This video review everything wrong with black representation historically and reviews how black representation continues to be problematic today despite efforts to be more inclusive in media. Representation in media including print, television, movies, and radio. It is the job of all media to represent Blackness in an efficacious manner, but it often fails to do so. This video reviews the myriad ways in which media representations fail to live up to the diversity, nuance, humanity, and reality of the what described as the Black race of people.
Please, keep in mind this video is an anthology of well documented arguments about things that are wrong with black representation in media. It isn't to be taken as single essay or indicative of the pervasiveness of any of these tropes.
Cheers
Table of Contents
00:00 - The Focus
01:08 - Black People Not Existing
02:07 - Historically Racist Black Stereotypes
04:54 - Modern Black Stereotypes
07:58 - Problematic Depictions Intro
08:23 - Black Diversity
12:01 - Black Leadership
13:47 - The OREO Dilemma
16:04 - The Fish Out of Water
17:59 - Black Culture isn't Racism
20:02 - Black and Animated
20:50 - Fin
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I need to show this to my friends to prove to them that Representation of Black people needs to be better
My friends don’t care. To them bad/good representation is representation. Its idiotic.
Thank you truly for this video. You've helped many people with this slice of advice. As someone that is bi-racial and an "oreo" it feels nice to hear that we are just one of many voices and that we are valid, but that I am not the only story to tell. Sometimes it feels that maybe there is only two to three options for black people when there is a whole array of black people. I mean look at Encanto and Pepa's side of the family, her children are all very different and yet are black. They all have their quirks such as Camilo snapping his fingers instead of clapping. Those small nods mean a lot and shows care. I also know that you are just one voice as well and also can't speak for everyone and you are not a messiah for all black people, but we do not like racism which we can agree on.
I'm so glad you appreciated it!
Yeah, cuz they're latino. You can't represent us with just one single skin tone. Why do so many Americans think that we can only be represented with one skin tone? You know a lot more families out there are mixed like that little do you know. He also don't have to have any direct ancestors to have the black skin tone be passed down to. Keyword direct. So it could be a trade passed out from a grandmother, great grandmother, great great grandmother or so on even. I literally have a black Puerto Rican grandmother who got with a caramel Mexican and created one dark skin baby, one caramel skin baby, and one light skin baby. Which might mother, and, and uncle's all went to have their own kids of various shapes. We are literally not one sheet of color. And it can even be a different shades when directly related to each other like siblings. Help, is even possible for one sibling to be completely white and another thing needs to be completely black but coming from the same mother and father. It's very rare, but it is possible. Literally my own cousins are literally just that. Once white but yet with an afro. One's black but with straight hair. Come from the same mother and the same father. We Latinos are way more mixed genetically than you think. Genetics are way more complicated than that. And we cannot be represented with one skin color. Also, can you stop separating us by color? It's bad enough that some of the Latino Nations do that as is. We don't need black people separating us and considering which one of us is part of their group when we're our own group of people. If you are mixed with latino it doesn't matter if one of your direct descendants are black / africa. And away you're still one of ours. Because the whole reason so many Latinos come out black it's because we have African in our blood. Hell, the reason why we come out so mixes because we're mixed with African our original native descendants, and the Spanish and or other European colonizers that came over. If your latino, you're descendants literally come from all over the world This is not to say you can't still count us as your people and just regular black people as your people as well. We're both your people. But you can't separate us and divide Us by color. In fact that's the last thing you should be doing with us. Obviously we're not a monolith. Many different ethnicities and cultures. But when talking about the Latino race in general, we're all mixed. And that's our people. Hell, being mixing might as well considered almost everybody else around the world are people too to be honest. Since again our descendants do come from all over. I feel like the more we realize and recognize that, the more united as people we will be. Beyond just our skin color. Answering canto, they may have been funded by a big studio but it was done by latinos. When it comes to Latino representation, we don't need Hollywood to do that for us. We do it ourselves. Nobody's going to tell our stories like us better than us. That's not to say we're against Hollywood giving it a try. We welcome it. But we don't need it. We don't need them. We can tell our own stories featuring our own people. We've always had and will continue to do so. Just because you don't watch a lot of Latino media doesn't mean we don't make our own media. You're just not typically going to find it in english. They're all on the Spanish channels. The best way black people are going to get better representation is the honestly just doing today itself. Because Hollywood doesn't give a damn about good representation of you. The only give a damn about what's in your pocket. What's in your wallet. So they'll gladly half ass it or do just your typical formulaic stereotypes in hopes that gets people in seats and makes people happy enough at least in the moment to buy a ticket or subscription fee. Of course that's not to say when they do do it half fast that you shouldn't call it out. Absolutely call it out. But who do you expect to tell your story proper and better than you?
