Equal Op-porn-tunity

The porn community is working harder all the time to change their culture into a respectable industry like any other. One of the problems they are going to have to deal with is Equal Opportunity. I don’t say this to point fingers at anyone, because that isn’t how you solve problems. Knowing the truth about American history, we see that without a deliberate effort to change, the racist practices of the past haunt us. Most white Americans do racist things all of the time, but I would venture that 99 percent of them aren’t racists. The problem is that some racist traits have become so ingrained in American culture that we can’t tell that they are racist. However, that’s not an acceptable excuse.

Just like the rest of the country, porn has a lingering problem with race: Black performers make less, and white performers charge more for interracial scenes. It continues because the up charges for those scenes benefit the agencies and the lowballing performers of color benefits the studios. Leave it to porn to do what almost no other industry has done without government intervention: Address the fucking problem!

A few years ago, I posted an ad for a performer, and got a response from an African American performer named Nikki Ford. Since she was noted for her, ahem, superior posterior I decided to do a shoot about Big Booty Fetishes. She drove six hours to get to me and apologized for being fifteen minutes late. I had anticipated problems finding the set, and told her not to worry about it. Then the camera man I hired shot his mouth off about a “private shoot,” and I fired him on the spot and we had to wait for a friend to arrive. I was thoroughly impressed with her professionalism and she was an absolute sweet heart, but she said that she couldn’t get an agent. So, I emailed a couple agencies I had dealt with before and let them know about her. Not a single response, and I know she was never signed. It wasn’t two months after the scene was released that she decided to pack up her pornin’ shoes and quit. Why? She was hot, had the popular body type, and she was great to work with. What was the problem?

If you don’t know who Demi Dolce is on Twitter, she’s a cam/custom video performer who may be some immortal Fertility Goddess. It’s so uncanny that I capitalized the term so as not to incur her wrath. She’s gorgeous, has a wicked sense of humor, and, best of all she is a depraved little vixen. She did do porn for a brief period a while back, but quit. I don’t pretend to know her, or answer for her, but a couple of her tweets clearly stated that the problem was income inequality. The white girls were bringing home half-again as much as performers of color. This isn’t just about being new, or any of the other excuses that you hear. Chanel Heart has been a top performer for years, and has publicly exposed this problem. Again, I don’t speak for these ladies, I am simply stating my observations, and those are limited enough, but if you read this and you know who they are, pay attention and talk to them. It’s only through high visibility we can make a change.

Perhaps the oddest leftover is that performers charge more for an interracial scene. Even the performers that like interracial sex do it. Why? Because of that most dangerous phrase in the English Language “Because that’s the way it has always been.” As much as I might want to, I’m not going to shame anyone, but you should also not assume that everyone is on board with this practice. The unfortunate truth is that the human mind is brilliant at justifying things that benefit it.

As I said, though, this is no excuse, and the APAC council wants to fix the problem. I am writing this appeal to you, the fans. You are missing out on brilliant performers who leave the industry because the color of their skin bars them from reaching the highest status they can achieve. One of the key concept in this country is that we all deserve equal opportunity to profit from our talents. Equal Opportunity. It is now becoming a thing in the porn industry, and it is long overdue. Porn does not need a color line marring the image of an industry that seems only barely tolerated most of the time. Too many good ladies are leaving because of this and it’s time for a change.