Race & Ethnicity On TV

[Neurochick]

34 minutes ago, Dee said:

And why is it mandatory that biracial Black characters have to be constantly portrayed as lighter skinned in media?

Very true.  I think Kylie Bunbury's (Pitch) mother is white; and Lauren London's father is white. 

Edited January 10, 2017 by Neurochick

[DearEvette]

2 hours ago, Neurochick said:

Maybe.  But why is it, in TV programs, that when there is a light skinned black person, they just HAVE to be biracial?  I've known countless lighter skinned black people (I am one of them) who aren't biracial.  If the show goes down that route with Charley, I might stop watching.  I find that very ignorant.  Just because a black person is light skinned, doesn't mean there is a white person in the previous or even two previous generations.

It is all speculation of course, but in the case of Queen Sugar though if they do go that route the white family might again be a logical piece of the story.  The show is set is New Orleans and as such has a specific history of gens de couleur libres (free people of color) that doesn't exist anywhere else in the country.  The black Creoles, the Octoroon and Quadroon balls, the biracial families of white landowners that consisted of their black mistresses that were set up to be actual "shadow" families where there was an entire social structure in place that mimic'd white society and the children were educated and expected to marry other gens de couler (but not blacks).  And of course, the lighter the skin the more desirable.  So given that the show mines some of the voodoun culture in regards Nova we know they are using the New Orleans setting as part of the story narrative not just as backdrop, And given that they've already tied the Bordelon family history as slaves to the white Boudreauxs as slave owners I could see them possibly using the gens de couleur history as well.

However, I do agree that biracial people come in all hues and do POC who are not biracial.  I often wonder why we don't see more Afro-latino/a characters who are coded expressly as Latin.  I could be wrong but Laz Alonzo and Gina Torres for instance, typically don't seem to be cast as Latino/a but more typically as black. 

[BoogieBurns]

10 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

However, I do agree that biracial people come in all hues and do POC who are not biracial.

In my office right now, my coworker is half white, half black. I am full black. By far she is the darker of the two. It's just not always as simple as TV wants it to be. 

I'm not sure who said it a page or two ago, but on Blackish, I never saw Diane as the "problem" child. She is very clearly the mastermind of the entire family. Diane (Marsai) is the most interesting, and smartest child. I also never noticed she was the darkest, because Yara can't be much lighter. I think we add our own spin to things when we want to see it a certain way. Not that either of us is wrong.

[jhlipton]

15 minutes ago, BoogieBurns said:

I think we add our own spin to things when we want to see it a certain way. Not that either of us is wrong.

So true.  And I totally agree about Diane.  Within Dre's family, it's light-skinned Bo and Junior who are treated the worst.

[Dee]

Diane is the only one of Andre & Rainbow's children that frightens teachers at school, bullies her Dad's friends, repeatedly exhibits violent behavior, has to attend court mandated therapy and even intimidates her own parents.

Her siblings are written to have their own faults but they are not portrayed nearly as negatively as Diane. Yara, like Marcus Scribner, is noticeably lighter than Marsai. Miles Brown, Marsai's onscreen twin, is closer to Marsai's complexion.

Black-ish clearly intends for the writing for Diane to be lighthearted, but objectively, given the history of colorism, it's quite harmful imo.

[BoogieBurns]

6 minutes ago, Dee said:

Diane is the only one of Andre & Rainbow's children that frightens teachers at school, bullies her Dad's friends, repeatedly exhibits violent behavior, has to attend court mandated therapy and even intimidates her own parents.

Her siblings are written to have their own faults but they are not portrayed nearly as negatively as Diane. Yara, like Marcus Scribner, is noticeably lighter than Marsai. Miles Brown, Marsai's onscreen twin, is closer to Marsai's complexion.

Black-ish clearly intends for the writing for Diane to be lighthearted, but objectively, given the history of colorism, it's quite harmful imo.

I'm not saying you are wrong at all. I'm saying that I always viewed it differently. I viewed her behavior as being smarter and a mastermind. The subjective bias is how one of us saw it as a good thing, and the other saw it as a bad thing. Because Jack being dumb would be the least favorable personality trait I picked up on. It's just two different people watching the exact same thing and ending up with different opinions. I honestly think Diane is the best written child with the most layers. That's fun for me as a viewer. It's okay that we disagree :-)

[Dee]

1 hour ago, DearEvette said:

However, I do agree that biracial people come in all hues and do POC who are not biracial.  I often wonder why we don't see more Afro-latino/a characters who are coded expressly as Latin.  I could be wrong but Laz Alonzo and Gina Torres for instance, typically don't seem to be cast as Latino/a but more typically as black. 

