Here's Why You Shouldn't Use the Word "Diversity," According to Oprah Winfrey

This might make you rethink the word "diversity." In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, writer-director Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey discussed how they prefer to use the term "inclusion" instead. The two black female powerhouses sat down with the magazine to talk about their new series called Queen Sugar, which follows a family of sugarcane farmers in Louisiana, that will air on Winfrey's network.

Winfrey said she changed her mind about the word after learning why DuVernay opposed it. "I used to use the word 'diversity' all the time. 'We want more diverse stories, more diverse characters,'" she said. "Now I really eliminated it from my vocabulary because I've learned from her that the word that most articulates what we're looking for is what we want to be: included. It's to have a seat at the table where the decisions are being made."

The media mogul explained a time when Sidney Poitier visited her girls school in South Africa and gave them 550 movies; he said that if they watched them, they'd be well educated. "He wrote to the girls that his dream for them was to be able to sit at the table of the future where the world's decisions would be made," said Winfrey. "I realize now that what he was saying is to be included, to be valued as a person who has something to contribute."

The two also talked about the significance of the Black Lives Matter movement and having different races represented in Hollywood — you can read their full interview here.