'Riverdale' Creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa Responds to Vanessa Morgan's Diversity Criticism
Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is addressing Vanessa Morgan's recent social media post calling out the lack of representation on the CW drama. The writer and showrunner took to Instagram on Thursday to embrace Morgan's message and he pledged to do better.
"We hear Vanessa. We love Vanessa. She's right," Aguirre-Sacasa wrote. "We're sorry and we make the same promise to you that we did to her. We will do better to honor her and the character she plays. As well as all of our actors and characters of color."
The 28-year-old actress, who plays southsider Toni Topaz on the CW teen drama, got candid in a post on social media and criticized the media for how it wrote and developed black characters -- as well pointed out that she's the "only black series regular" on Riverdale. She also claimed she was "paid the least."
"Change is happening and will continue to happen," Aguirre-Sacasa continued in his statement. "Riverdale will get bigger, not smaller. Riverdale will be part of the movement, not outside it."
Aguirre-Sacasa went on to say that the writers of the series have made a donation to Black Lives Matter, but added, "We know where the work must happen for us. In the writer's room."
On May 31, Morgan shared a message explaining that she's "tired of how black people are portrayed in media, tired of us being portrayed as thugs, dangerous or angry scary people. Tired of us also being used as side kick non dimensional characters to our white leads. Or only used in the ads for diversity but not actually in the show. It starts with the media."
After making her criticisms, Morgan returned to social media to defend her co-stars and castmates against fans who slammed them online.
"My role on Riverdale has nothing to do with my fellow castmates/friends," Morgan wrote. "They don’t write the show. So no need to attack them, they don’t call the shots & I know they have my back."
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