In the weeks leading up to the release of the film RED TAILS, a biopic about the heroic Tuskegee Airmen fighter pilots, much was made of the significance of the film and what it represented in Hollywood. Filmmaker George Lucas, who financed the film, discussed the lack of support he received for the film from major Hollywood production companies. The claim was made that Hollywood studios did not believe audiences wanted to see a big budget movie with an all-black cast.

In an interview on “The Daily Show,” Lucas denounced Hollywood's lack of faith in the buying power of black audiences stating that, "[The studios] said [Red Tails is] not green enough. It's because it's an all-black movie. There are no major white roles in it at all. It's one of the first all-black action pictures ever made."

Lucas claimed that failure to support this film on the part of black audiences would prove to Hollywood that movies with predominantly black casts are not profitable and could potentially bring about the end of the genre.

Lucas and others have tapped into the sympathies, frustrations and pockets of black audiences who want to see more of our stories told, more of our movies made and the diversity of our community properly represented in film and television. However, it is our opinion that these shortcomings are not simply due to a lack of support from the community, but instead, to a lack of resources within the community to see that the visions of aspiring black filmmakers and writers can in fact be seen.

We are demanding that George Lucas prove his support and insistence on seeing more black stories on the big screen by supporting the black community as we have supported his film RED TAILS.

In response to his urging the black community to use its financial power to prove to Hollywood that black films can be successful at the box office, we demand that he invest 15 percent of box office proceeds from the film RED TAILS to Historically Black Colleges and Universities that offer film studies programs.

In doing so he will have increased the potential for young black writers, directors, actors and producers to compete with and within the Hollywood machine.