Gina has discussed this quite a bit.

One of my favorite moments of Gina's was when she was on the red carpet of the Alma Awards being interviewed by a latina reporter, in English, only for Gina to laughingly encourage the reporter to continue interviewing her in Spanish.

[Silver Raven]

2 hours ago, Dee said:

And why is it mandatory that biracial Black characters have to be constantly portrayed as lighter skinned in media?

For instance, Giancarlo Esposito & Jordan Peele are both biracial, but I'd doubt anyone would assume they were, if they didn't know otherwise.

Wentworth Miller is also biracial, and so is Rashida Jones, but you wouldn't know it if they didn't tell us.

[BoogieBurns]

35 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Wentworth Miller is also biracial, and so is Rashida Jones, but you wouldn't know it if they didn't tell us.

I never for a minute thought Rashida was white. I was surprised when other people did, actually. Nicole Richie too, I know she's adopted but she is still half black. Wentworth Miller is hard to read, but if he wasn't rocking the shaved head, I can almost guarantee his secret would have been out. Well one of his secrets. 

Another interesting biracial duo are long time buds Sofia Richie and Paris Jackson. They are both half black, and both well, look ambiguous...

Edited January 10, 2017 by BoogieBurns
Finally got the image to post!

[Silver Raven]

Are we sure Paris Jackson is actually half black?

[BoogieBurns]

7 minutes ago, Silver Raven said:

Are we sure Paris Jackson is actually half black?

I know I know. There is no way to know that! But at least here she looks the same race as Sofia.

[Trini]

Going by character names, Laz Alonso has played Afro-Latinos  a few times; but I'm not sure if it was brought up in the shows as a character trait.

(And I knew Wentworth was mixed, the minute I saw him. That's not a white nose!)

Edited January 10, 2017 by Trini

[Dee]

Speaking of 'mixed' actors, I've never understood how people viewed Vin Diesel as anything other than Black.

[BetterButter]

'Urban Myths' Trailer: Sky Art Debuts First Look of Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson

[jhlipton]

Just now, Dee said:

Her siblings are written to have their own faults but they are not portrayed nearly as negatively as Diane. Yara, like Marcus Scribner, is noticeably lighter than Marsai. Miles Brown, Marsai's onscreen twin, is closer to Marsai's complexion.

I'm wondering if we're watching the same show! LOL.  Junior (the lightest of the kids) is treated far worse than Diane, especially by his father.  We're supposed think that Junior is such a dork, no girl would ever like him, and Dre constantly humiliates him.  Also, too, Ruby (dark) is extremely nasty to Bo (light) and far from stopping her, Dre encourages her.  Agree to disagree?

[Raja]

5 hours ago, Trini said:

Going by character names, Laz Alonso has played Afro-Latinos  a few times; but I'm not sure if it was brought up in the shows as a character trait.

 

Of the TV roles he has been in I only remember him being identified as being of Cuban heritage. There have been a couple of theatrical movies were as far as I remember he was just African American. Among the first identified Afro-Latino characters I can think of is Lauren Velez playing a Puerto Rican in New York Undercover being the interracial but same ethnicity as her love interest Michael DeLorenzo.

[Dee]

Quote

I'm wondering if we're watching the same show! LOL.  Junior (the lightest of the kids) is treated far worse than Diane, especially by his father.  We're supposed think that Junior is such a dork, no girl would ever like him, and Dre constantly humiliates him.  Also, too, Ruby (dark) is extremely nasty to Bo (light) and far from stopping her, Dre encourages her.  Agree to disagree?

I'm not referring to the way the Johnson kids are treated by their father. I'm referring to the way Diane is portrayed in general.

Rainbow & Andre have not run out of a room, literally, to avoid discussing Junior's behavior the way they have with Diane. Nor has Rainbow been shown to jump in fear on the off chance Junior was lurking behind her the way she did when Earl teased her about Diane, a couple of episodes ago.

Junior hasn't been constantly portrayed as an un-dateable dork, but as a sweet geek who occasionally flubs social cues. He currently has a girlfriend, was briefly infatuated with a gorgeous darkskinned girl (which he, himself, ruined by acting unnecessarily goofy) and previous episodes have had him sharing mutual interest in other girls his age.

