Viola Is Right....

Viola is right...its about opportunity...there are tons of roles people assume you can't do...they don't even bother to look at your resume...
If it weren't for my agents and manager challenging folks about their ideas about what I can play based solely on the color of my skin, I'd never work. 
I walked in w/a $3000 Donna Karan dress & tresses down my back, a resume full of training & an ivy league degree and was offered the social worker instead of the lawyer I auditioned for. My fierce manager was like: seriously, what do you mean you don't see her as a lawyer?
Or assuming, i'm not willing to learn another language for a role...then I get in the room, audition in English, Spanish Portuguese, Creole & everyone's like, "Wow, I didn't know you could that. And I'm thinking, you wouldn't unless you asked...or peeped my resume...
My agent/manager does not play that shit. They ask to get me seen, not once, but twice or 3 times until Im offered an appointment. They challenge or pass on the endless nanny, maid, nurse, drug addict, social worker roles so I'm free to do the bigger, more challenging roles that will move my career forward...
My manager just passes on that shit. She's like, did they see what roles you just did? We have to build on that and only accept appointments on meatier roles. 
Gotta do it or I'll be Black girl #4 for the rest of my life.
There's nothing wrong with those roles, but if you've paid your dues and can go out for the same shit white girls go out for and book it, then your reps should fight for you. Mine have and have responded beautifully to my suggestions about expanding the scope...
they've also gotten fearless about challenging assumptions that leave me out of the casting pool...
And make no mistake, it is a battle...so your team has to be down for that...
So when white folks ask me, what can we do about racism? I'm thinking, stand up and say 'no' to some shit. Recognize bias based on stereotypes and call it out. Stop writing the same old auxiliary black/latino characters and only calling people of color in for those roles. Look at an actors resume/reel/training to determine what they're capable of, what they've done...
Cast well-trained, versatile talented actors based on their work not the color of their skin....it means standing up in casting and writing rooms and questioning assumptions and that takes courage, but that's how change happens...