Race & Ethnicity On TV

[Dee]

The constant bitching about Geena's presence on The Conners continues.

Any time a black female character is not a Mammy figure for white characters they're ALWAYS hated.

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, Dee said:

The constant bitching about Geena's presence on The Conners continues.

Not here in the The Connors forum on PTV.  Most people there think she hasn't been fleshed out much yet , but I haven't seen any of what I would call bitching (Mark and Jackie get far more).

You should check out Legends of Tomorrow.  They put a character in such a position that she had to written out of the show, but got the actress back in a much better role, and did so very cleverly.  Plus, it's a fun show to watch!

[callie lee 29]

I haven't noticed any complaining about Geena on PTV (though I'm not in there a whole lot); is it happening on social media or somewhere? Personally I like Geena. I think she's a nice balance to Darlene. I am afraid we're not going to get much more of her since the character is just on leave. 

[xaxat]

ESPN has a group of announcers who are of South Asian descent. Anish Shroff, Adnan Virk, Zubin Mehenti and Kevin Negandhi. A couple of months ago, Negndhi talked about how they, as TV personalities, get recognized in public fairly often. But a lot of the time the fan only knows them as the brown guy (my words) with the funny name who works for ESPN. So fans mistake them for each other so much they have a text chain letting each other know when it happens.

(The way he explained it was a lot funnier.)

[Dee]

Kumail Nanjiani, Hari Kondabolu, Kal Penn & Kunal Nayyar have a similar problem...

[Silver Raven]

Awkwafina will be executive producing and starring in a new comedy show on Comedy Central.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/comedy-central-picks-up-series-from-awkwafina/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=60353426

[Trini]

'grown-ish Recreates A Different World Opening for Season 2 Promo'

[Dee]

No More "We Can't Find Any Black Female Writers": Here Are 62 Scribes in One Photo

Quote

For The Hollywood Reporter's largest shoot ever, members of Black Women Who Brunch, a networking group co-founded by Lena Waithe, gather to discuss how the industry can better understand black women in Hollywood: "We have to be exceptional."

[jhlipton]

On 12/5/2018 at 4:42 PM, Dee said:

No More "We Can't Find Any Black Female Writers": Here Are 62 Scribes in One Photo

Quote

"We have to be exceptional."

 

"We have to work twice as hard to get half as much recognition."  Still true.

 

That's a GREAT photo!

Edited December 7, 2018 by jhlipton

[topanga]

On 12/6/2018 at 8:18 PM, jhlipton said:

"We have to work twice as hard to get half as much recognition."  Still true.

 

That's a GREAT photo!

The article is great, too. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Janet Jackson is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2019 class.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Joimiaroxeu

[jhlipton]

12 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Janet Jackson is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2019 class.

About time!

[possibilities]

I hope she bears a breast at the ceremony (to be defiant, not seductive).

Edited December 14, 2018 by possibilities

[proserpina65]

22 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Janet Jackson is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2019 class.

While I think Janet Jackson deserves a lot of recognition and accolades for her groundbreaking career, I don't think she belongs in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  Of course, neither does ABBA, so . . . let's just say that particular hall of fame does a bad job of sticking to its name.

[xaxat]

It was so weird seeing a panel of white, middle age commentators use the phrase "shuck and jive" on the news this morning.

(They were discussing a quote from a Washington Post article.)

[jhlipton]

5 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

let's just say that particular hall of fame does a bad job of sticking to its name.

I think that could be said of most Halls of Fame, especially those where induction is not stats-related.

[proserpina65]

9 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

I think that could be said of most Halls of Fame, especially those where induction is not stats-related.

Very true.  I was really commenting on the weird hodge-podge that is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.  Ms. Jackson certainly deserves to be in there as much as some of the other non-rock acts, and more than some of them.

[DearEvette]

I think the Rock and Roll hall of fame uses the original meaning of the term “Rock and Roll” which was originally coined to refer to popular music with its roots in Gospel, R&B, Swing, Jazz and country that crossed over from mostly black artists to appeal to white youth and from white artists who used that amalgm as inspiration and began creating their own sound.  Nowadays People use Rock and Roll synonymous with Rock, but pure rock came later.

If you look at the very first inductees which included Fats Domino, James Brown, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles none of these I don’t think would be characterized as Rock but are still considered huge influencers of Rock and Roll.

[Dee]

2 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I think the Rock and Roll hall of fame uses the original meaning of the term “Rock and Roll” which was originally coined to refer to popular music with its roots in Gospel, R&B, Swing, Jazz and country that crossed over from mostly black artists to appeal to white youth and from white artists who used that amalgm as inspiration and began creating their own sound.  Nowadays People use Rock and Roll synonymous with Rock, but pure rock came later.