Ruby isn't any worse to Rainbow than Earl, and Rainbow gives as good as she gets in most of their playful exchanges. Also, Rainbow's lightskinned mother, D'Alicia, is every bit as nasty to darkerskinned Andre as Ruby supposedly is to Rainbow, so why is she given a free pass when Ruby isn't?

[jhlipton]

Moving to something else, I just noticed tonight when they were standing in order, the stars of ABC's Thursday Night Shondaland line-up get progressively darker as the night goes on: Ellen Pompeo of Grey's Anatomy, Kerry Washington of Scandal and Viola Davis of HTGAWM.  I don't think there's any great significance to this, just thought it interesting.

[topanga]

21 hours ago, DearEvette said:

However, I do agree that biracial people come in all hues and do POC who are not biracial.  I often wonder why we don't see more Afro-latino/a characters who are coded expressly as Latin.  I could be wrong but Laz Alonzo and Gina Torres for instance, typically don't seem to be cast as Latino/a but more typically as black. 

 

14 hours ago, Dee said:

Speaking of 'mixed' actors, I've never understood how people viewed Vin Diesel as anything other than Black.

Laz Alonso played an Afro-Cuban on "The Mysteries of Laura." In other films and tv shows I've watched, he's always played black. And how dumb am I that I never knew that Gina Torres was Latina? I thought maybe it was a Lisa Lopes situation.  Lisa wasn't Latina per se, but she allegedly had ancestors from the West African islands of Cape Verde, which had been colonized by the Portuguese. 

And when I first saw Vin Diesel in Rounders, I thought he was Italian. Always thought Derek Jeter looked biracial, though. 

[BoogieBurns]

14 minutes ago, topanga said:

And when I first saw Vin Diesel in Rounders, I thought he was Italian.

Me too, I think the hair is always the biggest clue. His baldness confused us all. He refers to himself as "a brother" though, so he could very likely be half Italian and half black. Or any percentage of many races. 

[Apprentice79]

21 hours ago, DearEvette said:

It is all speculation of course, but in the case of Queen Sugar though if they do go that route the white family might again be a logical piece of the story.  The show is set is New Orleans and as such has a specific history of gens de couleur libres (free people of color) that doesn't exist anywhere else in the country.  The black Creoles, the Octoroon and Quadroon balls, the biracial families of white landowners that consisted of their black mistresses that were set up to be actual "shadow" families where there was an entire social structure in place that mimic'd white society and the children were educated and expected to marry other gens de couler (but not blacks).  And of course, the lighter the skin the more desirable.  So given that the show mines some of the voodoun culture in regards Nova we know they are using the New Orleans setting as part of the story narrative not just as backdrop, And given that they've already tied the Bordelon family history as slaves to the white Boudreauxs as slave owners I could see them possibly using the gens de couleur history as well.

However, I do agree that biracial people come in all hues and do POC who are not biracial.  I often wonder why we don't see more Afro-latino/a characters who are coded expressly as Latin.  I could be wrong but Laz Alonzo and Gina Torres for instance, typically don't seem to be cast as Latino/a but more typically as black. 

I love your post and you are so right about the "gens de couleurs libres", the free people of color, that type of  racial stratification, came from French colonialism.   During slavery, the French masters, would acknowledge their mixed children and take care of them.   They would free them at 15 and their sons would be sent to Paris, for their secondary education.  They would give them everything, but, their last name. That was reserved for their White children.  These people occupied a unique place, in French colonial societies.  Some even owned slaves and were very rich and politically active.  They still faced discrimination from the Whites,  but, they hated the Blacks, whom, they treated with scorn and derision.  Once Louisiana,  was no longer French and became part of the United states, the one drop rule stripped them, of their unique status and they became Black.

[galax-arena]

Quote

Me too, I think the hair is always the biggest clue. His baldness confused us all. He refers to himself as "a brother" though, so he could very likely be half Italian and half black. Or any percentage of many races.

Yeah, Vin Diesel's heritage is a mystery. His mother is white and he never knew his biological father. His stepfather however is black. 

Edited January 11, 2017 by galax-arena

[topanga]

4 minutes ago, galax-arena said:

Yeah, Vin Diesel's heritage is a mystery. His mother is white and he never knew his biological father. His stepfather however is black. 

