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Netflix axed a number of tasks this week, together with an animated movie based mostly on Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Child, a ebook aimed toward preschoolers.

The transfer comes after Netflix misplaced 200,000 subscribers within the first quarter of 2022, the primary time the corporate has misplaced extra subscribers than it has introduced in in a decade. The platform additionally fired 150 staff, together with these within the animation division. In accordance with the service, nonetheless, the firings have been a artistic choice and never financially motivated.

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“These modifications are primarily pushed by enterprise wants reasonably than particular person efficiency, which makes them particularly powerful as none of us wish to say goodbye to such nice colleagues,” Netflix advised G3 Field Information. “We’re working laborious to assist them via this very tough transition.”

Apart from Antiracist Child, Netflix additionally canceled Government Producer Ava DuVernay’s animated challenge Wings of Hearth, and Kendi’s documentary Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You.

Kendi, a Boston College professor and creator, has grow to be a outstanding voice within the Black Lives Matter motion and the talk surrounding essential race idea. Within the aftermath of the 2020 dying of George Floyd, Kendi’s ebook Find out how to Be an Antiracist grew to become a success.

Kendi’s Antiracist Child challenge was anticipated to be a sequence of animated vignettes focused at preschoolers.

The creator grew to become a controversial determine after calling the Republican Occasion “the occasion of white supremacy.” He additionally accused Supreme Court docket Justice Amy Coney Barrett of being a “white colonizer” who used her youngsters from Haiti as “props” in 2020, the New York Submit reported.

G3 Field Information

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk applauded the modifications to the platform after Netflix warned staff they might be engaged on tasks they didn’t personally agree with and claimed it will not censor the artists it really works with.

“For those who’d discover it laborious to assist our content material breadth, Netflix will not be the most effective place for you,” the memo reads.