If you look at the very first inductees which included Fats Domino, James Brown, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles none of these I don’t think would be characterized as Rock but are still considered huge influencers of Rock and Roll.

And Janet is one of a very select few Black female muscians in modern music history to notch a #1 hit on the ROCK charts.

[Raja]

18 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I think the Rock and Roll hall of fame uses the original meaning of the term “Rock and Roll” which was originally coined to refer to popular music with its roots in Gospel, R&B, Swing, Jazz and country that crossed over from mostly black artists to appeal to white youth and from white artists who used that amalgm as inspiration and began creating their own sound.  Nowadays People use Rock and Roll synonymous with Rock, but pure rock came later.

If you look at the very first inductees which included Fats Domino, James Brown, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles none of these I don’t think would be characterized as Rock but are still considered huge influencers of Rock and Roll.

I noticed the term "pure rock" and had a slight chuckle because when Elizabeth Taylor pronounced Michael Jackson "the king of pop" it occurred to me that Americans tended to say "rock" where the British press would say "pop". As "pop" to an American went from adult contemporary on the hard end to the surviving big band singers like Tony Bennett 

Edited December 15, 2018 by Raja

[Dee]

Quote

In a kingdom defeated by corruption and famine, a mysterious plague spreads to turn the infected into monsters. The crown prince, framed for treason and desperate to save his people, sets out on a journey to unveil what evil lurks in the dark.

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, Dee said:

 

A short article from Esquire on The Kingdom: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a25615825/kingdom-korea-zombie-series-trailer-netflix/

[SmittySure]

I remember a six book series called "God Don't Like Ugly" by Mary Monroe.  There is a character in that series named "Muh-Dear".  I can't help but wonder if Tyler Perry's character "Madea" is either truly inspired by Monroe's character, or a straight rip-off.  Or perhaps not the character, but simply the name spelled differently.

[DearEvette]

Among the Southern black families I knew, a lot of them referred to grandmothers and great grandmothers as 'Madear.'  I wouldn't be surprised if it was just something Tyler Perry grew up with.  He started out putting on religious themed plays on the modern Chitlin' Circuit.  I would imagine a lot of those old mothers in the Church were referred to as Madear.

[phoenics]

On 1/1/2019 at 6:49 PM, DearEvette said:

Among the Southern black families I knew, a lot of them referred to grandmothers and great grandmothers as 'Madear.'  I wouldn't be surprised if it was just something Tyler Perry grew up with.  He started out putting on religious themed plays on the modern Chitlin' Circuit.  I would imagine a lot of those old mothers in the Church were referred to as Madear.

That's what we called my Grandma on my dad's side.  So agreed.  I'm from the South.

[jhlipton]

Since we're collecting anecdata, my wiffe's family calls the grammas "Omma".

[topanga]

13 hours ago, jhlipton said:

Since we're collecting anecdata, my wiffe's family calls the grammas "Omma".

And just to chime in, I and many people from SE Texas/Louisiana call our grandmothers "Maman." (Sounds like mo-MO). 

Do any of you watch Station 19? I know I should watch it because it's still a pretty rare to have a diverse ensemble cast where some of the people of color are in positions of power--and have lines and screen time. But I've been avoiding it because ShondaLand shows tend to be melodramatic and soapy. 

[aradia22]

Quote

Anika Noni Rose Asked Wreck-It Ralph 2 to Reanimate Princess Tiana After Backlash

I love her.

This conversation about Asian Bae makes me wonder if I should figure out how to watch HBO (we cancelled it around the end of season 1 of Insecure) so I can catch up. I liked it but I wasn't thrilled with it week to week but it keeps popping up periodically and seems to be doing interesting things. 

Quote

Reese Witherspoon Producing Comedy ‘Americanized’ About Undocumented Iranian Family From Sara Saedi At ABC

I'm not sold because it sounds a little preachy. My issue with shows that have "lessons" is they can be a little too heavy handed even if I agree with the points being made. But I liked iZombie (before it got so messy) and I remember liking The Goodwin Games so I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Quote

Mindy Kaling is co-writing and producing a new limited series on Hulu,  Four Weddings and Funeral, inspired by the 1994 movie.  It has cast four of the principal cast so far with two of them POC.  Jessica Williams, who is listed as the lead, and Nikesh Patel.   Here's the Deadline article.

I'm torn because yay, representation! but also even though I know Mindy loves rom-coms, I don't want this. Of all the things to remake, why this? I haven't seen the original but it's Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis so I assume it's British AF. I'd be more excited if this was an adaptation of You've Got Mail or an American movie from around that time that Mindy would be more likely to nail.

BD Wong has me interested in the Awkwafina show. My issue with all these TV shows is I don't know if I want to sign on for the long haul if they're successful or struggle through the weak episodes if they take a while to find their footing. Give me a nice under 2 hour movie or a British style limited series and I'm happy to support. I really liked Fresh Off the Boat but sometime in season 2 it got really hard to watch every week. 

