Race & Ethnicity On TV

[Kromm]

Racists be wack!

 

Bella & The Bulldogs--a show which apparently is the #1 rated show on Nikelodeon but which apparently nobody here actually watches (because there's no forum) has drawn the attention of racist wack-a-doodles too!

 

Here's an article about it:

thefrisky.com: White Supremacists Are VERY UPSET About Some Nickelodeon Show

 

Here, if you are prepared to bleach your brain after reading it, is the original site promoting the hate:

Click here to see disgusting racism.

 

It includes the phrase "It’s time to turn to lessons from Weimar Republic Germany"--although what the author seems to actually mean is "It’s time to turn to lessons from NAZI Germany" and he's for some reason just not saying that.  But it's not just one wack-a-doodle on one site. As that thefrisky.com article points out, apparently there's a whole slew of nutty followers writing and posting videos about this too.

Edited May 31, 2015 by Kromm

[AimingforYoko]

What's next, Tales of the Rampart Division as told by a (white) cop who lived it?

Already had that show, it was called The Shield.

[ApathyMonger]

Already had that show, it was called The Shield.

 

I think Rampart was one of the original titles for The Shield too.

[Archery]

I'm having a visceral problem with a show called Rosewood, as that is the name of a prosperous black town in Florida that was attacked and nearly destroyed by white racists in 1923.

[Wax Lion]

On the bright side maybe this is a chance to get people to learn about Rosewood, FL.

[Raja]

What's next, Tales of the Rampart Division as told by a (white) cop who lived it?

 

Already had that show, it was called The Shield.

It came up on the race and movies thread that the arguments are not just about actors in leading roles. I suppose if the Sergeant Mackey of The Shield had been a Black Latino as in the real life Rafael Perez  you would miss the other racial commentary about life in Rampart/Farmington. With Farmington being more Black and less Latino then the real life Rampart. But then I remember casual and non viewers on TV boards  thought that Vic Mackey was the hero, of The Shield having never seeing him murder a cop in the first episode and basing their opinions on the TV guide episode descriptions of the crime of the week.

[Chaos Theory]

If you want to see a show with a good amount of racial and sexual diversity you should check out netflix Sense8. Critics reviews were questionable but the early ones only got the first three episodes and they were admittingly slow but that is why I love Netflix you can take your time with a good story.

FYI the TV-MA rating is no joke. Nudity, sex, and violence.

Edited June 8, 2015 by Chaos Theory

[topanga]

Racists be wack!

 

Bella & The Bulldogs--a show which apparently is the #1 rated show on Nikelodeon but which apparently nobody here actually watches (because there's no forum) has drawn the attention of racist wack-a-doodles too!

 

Here's an article about it:

thefrisky.com: White Supremacists Are VERY UPSET About Some Nickelodeon Show

 

Here, if you are prepared to bleach your brain after reading it, is the original site promoting the hate:

Click here to see disgusting racism.

 

It includes the phrase "It’s time to turn to lessons from Weimar Republic Germany"--although what the author seems to actually mean is "It’s time to turn to lessons from NAZI Germany" and he's for some reason just not saying that.  But it's not just one wack-a-doodle on one site. As that thefrisky.com article points out, apparently there's a whole slew of nutty followers writing and posting videos about this too.

 

Some of the comments that follow "The Frisky" article are even more racist than the excerpts from the source article. I can't bring myself to visit the original website. This is not a post-racial America, that's for sure.

[Kromm]

Some of the comments that follow "The Frisky" article are even more racist than the excerpts from the source article. I can't bring myself to visit the original website. This is not a post-racial America, that's for sure.

Yes, I'd noticed.  Scary stuff, even admitting that the anonymity of the Internet encourages this.

[Ankai]

If you want to see a show with a good amount of racial and sexual diversity you should check out netflix Sense8. Critics reviews were questionable but the early ones only got the first three episodes and they were admittingly slow but that is why I love Netflix you can take your time with a good story.

FYI the TV-MA rating is no joke. Nudity, sex, and violence.

I am four episodes in and, while it does have racial diversity, it seems to be mostly because it takes place across different countries. The racial minorities seem to be confined to supporting roles. The two American leads are White. The two European leads have ancestral roots in other countries, but are still White. The Mexican lead is said to have Spanish blood which is a whole other can of worms. I don't know about the Indian, the Kenyan, or the Korean, but I have heard nothing so far that suggest that they are minorities in their respective countries.