Has he ever gone on one of those ancestor shows, like "Who Do You Think You Are?" or "Finding Your Roots?" If not, he should. His mother apparently never gave him a straight answer about his biological father. 

[Dee]

2 hours ago, topanga said:

And when I first saw Vin Diesel in Rounders, I thought he was Italian. Always thought Derek Jeter looked biracial, though. 

Really? I never thought Vin could pass.

As another poster said of Wentworth Miller, Vin's nose was a dead giveaway; at least to me. lol

[maraleia]

Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario is bi-racial. Her mom is Black and dad is white. She, however, plays a white character on the show.

[topanga]

30 minutes ago, maraleia said:

Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario is bi-racial. Her mom is Black and dad is white. She, however, plays a white character on the show.

Oh. I thought she was Jewish. 

[maraleia]

3 minutes ago, topanga said:

Oh. I thought she was Jewish. 

From wiki- Her father is of Italian and Serbian descent. Her mother is of African-American and Creole descent.

[Rlb8031]

5 hours ago, topanga said:

Has he ever gone on one of those ancestor shows, like "Who Do You Think You Are?" or "Finding Your Roots?" If not, he should. His mother apparently never gave him a straight answer about his biological father. 

He's got a twin and rumor around the NY club scene in the 90's (Vin was a bouncer when he got his first big Hollywood break) was that the brother is clearly identifiable as black which is why you so seldom see photos or pictures of the two of them together. 

56 minutes ago, maraleia said:

 

[Dee]

1 hour ago, maraleia said:

Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario is bi-racial. Her mom is Black and dad is white. She, however, plays a white character on the show.

Ruby Modine is another biracial actress IRL who's playing a white character on her show (in this case Shameless).

[DearEvette]

For the entire first season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend I thought Vella Lovell, the actress who plays Rebeca's friend Heather was Indian or of Indian descent.  But there is an episode of the show in Season 2 where we meet Heather's parents and I was suprised that her dad was black and her mother was white.  Turns out that mimics the actress's own biracial make up.  She did say in an interview that she tends to get cast as Indian.

BTW, I am tickled that even with the low ratings, Crazy Ex Girlfriend just got renewed.  The show is so fantastically diverse.  Rebecca is Jewish.  Valencia is Latina.  Heather is biracial.  Josh is Asian.  White Josh is gay.  Hector is Latino.  Paula is over 40.  Paula's new bff  Sunil is Indian. 

Edited January 12, 2017 by DearEvette

[jhlipton]

Just now, DearEvette said:

 The show is so fantastically diverse.  Rebecca is Jewish.  Valencia is Latina.  Heather is biracial.  Josh is Asian.  White Josh is gay.  Hector is Latino.  Paula is over 40.  Paula's new bff  Sunil is Indian.

I think it's contractual that every show have an Indian.  If they don't, Tata will shut down their call centers in Bangalore!

Jewish is not an ethnicity -- anyone remember Sammy Davis Jr?

[topanga]

10 hours ago, jhlipton said:

I think it's contractual that every show have an Indian.  If they don't, Tata will shut down their call centers in Bangalore!

Jewish is not an ethnicity -- anyone remember Sammy Davis Jr?

True, but the Jewish people I know say there's a distinction between being religiously Jewish and culturally Jewish, i.e., having ancestral ties to Israel. 

[galax-arena]

And even if we were to concede that Jewish is not an ethnicity, that doesn't take away from DearEvette's point that Rebecca's Jewishness adds to the diversity on the show. Jews are a religious minority. And considering that anti-semitism is on the rise, we could stand to see more Jewish figures in pop culture. Feels like most characters on TV are either non-religious (but culturally Christian) or nominally Christian.  

Edited January 12, 2017 by galax-arena

[DangerousMinds]

What is "culturally Christian?" 

Edited January 12, 2017 by DangerousMinds

[proserpina65]

On ‎01‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 4:08 PM, BoogieBurns said:

I never for a minute thought Rashida was white. I was surprised when other people did, actually.

I had no idea she was bi-racial until I read something which talked about her parents.  I assumed she came from a Mediterranean background (Spanish, Italian or Greek).  Same with Wentworth Miller.  Now that I know, I totally see it and wonder why I didn't before.  Maybe, because I'm Caucasian, my bias leans towards thinking that the lightest-skinned POC are probably white?  It's an interesting question.

[proserpina65]

22 minutes ago, DangerousMinds said:

What is "culturally Christian?" I want to make sure no one sees me that way . . . 

