, Queen
Latifah, Forest Whitaker, Whoopi Goldberg, Al Roker, 50 Cent, the late
Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys, Spike Lee, Tyra Banks, Kanye West, and
many others to name a few. I'll bet anything that the rest of Black
celebritydom is represented by another powerhouse talent agency –
Creative Artists Agency (CAA). There are two or three other major
talent agencies that were not sued, but according to Leonard Rowe, former President of the Black
Concert Promoters Association, these two giants have used demeaning
language to refer to their Black clients and the Black community and
have put Black concert promoters out of business. Evidence of the
demeaning language surfaced in Rowe’s case in 2002 and has been
introduced in a total of three Hollywood cases thus far: one brought by Leonard Rowe and a
class of black concert promoters who paid $200,000.00 to search the
backup tapes of William Morris and CAA but were told by their own
attorneys at the law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (now
known as Dentons LLP) that no derogatory terms were ever found, although
Rowe discovered this smoking gun evidence on the desk of one of his
former attorneys a month later; another
suit was a copyright infringement action against Byron
Allen and his distributors 20th, Century Fox and Starz/ Anchor Bay
brought by recording artist and television producer Mark Skeete; and
Washington's suit is the third lawsuit utilizing the e-mail evidence of Hollywood's demeaning attitude toward Blacks.
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/93697362/Rowe-Entertainment-Inc-v-William-Morris-Agency-et-al-98-8272-Breakdown-of-Racial-Epithets-Including-Nigger-Used-By-Execs-at-WMA-and-CAA).
The evidence of Hollywood’s unvarnished racial animus introduced in all
three of these cases points to the regular use of the words "nigger,"
"monkey," "Uncle Tom," "coon," "spooks," and more in internal e-mail
traffic of these agencies' top Agents and employees. So it should not
be a surprise that, according to Marcus Washington's evidence, William
Morris had an explicit policy of not hiring Black agents from 1898 to
1961 and that in 1963, there were more Black Agents employed in the New
York office at William Morris (one) than there were when Washington
worked there between 2008-2010 (zero).
Recently,
the arbitrator in Washington's case found that William Morris did
unlawfully discriminate against Marcus because of his race and that
Marcus has suffered monetary damages as a result of that discrimination
and that Marcus is due legal fees and costs as a prevailing pro se non-attorney in this three-year legal battle that is still on-going. This is huge!!!!ARI EMANUEL, is the co-CEO of an organization that is GUILTY of RACIAL DISCRIMINATION.
All
the world needs to know this, especially “Hollywood” and the
entertainment world. Sealing this decision will prevent all interested
parties from knowing that the employment practices of one of the most
important cultural organizations in the world.
Now, it is up to Marcus, the Arbitrator and "Lady Justice" to make
sure this important victory for civil and human rights is not lost at
the peace table. Let's hope that 2014 will be the year for justice for
all who have been discriminated against, oppressed, repressed,
stigmatized, ridiculed, silenced, or marginalized by those who wield
imperial power with absolute hubris over the individuals and groups that
they dominate.
More information and updates on Marcus's case can be found here: www.meagainstiniquity.wordpress.com.