[xaxat]

I'm rarely surprised when characters played by POC are treated like shit by the writers and showrunners because it's something that happens far to often. But I have to hand it to those that run the Syfy show Defiance for taking it to a new level.

 

In last season's finale, they killed of Tommy, the only African American regular cast member. But coming into this season they still had the McCawleys, a Native American family led by actor Graham Greene and featuring several other Native American actors. 

 

An hour into this season's premier they killed off all of the McCawleys.

 

So in two hours of air time TPTB managed to eliminate all of  characters played by POC. I'm really kind of speechless at this point.

Edited June 14, 2015 by xaxat

[jhlipton]

So in two hours of air time TPTB managed to eliminate all of  characters played by POC. I'm really kind of speechless at this point.

 

Got to make sure that Grant Bowler gets plenty of screen-time. [blech]

[Wax Lion]

Is Meghan Rath's brother still on the show? Of course, he's covered in white makeup, which literally erases his color.

[xaxat]

I should clarify. They got rid of all the human POC. Jesse Rath is still part of the cast.

[cynic]

Kinda glad that I stopped watching after the first few episodes now. I personally couldn't get past how the super pale aliens were the sophisticated elite. The bronze looking aliens were tribal and connected with nature. And then they had a race that was used mostly for menial labor and they were dim, slow and ape-like in appearance as Wiki puts it. Ugh.

Edited June 16, 2015 by cynic

[jhlipton]

I am four episodes in and, while it does have racial diversity, it seems to be mostly because it takes place across different countries. 

 

That, in and of itself, is fairly unusual.  But one character ( a trans woman played by a trans woman -- again, fairly unusual) has a black girlfriend.  

[cynic]

I thought it was interesting that the lesbian/transwoman sex scene was still all about penetration. Also, woah Dr. Martha Jones!

I do like the diversity of the show, but I'm still not sold on the rest of it though. I'm four episodes in and not sure if I want to finish.

[jhlipton]

cynic -- it's a very character-driven show (the plot is glacial!).  If you like the characters, stay.  If you don't, probably best to stop.  I personally love them all.

[ThomasAAnderson]

I tried watching Sense8 but the black boy who's shot being repeatedly characterized as a future cop killer was enough to drive me away.

[cynic]

Yeah, that bugged me too. Plus it was so heavy handed. Cop dude is so awesome because he gets medical treatment to an injured child instead of just writing him off and walking away to die in the street like garbage. Sure, the kid had gone down the wrong path, but seriously? He was still a kid and cop guy is a cop who has sworn to protect and serve. How much credit am I supposed to give him for doing what he's supposed to do. Also, I'm pretty sure the a cop would know what hospitals take gun shot victims, but then we couldn't get the nurses monologue in the economics of gang shootings.

cynic -- it's a very character-driven show (the plot is glacial!). If you like the characters, stay. If you don't, probably best to stop. I personally love them all.

I don't normally mind a slow burn (I watched Rubicon!), but this is just not grabbing me. I think part of the reason is that the dialogue is very bad. The characters are okay, but ehhh. Plus, the above mentioned heavy handedness.

[jhlipton]

On the other hand, the main black character -- Cepheus aka Van Damme -- is awesome.  Loyal, brave and always upbeat (because that's who Van Damme is!).  Quite possibly the favorite character of the bunch.  

 

And the three Mexicans (Lito, Hernando and Daniella) are so amazing.  The love between Lito and Hernando and why they love each other so much is portrayed ina beautiful and loving manner.  Totally awesome.

[Ankai]

I would say that the characters get fleshed out a lot more in the back half of the season, though the dialogue can still be goofy. The show is a mixed bag in terms of race, ethnicity, and nationality; the gangbanger stuff at the beginning was an eyebrow raiser. Overall, however, I am much more positive about it than I am negative. And Van Damme is great indeed. 

[jhlipton]

I'm rarely surprised when characters played by POC are treated like shit by the writers and showrunners because it's something that happens far to often. But I have to hand it to those that run the Syfy show Defiance for taking it to a new level.

 

Then you'd really love it when they go all Blacks on Blondes and having the palest woman seducing the darkest man.  Tee hee.

[Raja]

Then you'd really love it when they go all Blacks on Blondes and having the palest woman seducing the darkest man.  Tee hee.

