Link to original post: [drupal=5152]The Black Man's Burden[/drupal]
So the rage du jour is centered around the new HBO show Girls. Marketed and heralded as "the voice of a generation," several writers have noted that, apparently, the millennial generation consists only of white people (there are several articles which address this). As some of you know, I enjoy writing. I haven't been doing much lately, but I'm trying to get back into it (hence all the blogs as of late), and one thing I've been considering is what kind of writer I want to be. Fiction or non-fiction? Genre or literary? Good or bad? The one question that has really stumped me though is who do I want to write about? Do I have a responsibility to write stories about people like me, or am I free to follow my creative urges?
Well, maybe I'm overreacting. This is only one show, after all. Surely there are critically acclaimed television shows in the media that feature, or at least contain black characters, right? I mean, look at Mad Men:
Okay, bad example. That's a 60's period piece. But let's stick with AMC. Breaking Bad?
All right! We got one! Hey, this is fun, like a racial Where's Waldo. Let's see how many we can find! Modern Family:
Sofia Vegaras is not white (and mega hot), so let's count her. We're up to two! Community:
Holy crap, we got two black people in the cast! And I think that guy with the shocked expression in the background is non-white; what the hell, let's count him. 30 Rock:
Good old NBC. They don't call you Nothing But Coloreds for no reason!
We've got 42 actors and actresses in the cast photos for five of the most popular and critically acclaimed television shows on the air, and a whopping six of them aren't white. Truly, we have arrived at a place of racial equality in America.
But wait! There's more to the media than just television of course. There are also movies. So let's play the same game with the top 10 grossing movies for this weekend.
#1 Think Like a Man
#2 The Lucky One
#3 The Hunger Games
#4 Chimpanzee
#5 The Three Stooges
I'm actually going to stop here, because it's pretty much the same for 6-10. Just to be clear, there are as many movies in the top 10 with predominately black casts as there are with predominately chimp casts. And of the other films, only The Hunger Games feature non-white actors in substantial roles (and here's some of the reaction to that).
Well what about the news? That's part of the media, right?
Brian Williams, host of NBC's Nightly News
Scott Pelley, host of CBS Evening News
Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Bill Weir, the featured journalists of ABC's Nightline
David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press
Bob Schieffer, host of CBS's Face the Nation
George Stephanopolous, host of ABC's This Week With George Stephanopolous
Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN's The Situation Room
Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox News' the O'Reilly Factor
Gwen Ifill, host of PBS' Washington Week
Yes! I finally found Waldo!
The point is that Girls is not is not an exception, it's the rule. I think that there's such a sense of disappointment with the show because the show's creator, lead writer and star, Lena Dunham, is only 25, and there was hope that as a new and fresh talent she wouldn't fall into the same old narratives that have dominated media since forever. That doesn't seem to be the case, unfortunately.
I had a conversation with a friend about this a few months ago, specifically about how white and male the movie industry is. Her perspective was that the best way to change that was to get the content creators (writers, producers, directors, executives, etc.) to realize that there are other stories out there to be told, while I argued that the only way to get women and minorities on screen is for women and minorities to write and produce their own work. I think Girls has validated my point: Lena Dunham is a white woman who writes about white women. That's great, and I'm not trying to say that she needs to write in a black character for my sake. It's her story, and she can do whatever she wants with it. However, I can be disappointed that the story in her head is just as overwhelmingly white as just about every other story that gets presented in the media.
If there are going to be stories about minorities in the media, then those stories are going to need to be created by us, the minorities who seek representation, because it's exceedingly clear that no one else is going to tell our stories for us. So yeah, I might want to write a story about a WASP, but you know what? Everyone else is already doing that. If I want to see a show that actually has minority cast members that aren't fulfilling ridiculous stereotypes, then I'm going to have to make that happen. Once we actually can exercise some control over the creation of content, then we can see realistic and believable representations of ourselves in the media, and we can let Girls be as white as it wants to be.
...or not, since we still need the current power brokers to actually buy our pilots, produce our scripts and publish our books, and that's a really tall order. Sure, Eva Longoria is producing a show with four Hispanic females as the main characters, but they're maids. The Help featured several black actresses prominently, but they were maids too. I suppose the real secret to success in the media is to either be white, write about white people, or make damn sure white people feel good about themselves when it's over.