We've also had significant findings, changes, insights in education and policy in the sciences, maths, engineering, etc. That is also apart of our culture! 🎉😉 I noticed that you only mentioned music, arts, food, faith, etc. in your 'Black Culture isn't racism' segment. This was a great video, several strong points. Really enjoyed the way you broke it down 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Thank you and Wonderful points! I was focusing on the idea of culture as defined by experience. We as humans experience our collective culture primarily through the communal aspects of our culture like the arts or food for example. We don't consciously experience sciences daily even though they contribute to our culture as in advancements in cooking techniques and hair care. I was pushing back at the harmful suggestion that our conscious "experience" as black people is that of racism when in reality our conscious experience of culture is through other much more enjoyable communal means (which they should show in film).
Any spelling typos in this video are actually a very intentional use of dialect. Thanks for watching!
Why the hell is this channel so small? This video was well made and interesting to watch
🤷♂️ Thanks
Glad I stumbled across your channel. Great video
Much appreciated
As an artist trying to learn and get into my work or do wat ever. Your video captivated me to research different black cultural architecture. I love anime and etc my bread and butter but your video made me think hard about stuff.
I'm very humbled and grateful for your comment. That's awesome!
I use a translator, so there may be errors here:( thank you for this wonderful video. I'm going to create my story in a cartoon in the future and I would like to make as good a representation of black people as possible. your video helped me a lot, I admire the work you have done
I'm so glad to hear that! I hope that your cartoon turns out wonderful!
That was a really well-explained video with some very good points. Subbed.
Awesome, thank you!
I am sorry but when you said "it made real NY look like Zimbabwe" i burst out laughing. But I love your channel because finally having a black person dissect certain media and or anything is really needed on yt because so many non-black are on hear speaking for us is really tiring no-matter if it comes from a good place
Zimbabwe is very racist. Most white people had to leave.
This is very informative, great job.
Thank you!
Keep up the good work man
Appreciate it
This was pretty informative, good watch
Thanks for watching!
@@JLisleWrites np!
This video is really helpful, thanks!
I’m a white writer who is attempting to make my stories diverse, but I’m afraid that no matter how much research I do, my non-white characters will come off as disingenuous, especially since I grew up in a 95% white area. So far the only solutions I can think of is to try to go to college somewhere much more diverse and maybe meet some people who would like to be cultural consultants that could help me write my stories. Also, later on in my Universe’s timeline race becomes less prevalent because the majority of people are mixed and racially ambiguous, and society has progressed past a lot of racial issues. (My story expresses a more positive and uplifting yet realistic future. Or at least that’s what I’m attempting to do.) Anyways I brought that up is because my concern is that my attempt to be neutral may come off as white, and I’m not sure how to counteract that. My current plan is to try and predict how cultures will merge together overtime. I’m just putting this out here in case anyone would like to give me some feedback, but I don’t expect anyone to respond.
I don't feel it would be appropriate to answer everything you wrote because I don't know your work or you, but I'll say that you might want to reconsider the instinct to erase the implications of race. Neutralizing race is something POC don't like as the dissolution of our culture and features is a byproduct of colonialism and we actually like ourselves and culture. That idea can come off violent. So, if you're going in that direction in your writing I'd suggest thinking of it as the "evolution of race" or "advancement of culture" rather than a "merge" or making things "ambiguous". I suppose that's more of a paradigm shift than a concrete change or critique.
you could also read black writers, even if only for the fun of reading. NK Jemison comes to mind if you like fantasy. I'm sure a quick google would bring up a ton more.
Wtf just write the characters like you normally would and have some happen to be black and I’d recommend not having a black person as they’re plenty represented I’d have a Native American cause they don’t even exist in cinema
@@matthewlachance3362 ah yes "please add one native american to the book". dude that sounded like ordering food rather than giving feedback. furthermore, are you aware that there a a lot of different ethnicities and cultures that would fit the term "native american"? But enough snarky comments from me and some advice to the original comment: Stick with your original idea. It does not matter if people of any ethnicity are offended by racial and cultural merging, because in the future it's either that or something less "wholesome". Don't let modern sensibilities get in the way of a good/realistic story, exept if you are uncomfortable with what you have written yourself. And if properly representing different cultures is important to you, do your research and write the characters like any other just with that research in mind and you will be fine. All of us are humans and we behave largely the same exept for differences in food and what tribe we happen to not like. (btw ethnicity does not equal culture, there are hundrets of of cultures for any ethnic group)
Now I'm scared of being called that as I have plans on making a story that takes place in Africa with an African main character (specifically a Tanzanian). I'm doing my hardest to research everything about Tanzania to make it good and accurate.
