Race Problems

So I have a problem, a problem that I addressed in a Strange Log but now I'm dedicating a full-on article to it because I've had time to gather my thoughts on the topic and come up with a coherent argument about my problem and the full scope of the issue. The writing industry has a Race problem, but not the problem you might think, so what is the problem? I'll address that after the break;

So here's the thing I've noticed that if there is a show with an exclusively Black cast it will either be about: Sports, The Music Industry, Gangs, A sit-com or Racism...I'll give you now to prove me wrong...and you can't do it. Why is that? Narratively are Black people void of anything other than those tropes? Be honest. You're watching a show with an all-Black cast and there's ALWAYS that moment where you gotta have the obligatory Racism episode. Back in the 90s MAYBE that was necessary to shake loose the last vestiges of prejudice that still lingered in the 80s, but let's be honest, racists, like ACTUAL literal Racists who absolutely hate Non-White people can hardly function in any logical capacity considering Black people are almost everywhere you look...at least on television anyway.

The 90s saw a LOT of diversity with shows like "Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air", "Martin", "Family Matters" and many, many others and each of them had the obligatory Racism episode. But again in the 90s, it's forgivable...nowadays it's almost a parody of what it used to be. Case in point, in the current Disney+ series "Falcon & Winter Soldier" we're treated to a moment where Sam and Bucky are having an argument, not a heated one, mind you, on the street, the police arrive and ask Bucky if Sam is bothering him, they ask to see Sam's ID and Sam declines until the other officer tells the other who Sam is (ie, an Avenger) and the officer immediately backs off. This moment was completely jaw-dropping for several reasons, none of them good. For starters, they were in "the hood" so if anything Bucky looks more outta place than anyone, furthermore the police aren't just gonna pull over two people having a conversation, White or Black. Furthermore, why didn't Sam just show him his ID? He says he didn't have it, so we're lead to believe that Sam Wilson doesn't carry his wallet on him?

Why not show him your ID? Why agitate the situation even further?

Furthermore, what was supposed to happen in this scene? Suppose Sam did hand over his ID? The officers would've looked at it, realize they messed up, and apologized JUST LIKE THEY DID WHEN THEY FOUND OUT WHO HE WAS! Am I (the target audience) supposed to nod and go "Yep! That's exactly how it is! That's how they treat us!"? Was Sam one lack of ID away from suffering police brutality at the hands of two cops? Or was this a stupid scene that didn't need to be in the series? The police could've just arrived for Bucky and that would've been that. Hell, not even the police, let the CIA or some other intelligence agency arrive to grab Bucky for his therapy session, anything other than some stupid Two Racists Cop moment. But it gets worse.

While on a plane with Baron Zemo, Sam and Bucky get into a discussion about Marvin Gaye's music leading Baron Zemo to say: "It's a masterpiece, James. Complete. Comprehensive. It captures the African American experience.", to which Sam replies that Zemo is "out of line" but correct. And again, me being the target audience, was I supposed to furrow my brow and say how dare Zemo discuss the African American experience? OR was I, like a rational person, supposed to understand the compliment for what it was. Basically, Zemo was saying that Marvin Gaye was so good a singer and lyricist that someone like Zemo (a wealthy, White European, royal) could understand the concepts Marvin sang about, and not only did he understand it but he liked it enough to call it a masterpiece, in what way is that "out of line"? I suppose it's out of line because Zemo isn't allowed to say that...which would totally defeat the purpose of Marvin's music or anyone's music in the first place!

When the villain is the LEAST racist person in the room...

Or take this current iteration of "Twilight Zone", in the episode "Replay" (which was just a propaganda piece for BLM...let's be honest) a mother has to watch as each timeline she travels through her son is constantly harmed by a racist police officer, however...the son, Dorian is constantly showing himself to be unwilling to follow the officer's instructions, walking towards him and having a combative attitude. Now while I agree that the officer's demands were entirely bullsh*t (and that's the point) they literally had to make him a caricature for the episode to even work. They couldn't make The Officer plausibly racist, he had to be comically racist, so racist that it's PAINFULLY obvious he's racist. And again, I speak as the target audience, what am I supposed to think was gonna happen, that even if Dorian was just following all the instructions the officer gave him he'd have still ended up getting harmed? Of course, the target audience would agree and say "Yeah, cause that's exactly what'd happen! A Black man could just be doin' nuthin' and the police would just find any ol' reason to kill him!"...so with that in mind the options are: Follow instructions and get shot OR act combative and get shot. By creating this completely fictional, comically racist scenario further drives the narrative that the ONLY compelling story to be told about Black people is their triumph over racism.

