Last whole week, I put all my
efforts on writing a history paper. Our assignment was to interview a person who
was dead and America. I chose Malcolm X to be my topic. He was probably my most
respectful person in the world history. By reading books about him, watching
his speeches, I found out that my admiration to him was continuously
increasing. When you read to here, you might want to say “Your history paper
topic has nothing to do with your blog!” Well, well, it actually does, because it
remains me a question about the black men.
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| POI casts copy from: Pinterest |
I know this sounds a little bit racist,
but I have a preference on Africa-American male for quite a long time. So it is
pretty obvious for me to notice that there are not much Africa-American important
male characters in Person of Interest. Actually, a lot of America TV series
have this problem, I mean, at least those I like and watch. The only one show
that has an Africa-America male main character I can think of immediately is
the show -- “Almost Human”,
which was cancelled after 13 episodes, very short, right? “Almost Human” is a
pretty awesome show, and it is really popular in China. I guess American
audience and Chinese audience have some disagreement on appreciation level. Otherwise
“Almost Human” were continue playing.
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| Almost Human copy from: IMDb |
Anyway, in POI Detective Carter is
probably the most important Africa-American character. However after she was
killed in the third season, the central plot basically happened between whites.
The POI team consisted of Harold, John, Shaw (probably going to leave since the
actress just gave birth to 3 children, btw Congratulation!), Root and Fusco is
almost all white, and so is the Samaritan group. Oh, my mistake: Shaw is not
white, but she is also certainly not black. I know it is not a big deal since the
audience watch shows for great story or great actors and actresses, but I also
know that audience care the diversity. America is such a diverse country, too
many people live on this land. Race or even color is always the popular topic
among the society. Especially because the Africa-American people have be the
minority of the American society for a long time and right now their number is
overcoming the whites, some media like to exaggerate race problem. So what the
media would do is they rate the TV series according to the race diverse of the
casts.
How many African-American people can you see in these picture?
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| copy from:Google
play |
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| copy from: wiki |
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| "Helix" copy from: Huffington post |
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| copy from: Coherent fangirl reviews |
The reason I feel surprise on no
having too many Africa-American casts in TV shows is that although the producers
and directors know that their show will be evaluated by the diversity of the casts,
they don’t bring more color to the show. This is not an issue only POI has, but
many other TV series have. One thing needed to be pointed out, I love POI very
much and I don’t really care whether there are hot black dudes in this show or
not. However, mainstream shows don’t use black actors is a question I have had
for a long time. I remembered one day when I was designing calendar and put photos
of my favorite shows on it, I suddenly realize that I cannot really find
several popular TV series that have Africa-Americans male main characters in
it.
So, whether American care this
diversity, or not?
I have certainly noticed the lack of diversity in American television shows. However, I can think of a few great crime shows that have African American main characters. Two American shows that do are Numb3rs and Criminal Minds. In both series black males play FBI agents. Another good show you could consider watching is Luther. It's a British crime series about an black detective. You might really like these if you're big on crime shows!
ReplyDeleteI don't know Luther, but I will check it out, thx!
DeleteAs an international student, I also feel the problem that the lack of diversity in American series, not only for African American, but also Asian and other minorities. The mainstream of American series is still white. I noticed this fact before, but I never think about the problem deeply. I think your blog provide a suggestive perspective for me of the diversity in American television shows! Your blog is very close to popular problem in not only American Series, but also American society! From the recent trend, the problem is improving. I hope that we can see more diverse faces in American series!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Recently American are making their shows more Asian. Several shows featured by Asian actors or actress are pretty popular. I think TV shows are trying to diversify race, but they are still on the process.
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