The success of "Empire" on Fox has other networks scrambling to add their own shows with more diverse casts, but Lee Daniels wants those shows to look just as diverse off screen as they do on screen.
The outspoken "Empire" co-creator took to task his fellow showrunners in a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter about how they staff their writers' rooms and select each episode's director.
Daniels argued strongly for minority writers to write for shows featuring minority characters. He said he loves nothing more than seeing his writing staff full of black people writing about black characters.
"I hate white people writing for black people; it's so offensive," the 55-year-old producer said. "So we go out and look specifically for African-American voices. Yes, it's all about reverse racism!"
Daniels then started interrogating the other showrunners including Beau Willimon ("House of Cards), Damon Lindelof ("The Leftovers), Alex Gansa ("Homeland"), Michelle King ("The Good Wife) and Sarah Treem (The Affair) about how many African-American writers they had on their staffs.
Treem has one while Gansa and Willimon have none. King had two last season for her CBS drama, but one left to create her own show.
The "House of Cards" creator flipped the questioned and asked Daniels how many female writers he has - three - and how many Asian American writers he has - none.
"It's a weird question," Willimon said about Daniels original question. "There are so many different ways to talk about or measure diversity, and not all stories are going to tackle the entire breadth of the diversity of the world."
When King recalled one of her female, African-American writers saying that she had "never been in a room where there's another African-American woman," Daniels called the situation "repulsive" and "inexcusable."
Lindelof laid some of the blame on the talent agents, who are mainly white males. The "Lost" co-creator argued that they would send a majority of scripts from white male writers when he's staffing his show.
In the end, Daniels is happy to see that he and other prolific writers like Spike Lee and John Singleton aren't the only great African-American voices in Hollywood.
"It's so beautiful to walk in that room now because I thought I was the only one," he said. "But you really believe that you are the only one until you see these submissions of incredible writers."