The thing is on Defiance the actress may be blond, at the  least probably "White", but she was playing an alien analog for a person of color. The multi colored animist compared to the pale society types, even though the couple we see representing them are the local Mafia types. Then the human Berlin, in Nazi like regalia, shows up where it seems she uses the Black character as a boy toy like an actual Nazi might have pulled a Jew out of the gas chamber line as his personal comfort woman.

[jhlipton]

Then the human Berlin, in Nazi like regalia, shows up where it seems she uses the Black character as a boy toy like an actual Nazi might have pulled a Jew out of the gas chamber line as his personal comfort woman.

 

Wow -- I never got that impression at all.  There was never a feeling that Tommy was coerced by Berlin in any way whatsoever.  Moreover, his uniform was much the same as hers.

[xaxat]

Then you'd really love it when they go all Blacks on Blondes and having the palest woman seducing the darkest man.  Tee hee.

 

I don't understand what you mean. How did you infer my stance on interracial relationships based on what I wrote?

 

I was actually rooting for Tommy and Berlin. Because I thought she was a better match for him than a possibly crazy alien that may be possessed by a possibly crazy alien demi-god.

[jhlipton]

I don't understand what you mean. How did you infer my stance on interracial relationships based on what I wrote?

 

I was actually rooting for Tommy and Berlin. Because I thought she was a better match for him than a possibly crazy alien that may be possessed by a possibly crazy alien demi-god.

 

I was being sarcastic (which doesn't work AT ALL in written form).  I felt like the Stahma / T'evgin scene was pandering to the same stereotypes that Defiance seems to have devolved to.  Very sorry if I misinterpreted what you were saying.

 

I liked Tommy and Irissa (in part, no doubt, because it drove Nolan nuts) but Tommy and Berlin was a better fit.  If only they ever bothered to give Berlina personality...

Edited June 24, 2015 by jhlipton

[xaxat]

Sonia Manzano, Sesame Street's beloved Maria, to retire from the show after 44 years
 

Manzino has won high praise for her true-to-life portrayal of Latino culture. Her description of American cultural views on race and ethnicity in a 1993 interview can be applied to 22 years later:

"It has always intrigued me how surprised other people are when they see white, black and brown people all belonging to the same Latino family," she said. "They don't understand how we identify along cultural and not racial lines."

[topanga]

Sonia is Sesame Street to me, as much as the Muppets. My kids don't watch Sesame Street anymore, and after 44 years, she deserves to retire. But I'm still sad

[Ronin Jackson]

Catching up on this thread, I am surprised to see all the casting news for shows on the major networks. I admit I almost never watch network shows, and I wonder if I shouldn't be taking a little more time to check out some of these shows. Regardless, having not seen many of them I don't really know how genuine this move towards diversity in network programming is. From what I've seen there's still a pretty wide chasm when it comes to diversity.

 

I wonder if it isn't a good idea to overlook things once in a while. Not to single anyone out, but one of the shows I have watched which featured a good amount of diversity is Sense8. It is true that early on there was a not so great sub plot about the white cop with a heart of gold helping a black kid that had been shot, and the issue of whether saving the kid is worth it if he turns out to be a cop killer doesn't really ring true. But nevertheless, this is one of the most diverse shows I've seen. There are other issues with the show if you're going to nitpick... the Indian woman's story is about marriage, of course. The Asian woman is a martial arts expert of course. But on the other hand you will not find another show which features such a diverse cross section of central characters, and it does a really good job of getting us emotionally invested in them.

 

Speaking of Indians (I am an American of Indian descent myself), despite the Indian story being about marriage, I thought it was handled well, and really appreciate that Rajan was actually a decent, likable guy (The romance subplot between Kala and Wolfgang is actually one of the things on the show I thought didn't work at all). It was also good to see that Naveen Andrews character, despite having any discernible "Indian" characteristics, was still allowed to be an actual person of Indian descent. (The show of course is a bit more daring when it comes to sexual orientation and transgender diversity, but I suppose that's a different topic).