[jhlipton]

31 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

[re Four Weddings and a Funeral]: I'm torn because yay, representation! but also even though I know Mindy loves rom-coms, I don't want this. Of all the things to remake, why this? I haven't seen the original but it's Hugh Grant and Richard Curtis so I assume it's British AF.

For what it's worth, Death at a Funeral was "British AF", but the American (mostly Black) version was well worth watching (other than Tracy Morgan, of course).  When Steptoe and Son was brought across The Pond (as Sanford and Son), it was as un-British as one could get!

[biakbiak]

10 minutes ago, jhlipton said:

For what it's worth, Death at a Funeral was "British AF", but the American (mostly Black) version was well worth watching (other than Tracy Morgan, of course).  When Steptoe and Son was brought across The Pond (as Sanford and Son), it was as un-British as one could get!

The show is set in London though the cast is split between British and American actors and I think most of them are playing Americans. It will be more ethnically diverse than the original. 

The story isn’t particularly British as fuck so I really don’t see it will be a problem, though after suffering through the last few seasons of TMP I don’t necessarily agree with what Mindy finds romantic so who knows.

[DearEvette]

Jessica Williams is no longer attached to Mindy's Four Weddings and a Funeral series.  Which is a bummer because I love her.  Nathalie Emmanuel has been cast in that role.  Which I don't mind either because I like her also.

[jhlipton]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Jessica Williams is no longer attached to Mindy's Four Weddings and a Funeral series.  Which is a bummer because I love her.  Nathalie Emmanuel has been cast in that role.  Which I don't mind either because I like her also.

So they traded a Black woman fopr a lighter=

[jhlipton]

So on this week's episode of grown-ish, they described the various couples found on a college campus.  The "thrupple" (two of one gender and one of the other) was comprised of two white women kissing a black guy (and not into each other as they should be in a true thrupple).  'Cuz on  show about a Black woman, Black women don't matter.

[phoenics]

On 1/4/2019 at 11:27 PM, jhlipton said:

So they traded a Black woman fopr a lighter=

I noticed that too.  

Where is the news that they replaced Jessica?  I can't find it.

[topanga]

On 1/4/2019 at 7:32 PM, DearEvette said:

Jessica Williams is no longer attached to Mindy's Four Weddings and a Funeral series.  Which is a bummer because I love her.  Nathalie Emmanuel has been cast in that role.  Which I don't mind either because I like her also.

 

On 1/4/2019 at 11:27 PM, jhlipton said:

So they traded a Black woman fopr a lighter=

Do you know whose decision it was. 

[jhlipton]

6 hours ago, phoenics said:

I noticed that too.  

Where is the news that they replaced Jessica?  I can't find it.

Here: https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/nathalie-emmanuel-to-star-in-mindy-kaling-s-four-weddings-and-a-funeral-series-118112200479_1.html

Quote

Emmanuel, 29, who plays Missandei on the hit HBO fantasy series "Game of Thrones, replaces Jessica Williams, who was originally cast in the show.

All other sources I saw are ignoring Williams being cast first.

=========================================================

In other news, Kelcy Griffin (Harper) looks to be bumped up to a regular on Gotham, so that means they don't need the darker Jessica Lucas (Tabitha).  One semi-dark woman is enough for "diversity", amiright?

[jhlipton]

More news:  The CW has a new show "In The Dark" starting this season.  You'll be shocked to learn that it stars a White woman, has two Black men and **NO** Black women.  SMH.

[Joimiaroxeu]

3 hours ago, jhlipton said:

More news:  The CW has a new show "In The Dark" starting this season.  You'll be shocked to learn that it stars a White woman, has two Black men and **NO** Black women.  SMH.

When I googled it the search returned head shots of the cast and two Black women were there. Both of them appear to be gorgeously dark-skinned too. Not sure whether they're regular cast members or are only showing up for a few episodes though.

[jhlipton]

7 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

When I googled it the search returned head shots of the cast and two Black women were there. Both of them appear to be gorgeously dark-skinned too. Not sure whether they're regular cast members or are only showing up for a few episodes though.

Per imdb, Leslie Silva  is in 6 out of 13 episodes and Saycon Sengbloh is in 4.  So your second assumption is the correct one.  Just like Madonna on Midnight, Texas, they'll trot these two out for a few lines in a few episodes, and pat themselves on the back for being "diverse".

But you're right -- they are both gorgeous, and almost certainly better actresses than the leads.

[aradia22]

Quote

Per imdb, Leslie Silva  is in 6 out of 13 episodes and Saycon Sengbloh is in 4.  So your second assumption is the correct one.  Just like Madonna on Midnight, Texas, they'll trot these two out for a few lines in a few episodes, and pat themselves on the back for being "diverse".

