"When I watched TV as a little kid, I never saw anyone who looked like me (not white), unless they were natives, servants, or in another demeaning role," Tonya Lee Williams, a former character on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, told a small crowd at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Tuesday.

Her talk was part of UOIT/Durham College's diversity week, an annual event held shortly after the International Day to Eliminate Racism.

The Reel World Film Festival, a series of movies from filmmakers from varying cultures, opened its eighth season at the Carleton Cinema in Toronto on April 2 and runs for five days. Ms. Williams said there are 72 different film festivals held in the City of Toronto.

"It's important to hire people of colour for the festival because they don't get a lot of opportunity to work in that genre. I have to work three times as hard to have balanced diversity in the festival; I have to give opportunities to those who aren't as experienced or trained," she said.

Ms. Williams instructed the crowd to act as gatekeepers.

"It's your responsibility to bring those who are overlooked to the attention of those running the show," she said. "You're here because you are interested in diversity."

She said diversity comes naturally when people view everybody as part of the human community.

"We are we, and they are the others outside," Ms. Williams said. "That attitude creates divisiveness rather than talking about us. We as a society are putting far too much emphasis on the labels rather than the people. We can all be affected by what we see in the media."

When asked whether she's felt hindered in the film industry because she's a black woman, Ms. Williams said she doesn't view anything in her life as a hindrance.

"I believe every human being is born for a reason and in order for you to do what you were born to do," she said. "I'm a woman and I'm black at this particular time because that's a positive thing which brings about positive change."