 

Speaking of Naveen Andrew's character, his name is Jonas Maliki. Maliki is typically an Arab/Muslim name... but I suppose it wouldn't be unheard of for an Indian person to have that name. His character was described by another character as "Persian" early on but later he reveals that he's of Indian origin. I'd been thinking of this a bit, when there are actors of underrepresented ethnic groups (I guess I'm specifically thinking of Asians, South Asians and Arabs), how rare it is that the character's ethnicity to be acknowledged without the ethnicity becoming central to the characterization. There was the discussion earlier in the thread about Indian accents and how all the Indians on kids shows have these thick accents. But like me most Indians who grow up in America from an early age would have American accents (a prepubescent kid would still have an Indian accent if they're a relatively recent immigrant, within say 2-3 years... once they reach puberty the accents would stick a bit more). The most prominent recent examples I can think of with actors of Indian descent portraying American accented characters are Aziz Ansiri's character in Parks and Recreation (named Tom Haverford), Kal Penn's character in Battle Creek (Fontanelle White), Priyanka Chopra's character in Quantico (Alex Parrish) Mindy Kaling's character in The Mindy Project (Mindy Lahiri... the only Indian name in the bunch).  I wouldn't say this is an issue... the characters were written before they were cast and it's good that the casting did not disqualify these actors based on their ethnicity. But I'd like to see more characters able to retain their ethnicity without it becoming their defining characteristic. But I'm not going to complain... progress comes in baby steps.

 

But take new show Mr. Robot. It is written by and starring Arab Americans. Rami Malek's character has the very anglo name "Elliot Anderson". Rami Malek can pass for white and for all intents and purposes, he seems to be playing a white character. In the shows opening scene, he confronts an Indian pedophile named Rohit. The character has an accent and the scene highlights his ethnicity more in a three minute scene than probably all of characters mentioned in the previous paragraph combined (Ironically it does this by pointing out how he anglicized his name to "Ron" to start a business). And of course he happens to have one of the most unredeemable characteristics imaginable, being a pedophile. I'd rather not make an issue out of that, after all, there are Indian pedophiles out there, but when you have a character like this who is essentially dropped into a vacuum, where there's almost no representation of characters of his ethnicity who are allowed to retain their ethnicity, it gets magnified. It's great that an Arab actor as the lead, but then it becomes magnified how they stripped the character of the actor's ethnicity, and the most prominent ethnic character on the show so far is a pedophile (to be fair there is a non-speaking female extra/character in a hijab among the show's hacker cabal "f society"). 

 

I guess my point is, I hope someday soon characters are allowed to retain their ethnicity but their primary motivations and goals are more human and universal, so they are not defined by their ethnicity. It seems we've got some ways to go....

[BoogieBurns]

The most prominent recent examples I can think of with actors of Indian descent portraying American accented characters are Aziz Ansiri's character in Parks and Recreation (named Tom Haverford)

 

Tom Haverford says in an early episode that he changed his name from Darwish Sabir Ismael Gani because he didn't think "brown dudes with funny sounding names could make it in government." He changed it before Barack Obama was president, clearly. But his parents are from India, and he is born in South Carolina. Both Aziz and Mindy were cast before the roles were written. So they are very similar to their sitcom characters.

[Ronin Jackson]

Thanks for the info. The Mindy show was of course created by her, but I didn't know about Aziz's character. Aside from the joke I imagine another reason for the name was to make the character more palatable for white audiences. I wonder how necessary this really is any more.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Aside from the joke I imagine another reason for the name was to make the character more palatable for white audiences. I wonder how necessary this really is any more.

 

I wonder if its actually true anymore, really.

 

What I mean is, is it really what the general audience thinks, or is it what a network exec thinks the general audience thinks, which isn't necessarily the dame thing. Obviously, there are cases like Amandla Stenberg's casting in The Hunger Games, but given Twitter is generally the cradle of idiocy, isn't there every possibility that those awful comments came from a handful of trolls looking for cheap thrills?

 

I'm not saying racism no longer exists, but I don't know if it isn't a little glib to say "Such And Such a program has no POC, or even better, POC leads because white audiences don't want to see that." Regardless of anything else, its an incredible generalization to say what some amorphous They  wants to see on television just based on skin color, and unless those people happen to work for a network in some capacity, they really have no say in what actor or actress gets cast in a role.

[After7Only]

 

I wonder if its actually true anymore, really.

 

What I mean is, is it really what the general audience thinks, or is it what a network exec thinks the general audience thinks, which isn't necessarily the dame thing. Obviously, there are cases like Amandla Stenberg's casting in The Hunger Games, but given Twitter is generally the cradle of idiocy, isn't there every possibility that those awful comments came from a handful of trolls looking for cheap thrills?