Thank you for the Gold kind stranger
I did my best.
This was soooooo good
Amazing video really underrated
Thanks! Glad you liked it!!
Is there a problem with a Caribbean descended water mage for a fantasy story in your opinion?
What a terrific video! Thank you so much for sharing ❤
Thank you.
Thanks !
You bet! 🙏
I'll try.
Great video and amazing analysis, but just wanted to ask something. If you feel you touched the topic already then ignore it. This came across vague in your videos so I wanted to ask myself to clarify. How much do you yourself with your views, take into account people’s differences personality wise? I’m just curious because it was vague to me. I learned in your videos culture is important and I agree and that makes sense. Culture is very important, rather than just token adding in black people for instance and calling it a day. So I agree that, but also a big important thing with people are people are different and their born different personalities, regardless race, gender, sexuality, parents or anything else in it. A black person could grow up in a black family with a black culture upbringing and still be themselves regardless and different, or who they are, or have personality traits out there. And there just as black as anyone else. I’m glad you broke down stereotypes as being not always true and bad and people are people and different in that regard. But I just wanted to talk about the culture aspect to it you presented. Some black people don’t like hip hop, doesn’t make them less black that’s just there preference and depends on them. Not all black people talk, act, and move the same since everyone is inherently different. They might have some other aspects of the culture like where they grew up, or any part of the culture they grew up with into. But who knows, it just depends on them, their values, and personality. I just wanted to know do you take that into account is all. If you do and that was conveyed in the video I apologize, your style of commentary is really good and unique but in some areas I got your messages implied and not as easily understood if that made sense. One thing I think I did understand from your points is black people with different personalities will maintain their inherent personality still if they grow within their culture with black people, and naturally obtain dialect, clothing from the culture and so on assuming that was one of your main points in the video. As one point to bring up there on making sure to understand your video perspective. Fantastic job with the video though, this video and its points and analysis is really good and I can tell you put in a lot of effort and analysis research into. I just had this burning question or so in my mind and had to ask it is all to you, if it matters I’m black by the way lool. Hopefully my question isnt too confusing and you get what I’m getting at. I might be overthinking the video, as usual with me but it was on my mind so I figured I'd just ask and get it off my chest and see your opinion completely. Hope that was ok.
I think I understand your question. In this video, I was talking about black representation in all media, which includes written media with characters, but I think diversity of personality wouldn't fall into that framework because characters can have homogeneous personalities regardless of their race. Which is more of film shorthand, like having the white male awkward brown haired protagonist for teen films. I think that's super important though. I think Laverne from Police Academy was very counter expectational for a black female character. So, I agree I don't think we see enough diversity in character personalities with black characters either, that's just not what this video was focused on. I hope I answered your question.
@@JLisleWrites Ok cool, I just wanted to know we’re on the same page. To be frank I think we need to get past this acting white and black BS lool and accept each other’s personality differences that were born with, regardless of how we’re raised. Thanks for that, sorry to be all weird or demanding or whatever. I just wanted to clarify. Some people are still crazy out here and don’t respect people for how they are and I knew you weren’t like that since you seem amazing and such a deep and smart and creative person. But I just wanted to make sure I guess on things. I just want people to respect each other’s differences and treat people with love and respect. It’s really that simple to me, I just wanted to be chill and cool and ask. Hopefully both now and in the future we can all respect each other’s personality differences and get along. Great reply and video again, keep up the great work man.
This totally addresses why I dont exactly think Craig of the Creek is better than, say, Static Shock which had more black culture on screen
I agree. I think that Craig of the Creek is fine for it's own thing, but it doesn't really say anything about what it is to be black. Unfortunately, I'm not sure a Static Shock would even get made today. I think I liked Static because it was primarily just black people in their own community dealing with things in their own community. If it were made today I'd be afraid that it would have a huge racism bent (which they retconned Static to be at a justice rally when he became a boom baby I heard). Which is fine if you like that kind of stuff, but racism isn't black culture.