"Hi, my name is Officer Ray Sist, I'd like for you Coloreds to show me some Eye-dent-E-fi-cay-shun!"

But it's not just TV shows like "Black-ish" (and their spin-offs...how of which they've acquired I have no clue...except by some Satanic agreement) that feel the need to CONSTANTLY showcase how they're Black and everyone else isn't and their "Blackness" is something that no one else can understand. Open racism is treated as a joke and at worse the ONLY narrative plot-point one can have when working with Black people. Case in point, "Lovecraft Country" could've been about anything, and yet because it's all-Black cast it has to take place during The Jim Crow Era...because Black...The (awful) HBO "Watchmen" series could've been about anything, but once again because we have a majority Black cast, here comes The Klan in the FIRST EPISODE! BECAUSE BLACK! Then there's the movie "Antebellum" which is a horror movie about a modern-day woman who finds herself on a slave plantation...

There's "Get Out" which features a Black man and the majority of the cast are White and guess what, they take advantage of the Black man, and while the villain in the film makes it clear that it isn't a "race thing", EVERY SINGLE abductee is Black. Furthermore, Jordan Peele says that the inspiration for the film was meeting his wife's parents, which wife is White...but it's totally NOT a race thing...sure. Would "Get Out" have worked if it was an all-White cast? Would "Antebellum" work if it was just a forced labor camp instead of a mock slave plantation? The answer is no because apparently racism is a uniquely African American plot device, it's actually not. Anyone including White people are able to experience racism but that's not written about, is it?

This chick has seen more Black dongs than Riley Reid...

Now while I can't really discuss how they feel about it, I've noticed similar narrative issues when it comes to other races, for example, if it's mostly Asian cast, the plot device is usually assimilation vs culture and by that I mean there's ALWAYS the strict traditional Asain character (usually older) who doesn't speak English or chooses not to and has Asain stuff all around the house and are very proud of their heritage and then there's the character that's just trying to hide the fact that they're Asian. For Latinos, it's usually about their immigration status and their attempt to avoid stereotypes. For anyone from the Middle East isn't almost always about terrorism or being perceived as a terrorist and someone challenging Islam. However, if you're White, you're a Zero, you're water, you can fit in anywhere. Why can't anyone else?

As a writer I find this completely baffling because whenever I create a character for whatever story, while I don't consider race, I usually come up with a name and a face eventually follows, I have many characters, who are many races, religions, sexual persuasions and never once do I make these dominate features or exclusive plot devices unless the plot calls for it. But at no point would I say "Oh, this character is Black better talk about racism." because you can do more with a Black character than just talk about racism. Furthermore, I don't even think of characters in terms of race or gender, I think of the character as that character. In my mind, The Character needs to be true to who The Character is, so while writing and knowing the Character's experience I'd ask myself how would The Character react to this? Rather than what would a Black guy say or something similar.

The thing is I have YET to see a series that features an all-Black cast that doesn't call attention to the fact that they're Black. While I understand sports and music are fixtures in the Black culture and there's nothing wrong with that, I'd like to see some (dare I say it) diversity in our media. Why is there no Black "Big Bang Theory", or Black "Frasier"? Yes, I understand that these are sitcoms but c'mon, is there a show that features REALLY intelligent Black guys who are socially inept and REALLY into comic books? Is there a show about two sophisticated Black guys who dine on high society while getting into hilarious situations? Where's the Black "Arrested Development" (and to be fair, I  HATE this show, there, I said it) about a highly dysfunctional Black family (that isn't ghetto). Just saying, why can't Black people simply have a show where they're just people? Why must race ALWAYS be a topic? That's my question and that'll do it for me, I'll catch you guys later!