 

I'm not saying racism no longer exists, but I don't know if it isn't a little glib to say "Such And Such a program has no POC, or even better, POC leads because white audiences don't want to see that." Regardless of anything else, its an incredible generalization to say what some amorphous They  wants to see on television just based on skin color, and unless those people happen to work for a network in some capacity, they really have no say in what actor or actress gets cast in a role.

 

Yes, it is a very complex issue, that  requires some nuanced thought.  But when it boils down to it, the effect of all that complexity and nuance is that POC are not cast in certain shows, or given certain storylines, etc because of how white audiences will respond to it.   Networks  produce shows/content that will make them money.  So if their goal is create a show where a grand romance is the central focus, they are probably not going to cast  POC or an interracial cast as leads, because it will turn off a significant enough part of their audience, and therefore not make them money.    

 

I have not read the books or seen the movie, but my understanding is that the Hunger Games books had a lot more POC main characters than the movie did.   The movie was cast to appeal to a wider (read whiter) audience.  

[Neurochick]

Yes, and as I remember it, Rue was NOT a blonde, white girl in Hunger Games, so I don't know why so many folks on Twitter lost their shit.  I guess they're illiterate.  

 

I have been watching The Astronauts Wives Club and though I like the show, I have this sinking feeling that ABC (as well as other networks that have been doing these 1960's period pieces) did this so they didn't have to deal with casting POC.  They can say, 'well all the astronauts were white, and their wives were white, so, see, no POC need apply."

Edited July 14, 2015 by Neurochick

[proserpina65]

Yes, and as I remember it, Rue was NOT a blonde, white girl in Hunger Games, so I don't know why so many folks on Twitter lost their shit.  I guess they're illiterate.  

 

I have been watching The Astronauts Wives Club and though I like the show, I have this sinking feeling that ABC (as well as other networks that have been doing these 1960's period pieces) did this so they didn't have to deal with casting POC.  They can say, 'well all the astronauts were white, and their wives were white, so, see, no POC need apply."

I think ABC did this as an effort to tap into the Mad Men zeitgeist, with the hopes of making money.  No other reason.

[ribboninthesky1]

I have been watching The Astronauts Wives Club and though I like the show, I have this sinking feeling that ABC (as well as other networks that have been doing these 1960's period pieces) did this so they didn't have to deal with casting POC.  They can say, 'well all the astronauts were white, and their wives were white, so, see, no POC need apply."

 

I don't watch the show, but I'm willing to cut ABC some slack because they're one out of the four networks who have really blazed the (modern) trail with regard to black female leads and characters.  No one, network or cable or streaming, was checking for a black female lead of a drama before Scandal.   

 

Nevertheless, I get your overall point about period productions - I shared similar thoughts way upthread, several months ago.               

[Irlandesa]

I have been watching The Astronauts Wives Club and though I like the show, I have this sinking feeling that ABC (as well as other networks that have been doing these 1960's period pieces) did this so they didn't have to deal with casting POC.  They can say, 'well all the astronauts were white, and their wives were white, so, see, no POC need apply."

I actually think in a large ensemble, they do want to have a POC if nothing else to attempt to innoculate them from this kind of criticism.

 That doesn't mean they want to give the POC a big part but something.

 

However, as ribboninthesky1 pointed out, ABC has WOC as leads in two of their Thursday shows.  They also had Blackish which is primarily a black cast and Fresh Off The Boat which has an all-Asian cast.  They have Dr. Ken starting next fall and they had Cristela last year.  (Which deserved a second season but I digress.)  Actively avoiding POC seems more like a CBS thing to do.  ABC doesn't even shy away from shows with no white people.

[DearEvette]

A couple of years ago I would have been side-eying Astronaut Wives, but these days I can't.  ABC actually makes the effort.  They just added Toks Olagundoye to Castle as a regular and it sounds (from the way the fans are reacting) like they may be poisitioning her in case Stana Katic leaves in the future.  There was another recent announcement of a POC addition to a current show that i am blanking on now.

 

And two of their new dramas have WOC leads, Kings & Prophets and Quantico.

 

Now if it were CBS or NBC I would totally be sucking my teeth going 'Mmmhmmm....'

[galax-arena]

They just added Toks Olagundoye to Castle as a regular and it sounds (from the way the fans are reacting) like they may be poisitioning her in case Stana Katic leaves in the future.