So the rage du jour is centered around the new HBO show Girls. Marketed and heralded as "the voice of a generation," several writers have noted that, apparently, the millennial generation consists only of white people (there are several articles which address this). As some of you know, I enjoy writing. I haven't been doing much lately, but I'm trying to get back into it (hence all the blogs as of late), and one thing I've been considering is what kind of writer I want to be. Fiction or non-fiction? Genre or literary? Good or bad? The one question that has really stumped me though is who do I want to write about? Do I have a responsibility to write stories about people like me, or am I free to follow my creative urges?
Well, maybe I'm overreacting. This is only one show, after all. Surely there are critically acclaimed television shows in the media that feature, or at least contain black characters, right? I mean, look at Mad Men:
Okay, bad example. That's a 60's period piece. But let's stick with AMC. Breaking Bad?
All right! We got one! Hey, this is fun, like a racial Where's Waldo. Let's see how many we can find! Modern Family:
Sofia Vegaras is not white (and mega hot), so let's count her. We're up to two! Community:
Holy crap, we got two black people in the cast! And I think that guy with the shocked expression in the background is non-white; what the hell, let's count him. 30 Rock:
Good old NBC. They don't call you Nothing But Coloreds for no reason!
We've got 42 actors and actresses in the cast photos for five of the most popular and critically acclaimed television shows on the air, and a whopping six of them aren't white. Truly, we have arrived at a place of racial equality in America.
But wait! There's more to the media than just television of course. There are also movies. So let's play the same game with the top 10 grossing movies for this weekend.
#1 Think Like a Man
#2 The Lucky One
#3 The Hunger Games
#4 Chimpanzee
#5 The Three Stooges
I'm actually going to stop here, because it's pretty much the same for 6-10. Just to be clear, there are as many movies in the top 10 with predominately black casts as there are with predominately chimp casts. And of the other films, only The Hunger Games feature non-white actors in substantial roles (and here's some of the reaction to that).
Well what about the news? That's part of the media, right?
Brian Williams, host of NBC's Nightly News
Scott Pelley, host of CBS Evening News
Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Bill Weir, the featured journalists of ABC's Nightline
David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press
Bob Schieffer, host of CBS's Face the Nation
George Stephanopolous, host of ABC's This Week With George Stephanopolous
Wolf Blitzer, host of CNN's The Situation Room
Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox News' the O'Reilly Factor
Gwen Ifill, host of PBS' Washington Week
Yes! I finally found Waldo!
The point is that Girls is not is not an exception, it's the rule. I think that there's such a sense of disappointment with the show because the show's creator, lead writer and star, Lena Dunham, is only 25, and there was hope that as a new and fresh talent she wouldn't fall into the same old narratives that have dominated media since forever. That doesn't seem to be the case, unfortunately.
I had a conversation with a friend about this a few months ago, specifically about how white and male the movie industry is. Her perspective was that the best way to change that was to get the content creators (writers, producers, directors, executives, etc.) to realize that there are other stories out there to be told, while I argued that the only way to get women and minorities on screen is for women and minorities to write and produce their own work. I think Girls has validated my point: Lena Dunham is a white woman who writes about white women. That's great, and I'm not trying to say that she needs to write in a black character for my sake. It's her story, and she can do whatever she wants with it. However, I can be disappointed that the story in her head is just as overwhelmingly white as just about every other story that gets presented in the media.
If there are going to be stories about minorities in the media, then those stories are going to need to be created by us, the minorities who seek representation, because it's exceedingly clear that no one else is going to tell our stories for us. So yeah, I might want to write a story about a WASP, but you know what? Everyone else is already doing that. If I want to see a show that actually has minority cast members that aren't fulfilling ridiculous stereotypes, then I'm going to have to make that happen. Once we actually can exercise some control over the creation of content, then we can see realistic and believable representations of ourselves in the media, and we can let Girls be as white as it wants to be.
...or not, since we still need the current power brokers to actually buy our pilots, produce our scripts and publish our books, and that's a really tall order. Sure, Eva Longoria is producing a show with four Hispanic females as the main characters, but they're maids. The Help featured several black actresses prominently, but they were maids too. I suppose the real secret to success in the media is to either be white, write about white people, or make damn sure white people feel good about themselves when it's over.