Raised as Christian but not practicing, maybe?  Or possibly just not identified as any other religion since Christian tends to be the default here.

[BoogieBurns]

14 minutes ago, proserpina65 said:

I had no idea she was bi-racial until I read something which talked about her parents.  I assumed she came from a Mediterranean background (Spanish, Italian or Greek).  Same with Wentworth Miller.  Now that I know, I totally see it and wonder why I didn't before.  Maybe, because I'm Caucasian, my bias leans towards thinking that the lightest-skinned POC are probably white?  It's an interesting question.

I usually can pick them out easily... freckles are often the tell. Since I am a very light-skinned black person, I have been assumed to be Spanish, Italian and Greek as well. Maybe it's just easier that way for people. I do find my bias leans the opposite way, because I was determined to find a black relative in Justin Timberlake's family line when NSYNC first came on the scene. That curly hair, the natural rhythm, and he had the exact same nose as my sister. I just, knew one day we'd meet his black grandpa. Still waiting. Same with Annalynne McCord, her hair is my exact hair, so I need her blackness to be revealed. Pete Wentz is actually half (or 1/4) black and I guessed his race years ago!

Edited January 12, 2017 by BoogieBurns

[galax-arena]

31 minutes ago, DangerousMinds said:

What is "culturally Christian?" I want to make sure no one sees me that way . . . 

LMAO. For example, Christmas, even if we ripped off certain traditions from the pagans and a lot of us have made it more secular with Santa instead of God, is a culturally Christian holiday. Same with Easter and the easter bunny. If you're not religious but celebrate the major Christian holidays (even if for you it has nothing to do with religious belief; you just want that sweet paid time off and an excuse to get gifts and eat chocolate), I'd say you're culturally Christian to a degree. 

Bringing this back more on topic...

the natural rhythm

I laughed. 

The comment about freckles reminds me of the time someone insisted that Lucy Liu had to be biracial because fully Asian people don't get freckles, according to that person.

[topanga]

3 hours ago, BoogieBurns said:

Quote

I had no idea she was bi-racial until I read something which talked about her parents.  I assumed she came from a Mediterranean background (Spanish, Italian or Greek). 

I usually can pick them out easily... freckles are often the tell. Since I am a very light-skinned black person, I have been assumed to be Spanish, Italian and Greek as well. Maybe it's just easier that way for people. I do find my bias leans the opposite way, because I was determined to find a black relative in Justin Timberlake's family line when NSYNC first came on the scene. That curly hair, the natural rhythm, and he had the exact same nose as my sister. I just, knew one day we'd meet his black grandpa. Still waiting. Same with Annalynne McCord, her hair is my exact hair, so I need her blackness to be revealed. Pete Wentz is actually half (or 1/4) black and I guessed his race years ago!

Looking at your avatar up close, you and Rashida Jones could be sisters. Yes, I always assumed she was black (or at least biracial), even though she doesn't have African facial features. 

This is somewhat embarrassing, but the first time I saw Angelina Jolie (in the movie The Bone Collector with Denzel Washington), I had no idea who she was, and I thought she was black or biracial. It was her olive-toned skin and those full lips. Plus her hair was pulled back throughout the movie, so it easily could have been curly. And her face was rounder back then. She didn't look so emaciated. 

[BoogieBurns]

6 minutes ago, topanga said:

Looking at your avatar up close, you and Rashida Jones could be sisters. Yes, I always assumed she was black (or at least biracial), even though she doesn't have African facial features. 

This is somewhat embarrassing, but the first time I saw Angelina Jolie (in the movie The Bone Collector with Denzel Washington), I had no idea who she was, and I thought she was black or biracial. It was her olive-toned skin and those full lips. Plus her hair was pulled back throughout the movie, so it easily could have been curly. And her face was rounder back then. She didn't look so emaciated. 

My avatar is Rashida. However, she is the closest celebrity I favor, which is why I'm a fan. Someday I'll make an avatar of myself and you all will be underwhelmed :-)

Oh, Angelina also confused me when I first saw her. The lips and her face shape are not common at all in run of the mill white chicks. 

Edited January 12, 2017 by BoogieBurns

[topanga]

30 minutes ago, BoogieBurns said:

My avatar is Rashida.

So clever!

[jhlipton]

5 hours ago, topanga said:

True, but the Jewish people I know say there's a distinction between being religiously Jewish and culturally Jewish, i.e., having ancestral ties to Israel. 