I love Toks, she was easily the best thing about The Neighbors. 

[Ronin Jackson]

I saw this rather disappointing news (disappointing because I'm a fan of Fincher)... the Utopia remake is dead. http://collider.com/david-fincher-utopia-dead-at-hbo-rooney-mara-colm-feore-were-to-star/But the article has some of the first casting information, and it's also disappointing that they of course, planned to white wash the cast in comparison to the British version. Brandon Scott was the only non-anglo mentioned in the cast. I wonder if he was to play the role originated by Nathan Stewart-Jarret. I'd wager that Dallas Roberts was to play the role originated by Adeel Ahktar, but just a guess. So I suppose that makes it less disappointing that the project died.

[xaxat]

David Simon (The Wire, Homicide:LOTS, the upcoming Show Me a Hero) is working on a project with Ta-Nehisi Coates.

 

I.can't.wait. . . 

 

(Oh, and the interview has lots of good stuff about agency and white privilege.)

Edited August 17, 2015 by xaxat

[Trini]

'DGA TV Diversity Report: Employer Hiring of Women Directors Shows Modest Improvement; Women and Minorities Continue to be Excluded In First-Time Hiring'

 

The Directors Guild of America today released its annual report analyzing the ethnicity and gender of directors hired to direct primetime episodic television across broadcast, basic cable, premium cable, and high budget original content series made for the Internet....

 

Minorities (male and female) directed 18% of all episodes, representing a 1% decrease over the prior year. ...

 

Minorities directed a total of 694 episodes (up from 660 in 2013-14). While that reflects a 5% bump in episodes over the 2013-2014 season, the increase lags behind the 10% growth of total episodes.

 

There's also 'Best' and 'Worst' lists according to show.

Edited August 26, 2015 by Trini

[Ronin Jackson]

At least one network exec is paying diversity some lip service: http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/showtimes-david-nevins-shows-must-reflect-u-s-diversity-1201579576/

Edited August 27, 2015 by Ronin Jackson

[ChromaKelly]

So Fear The Walking Dead continues the proud tradition of its parent show by killing off the black guy. Sigh.

[cynic]

And not just one black guy! They had three black minor characters and killed them all off in two episodes!

[xaxat]

On most shows, that might worry me, but not for the Walking Dead franchise. 

 

The original series killed off a lot of black characters. (Miss you T Dog and religious lady!) but has still remained diverse. Glenn and Michonne are at the core of the show, Rosita and Sasha are still around and Morgan has returned. Take a look at this list of characters that have appeared over the course of the show. It's impressively diverse and non discriminatory as to who dies. (Wouldn't mind if you died Father Gabriel!)

 

Fear starts out with a diverse cast and I have some amount of confidence it will follow in the same steps as its predecessor. 

Edited September 4, 2015 by xaxat

[Cobalt Stargazer]

And not just one black guy! They had three black minor characters and killed them all off in two episodes!

 

Depending on how much context matters, one of the black characters became zombie-fied and was attacking one of the high school students when he was re-killed.

 

Further, I almost gave up on the show right out of the gate when the (white) woman who seems to be the lead told the student who was later attacked, "If something was wrong, we'd know about it. The authorities would tell us." Which.....really, lady? Clearly you have never read Stephen King's The Stand, or seen or read any of the acres of stuff where catastrophic events take place and the government tries to cover it up. Hell, half the time the authorities are the ones who cause the wheels to come off in the first place, and you're expecting that they'll inform the public?

[Ohwell]

Speaking of Fear the Walking Dead, I have to get this off my chest.   I know there's been discussion about the three black guys getting killed off, and honestly, I'm not so much upset about that because I think there'll be a whole lotta chomping of white people to come, lol.  No, my bone to pick is that the lead female just has to be white--and a bad actress to boot.  I don't understand why Travis couldn't have stayed married to his Latina(?) ex-wife, thus keeping his family intact.  Granted, then we wouldn't have teenage daughter and druggie son but I think the writers could have done well enough with out them.  But nooooooooo...they just had to have him leaving his family and falling for the white woman.    

[galax-arena]

X-posting this in the LGBT thread: How Shows Like 'Will & Grace' And 'Black-ish' Can Change Your Brain. For people who think that representation doesn't matter because ~omg it's just TV.