True, Static had more blacks (those unfortunately are either one dimensional and or fit in a repeative stereotype /Spiderverse is a better opposite of this), because Static lives in an urban populace, Craig lives in the suburbs which has more characters of color, and more of Craig's extended family which happen to be black. Static is "better" in all the wrong ways, Craig isn't for the right ways.
@@JLisleWrites Craig doesn't need to say anything about what is Black, because it isn't trying to be black, it's just is (its about showing and not telling), you raised some good points here, especially with the recent milestone releases that is falling getting Static in gear to become relevant again with nothing holding back on the issues that are steadfast and concurrent.
Another comment so you get my guy. Feed the algorithm
Haha thanks
what's the film at 3:40/3:50?
Belle 2013
Question 1: What in your opinion makes the difference between a stereotypical character vs a character that just happens to have some traits associated with a stereotype? Like the difference between a black female character who happens to be assertive as opposed to "angry black woman"? Not asking to be rude I just genuinely have trouble understanding where one ends and the other begins Question 2: 16:38 so I was wondering about fantasy races who still have human traits like human skin tones, but are otherwise not human (Fairies, elves, etc.) Does your argument on neutrality still apply in these cases? Lets say for example, a story takes place in fairyland, a society that has the same racial demographics throughout, has no history of people being treated differently based on race, and sees race similar to how we see eye color. Why would a black fairy in that circumstance have different culture than a white fairy?
Thanks for asking. Generally speaking these are just problematic traits some productions have, not all. I'm also not asserting these traits in all contexts are problematic, only that they exist. That said to answer your first question, I believe that would have to depend upon the context of the program and the character's use in the narrative. A stereotypical character used in a comedy, which many black comedies do, is appropriate for that effect. The mother in Moonlight was a drug addict, which is stereotypical for a black woman, but served the overall thesis of that production effectively. I think your second question may apply to my first comment. Characters can be whatever you want them to be, but context is everything. I imagine since fairies are magical, it is believable that they can be born to appear like any race upon the earth. However, and the point of that section of the video was that if your aim is to be culturally neutral you cannot do so by pulling only from European culture in terms of the setting, dialects, topography, clothing, etc to create whatever the fairy culture is.
@@JLisleWritesthanks for the insight and for keeping up with comments under older videos. Much appreciated
Thr biggest issue is referring to yourself as black when your skin is clearly Bronze, copper or gold color. If we all switched bodies where all so called black people and so called white people switched bodies the former whites would refer to themselves as the gold race and would refer to the whites (former blacks) as pink people. Blacks will always be seen as the negative counterpart to white due to the law of polarity but in a world where a man can refer to himself as a woman why is it a race of people can't be referred to as their actual color? With that said this was a brilliant video.
In regard to your mention of the "magic negro" trope and your display of Morgan Freeman in "The Shawshank Redemption", the character of "Red" was not written as a black man in the Steven King novel. In the novel, the character was a white Irishman with red hair, hence the nickname of "Red". So that wasn't really an instance of the trope you mentioned. It was just a race-swapping of a character, partly because Red served as a narrator for the film and you just can't beat Morgan Freeman when it comes to narration. That man could narrate federal tax code and make it sound good.
i don't think anthropomorphize was the word you where going for, i understand what you mean though. That Black People are put into stories only as or predominantly as anthropomorphized animal characters. but anyway, great video.
I'm glad you understood what I meant despite the awkward phrasing. Thanks
Oreo I call it the Carlton Banks
Could you provide a good example of representation then? Because right now it seems to me like in every media there will be something "wrong" pointed out.
I suppose that's the point. Nothing is perfect. It isn't necessarily correct to praise any sort of representation as unilaterally good because there can be something lacking, and I use wrong synonymously with lacking here. But to your point, I mentioned a handful of shows with a lot of great aspects even if I pointed out a flaw like Girlfriends and the Fresh Prince.
What if I make furry characters? Do I need to take this into account? And if I create a world where I make up everything, do i need to take into account black culture then?
Well, if furries don't have races or cultures and everything's made up then no. But this is probably a better question to ask yourself isn't it? You know your work best. If you doubt yourself ask a black friend (preferably a writer) that knows your work too.
@@JLisleWritesOk! Ill try to determine myself because I was thinking that the diversity in these worlds would be cats like Servals and lions and such! Thank you so much and have a fantastic day!
5:11 I love both but I know other black/mixed people probably don't so I can see how it's offensive 😅
What’s wrong with the boondocks
It depends on what you mean by wrong. There's plenty to critique I suppose. I actually plan to do a separate video on Boondocks at some point, but I thought it was a great show.