I like to say that I'm 2/3 Jewish:  My mother is Jewish, and I was raised in a (somewhat) Jewish household -- we celebrated Passover and Hannukah and I learned a smattering of Yiddish, but I renounced Judaism after my bar mitzvah (which I did as a courtesy to my grandfathers).  My link, personally, is more to the Ashkenazic than to Israel. 

4 hours ago, galax-arena said:

And even if we were to concede that Jewish is not an ethnicity, that doesn't take away from DearEvette's point that Rebecca's Jewishness adds to the diversity on the show. Jews are a religious minority. And considering that anti-semitism is on the rise, we could stand to see more Jewish figures in pop culture. Feels like most characters on TV are either non-religious (but culturally Christian) or nominally Christian.  

True -- I didn't mean to dispute the diversity.  It just seemed to me that Judaism was being called an "ethnicity", when, just in Europe, there are two major branches: Ashkenazim and Sephardim, not to mention the other branches around the world (I think there's one in Ethiopia...)

[DearEvette]

Yeah,  I didn't include Rebecca's Jewish identity as a statement of specifically ethnic inclusion,  but as an illustrative example of how inclusive and diverse the show is across the board --ethnically, racially, age, gender, LGBT, religious, even culturally because we get glimpses of Filipino culture through Josh's family.

Edited January 12, 2017 by DearEvette

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 1/11/2017 at 0:32 AM, jhlipton said:

Moving to something else, I just noticed tonight when they were standing in order, the stars of ABC's Thursday Night Shondaland line-up get progressively darker as the night goes on: Ellen Pompeo of Grey's Anatomy, Kerry Washington of Scandal and Viola Davis of HTGAWM.  I don't think there's any great significance to this, just thought it interesting.

Interesting but I think it's more about the chronological order of when those shows STARTED.

Grey's is the oldest show, established at 8 PM, and then so on.

Maybe Shonda felt comfortable using a white person as her show's star to become established - that was back in 2005.  Now Shonda is more powerful and then started a show starring Kerry.  Then her protege made a show starring Viola.

[maraleia]

3 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Interesting but I think it's more about the chronological order of when those shows STARTED.

Grey's is the oldest show, established at 8 PM, and then so on.

Maybe Shonda felt comfortable using a white person as her show's star to become established - that was back in 2005.  Now Shonda is more powerful and then started a show starring Kerry.  Then her protege made a show starring Viola.

Also, HTGAWM is the most adult show of the bunch hence the later start time.

[Princess Sparkle]

On 1/10/2017 at 7:27 PM, BetterButter said:

'Urban Myths' Trailer: Sky Art Debuts First Look of Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson

Looks like it's been pulled after Paris Jackson said she found it offensive: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38608070

[Ms Blue Jay]

8 hours ago, maraleia said:

Also, HTGAWM is the most adult show of the bunch hence the later start time.

This is not on topic but I find HTGAWM the most childish and easiest for me to watch; it is college students after all :)
I can't handle the medical goriness of Grey's and then there's obviously the torture on Scandal - assassinations, people getting their teeth pulled, for goodness sake!  Compared to those HTGAWM is a breeze for me to watch.  Child's play!

Edited January 13, 2017 by Ms Blue Jay

[Trini]

Asking this here, since there's probably an obvious/famous example that I'm simply forgetting: Has there been a minority TV family that has adopted (or informally "adopted") a white character? Involving lead characters? Like, a white character has a minority family?

I'm just trying to figure out if Barry Allen's situation on The Flash is unique or not. He has a romantic relationship with Iris West, but Joe and Wally West both interact with him like family (father and brother, respectively).

[Raja]

35 minutes ago, Trini said:

Asking this here, since there's probably an obvious/famous example that I'm simply forgetting: Has there been a minority TV family that has adopted (or informally "adopted") a white character? Involving lead characters? Like, a white character has a minority family?

I'm just trying to figure out if Barry Allen's situation on The Flash is unique or not. He has a romantic relationship with Iris West, but Joe and Wally West both interact with him like family (father and brother, respectively).

The closest that I can think of was Like Family where Holly Robinson Peete and Kevin Michael Richardson with two kids of their own took in her childhood white best friend and son

[paulvdb]

I'm not the only person who watched Like Family? It was also my first thought after I read Trini's post and then I saw your reply. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.