But you're right -- they are both gorgeous, and almost certainly better actresses than the leads.

I love Saycon! She's Broadway. She is a good actress.

[paulvdb]

On 12-1-2019 at 9:12 AM, jhlipton said:

Per imdb, Leslie Silva  is in 6 out of 13 episodes and Saycon Sengbloh is in 4.  So your second assumption is the correct one.  Just like Madonna on Midnight, Texas, they'll trot these two out for a few lines in a few episodes, and pat themselves on the back for being "diverse".

But you're right -- they are both gorgeous, and almost certainly better actresses than the leads.

I'm not familiar with this series, and I'm not saying that it's the case here. But IMDB's episode counts should not be considered reliable for series that haven't started airing yet. Although in this case these actresses aren't listed as cast members in the CW press release for their spring premieres. They say "IN THE DARK stars Perry Mattfeld, Rich Sommer, Brooke Markham, Casey Diedrick, Keston John, Morgan Krantz, Thamela Mpumlwana, Derek Webster and Kathleen York." Some of these supposed main cast members are listed on IMDB with less episodes than those two actresses. Or not listed on IMDB at all in the case of Thamela Mpumlwana.

[jhlipton]

On 1/13/2019 at 12:33 AM, paulvdb said:

these actresses aren't listed as cast members in the CW press release for their spring premieres. They say "IN THE DARK stars Perry Mattfeld, Rich Sommer, Brooke Markham, Casey Diedrick, Keston John, Morgan Krantz, Thamela Mpumlwana, Derek Webster and Kathleen York." 

This is what I was basing my initial assessment on.  I know that IMDB episode counts aren't necessarily reliable, but between them and the press release, I think it's safe to say that these two women will be background players at best.

On the other hand, The Passage (starring Saniyya Sidney) starts tonight.  I'm looking forward to it. 

[ursula]

4 hours ago, jhlipton said:

On the other hand, The Passage (starring Saniyya Sidney) starts tonight.  I'm looking forward to it. 

Me, too! It looks amazing. FOX has a bad rep for greenlightening black-female-led shows only to cancel them mid-season without giving them a chance, but let's see how this one goes.

Edited January 14, 2019 by ursula

[In2You]

On 1/4/2019 at 11:27 PM, jhlipton said:

So they traded a Black woman fopr a lighter=

They traded a black woman for a half white woman. Let's not sugar-coat

[Trini]

3 hours ago, ursula said:

Me, too! It looks amazing. FOX has a bad rep for greenlightening black-female-led shows only to cancel them mid-season without giving them a chance, but let's see how this one goes.

I knew this was on Fox, but I'd momentarily forgotten how they love to cancel sci-fi. So that's two against...

[Joe]

In other black woman TV news, Jordan Peele's upcoming Twilight Zone series casts DeWanda Wise and Jessica Williams in an episode.

The series looks to have a broad group of actors.

Edited January 15, 2019 by Joe

[Annber03]

Yay for Jessica Williams :). I liked her on "The Daily Show".

Quite the cast Peele's putting together for this show. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. 

[aradia22]

I went through a phase a while back when I got really into The Twilight Zone. I can't remember if it was high school or college but either way it was a long time ago. I can't say it appeals to me now. I'm not a horror person and while it's not outright horror, there is a sense of dread and suspense (especially with that old opening sequence) that I'm just not into feeling right now. That said, if anything could pique my interest, it's the diversity of the cast for this new series. I still haven't bothered to watch Black Mirror but this could catch on if it's in that vein.

[AmbrosiaK63]

Spoiler

So let me understand this about the TV screenplay adaptation of the novel " The Passage".  The child's mother in the novel is caucasian and has a baby by a married man that she met in the diner she worked at, whereas the Fox TV child character is just a dead crack addict's kid that winds up an orphan. And NO ONE saw an issue with this in pre-production?  The show seems promising, I love the chemistry, but as a WOC (woman of color), it bothers me the lazy writing of the show to flesh out black characters. It's 2019 people, but I can't really tell...... 

[jhlipton]

13 minutes ago, AmbrosiaK63 said:

  Hide contents

So let me understand this about the TV screenplay adaptation of the novel " The Passage".  The child's mother in the novel is caucasian and has a baby by a married man that she met in the diner she worked at, whereas the Fox TV child character is just a dead crack addict's kid that winds up an orphan. And NO ONE saw an issue with this in pre-production?  The show seems promising, I love the chemistry, but as a WOC (woman of color), it bothers me the lazy writing of the show to flesh out black characters. It's 2019 people, but I can't really tell...... 

Ugh.  So unnecessary.  But so typical of how shows treat Black women.