@@JLisleWrites I meant you didn’t mention it as one of the good examples Edited: I thought it was good at representing diversity in black culture
There's always, "The Fifth Wall".👋✊👊💥💫
Watched through everything, but unfortunately, there's a ton of holes that hinder this piece as anything close to, especially with the "fish out of water" segment considering that blacks were present in Europe in the times before, and not every aspect of black culture (American black culture) would fly in other areas where other blacks reside in and celebrate it differently. Also, not every one of us likes or give a damn about Rap or hip-hop, or too much and prefers other genres, in which those other genres were pioneered by blacks artists before their apportion, do black Rock fans fit in this equation or are just aren't down with it. Pokemon included blacks as characters in their world, would that be a fish out of water assessment, because it's outlandish if you believe it is since the developers visited NY (the basis of the region in B&W) and were marred by the diversity, it became a staple point that you're putting under the microscope. And the many examples and tenets of black culture do appear, but are often ignored to be very loud and need to misinform the masses of who is or isn't defined as a part of black culture and that's damaging. Other channels discussed this topic more fully and much better.
The funny thing is, if we just stop focusing on race and stop forcing diversity and "black representation" everywhere, then these issues would gradually just disappear! We pretty much got their around the early 2000s and late 90s, but now the pendulum has swung the wrong way
Interesting, but some of these stereotypes and issues are over a century old, I can't agree solving them could be done by not focusing on race. In fact, focusing on race has historically been necessary on some level to improve social outcomes in diverse societies like American. I'd posit that we should instead approach representation with cultural humility for, I'd suggest, the media by nature tends to insist it's correct.
@@JLisleWrites what happens when someone focuses on race though? They stop looking at the person and instead look at their race, intern they end up judging people on race, which is racist, no matter the race. We are individuals, not defined by our race
I could agree with that possibly being true for people. In fact, that's a large part of cultural humility. Perhaps if they applied what you're saying to "black representation" in the media, people would find it more enjoyable.
@@JLisleWrites mate I literally hate what they have done with black representation now. I used to absolutely love seeing a cool, black actor on screen, they had screen presence and charisma cause you knew they’d earned their role. Now though, black characters are forced in and so haven’t earned their role, look out of place or inferior to white characters who have earned their role. Literally any black character I see on media now I have to question in my head if that was a diversity hire or not, can’t enjoy anything anymore! Sick of it
I tend not to think of media in this way. Most projects in the entertainment industry are made by committee. So, if something seems forced to you it's probably because that's what they're selling and it's making them money, since most if not all casting is influenced by money. I'd suggest supporting the creations and creators that don't make you feel that way.
16:44 I don't think Craig of the Creek would be much of a good example here but yeah that show was not made by black people but i see my blackness in it
8:12 lmao man… are you sure? The most openly racist coworkers I EVER had were some black dudes from Grambling University. Don’t get me wrong, it usually wasn’t mean spirited and it was funny, but I couldn’t have made the jokes they made. Also #StopAsianHate
I kinda disagree with the last part, everything that is real in black culture come from african and indian traditions and the rest is due to slavery. The food. the christanized customs, all the down to aave and what slang is used for. Like come on like as immigrant I can tell black people are subculture created in every regional culture. Color of skin doesn't change system and who we subugate, and culture arises from feelings that matter, love feels different when its not expected and we cant escape the roots of our passion. The fact that my culture were warrior elites empowers people here to do things that are so privileged it would make u gawk. When history been erased what are holding onto?
When you say black folk represent a "large part of the population" well, I guess that depends on your definition of "large'. Last stat I saw was black folk represent around 15% of the population.
do you know how big the population is. 15% is a huge number of people.
@@marymills3581 not nearly as big as the 85% of non-blacks.
15% of the US population is equivalent to 7 states. I'd be pretty concerned if 7 states got wiped off the map, I might even say a large part of the US disappeared.
@@JLisleWrites Really? Which states??
The Fish out of Water segment: I don't agree with you. Just because someone doesn't use dialect or doesn't listen to rap, it doesn't mean they are not black. Apparently, you have the same mindset as Biden who said that if you're not voting Democrat, you're not black. WTF???
Perhaps you are misinterpreting the purpose of that segment. I never suggest anyone not being black for any reason. What was actually stated was that it is problematic when only black skin tone is presented on the screen and not black culture. Culture includes many things not just dialect or music preference. I also finished the segment with 3 more examples of black culture that are not often depicted on screen (Topography, Architecture, Clothing).