TV, Interracial Dating, and Elena Tyler.

Sister Toldja goes in on the current wave of interracial casting in mainstream films:

I’m not sure how I feel about Hollywood’s new found (or perhaps revitalized***) comfort with paring Black women with White men, especially considering how infrequently we see quirky, cute, thoughtful films about Black women and Black men. I don’t necessarily see interracial couples on screen as some great sign of progression. As someone very smartly commented on Jez, we needed worry about normalizing interracial couples until we have normalized Black ones. Why? Because that’s the partnership that MOST Black people will find themselves in. In fact, with the exception of Japanese-American women, MOST Americans will marry a person of their own race.

Dropping one Black/mixed woman in a film doesn’t really do much for me in terms of seeing progress in Hollywood. I don’t feel that every film depicting a mixed couple has to involve a long, hackneyed discussion of the interracial dating “issue”, but it just seems rather unrealistic that these ladies wouldn’t have at least one Black parent, a sibling, a friend…someone else who looked like them who figured prominently in their lives. Or are these the film embodiment of the race-abandoning folks who choose to live in spaces with limited to no interaction with other Black people?

I think it’s safe to say that we at PB are for dating whomever makes you happy, race aside. With that said, I think Toldja raises some interesting questions about the preponderance of black characters who have no black friends or family, in predominately white films and television shows. I distinctly remember an episode of Boy Meets World where Angela, Sean’s gorgeous black girlfriend is sitting on a couch with the rest of the kids, who are having some mundane discussion, when she suddenly says “I really need to get some black friends.” Cue big laugh. The implication is not that we only see Angela when she’s hanging out with Cory and the gang, but that she doesn’t have friends who aren’t white. That, to me, is rather absurd. The show was set in Philly, for heaven’s sake.

While I don’t think people of color who don’t have friends of color are ‘race-abandoners,’ I do think that the number of black women on TV and film who lack their own histories is a function of two things: 1) often, characters of color are filling a quota, so just having them on the show is enough for the producers (forget about giving them a backstory) and 2) often, black/latino (and occasionally Asian) actors are filling roles that weren’t written with a person of color in mind.

I can easily name 15 black female/white male couples from television and film, just off the top of my head, while I struggle to think of just three black male/white female couples (Popular, DeGrassi, and Angel). In real life, statistically, black men are more than twice as likely to marry white women as white men are to marry black women. I suspect this disconnect is caused by one of two things. The majority of writers and showrunners are white males, and they either have hangups about black male/white female relationships, or, more likely, they’re writing stories from their own perspective. This ultimately means that the main characters are most often going to be white, and diversity has to be satisfied with sidekicks and girlfriends — neither of which are known for having three-dimensional roles.

Even when a character of color has a story of her own, it often turns out lamentably. I’ve been going through Felicity on DVD, and the character of Elena Tyler, played by the lovely Tangi Miller, is incredibly frustrating at times. Miller manages to to take a role that could easily be the bitchy, angry black best friend, and imbues it with sweetness, vulnerability, and sensitivity. And while Elena ends up with a black man — Donald Faison, who, incidentally, is half of a black/Latino interracial relationship on Scrubs, but has children with a white woman in real life — she dallies in a relationship with a white professor, and cheats on her intended with a white classmate. (Question for the room: can you imagine the precious Felicity stepping out on Ben or Noel with a black guy? Yeah, me neither.) Moreover, Elena’s storylines were often short-shrifted, including her death.

Sister Toldja says casting more movies with quirky black couples (at least one exists) would be more progressive than pairing Zoe Saldana or Thandie Newton (or Halle Berry or Rosario Dawson or Maya Rudolph or Rashida Jones) with white men, and I think she might be right. But who’s going to make those films?

I’ll probably go see Away We Go and I’ll probably like it, just like I like Felicity, and Boy Meets World, and Fringe, and every other show that has an appealing storyline and underdeveloped characters of color. But now that I’m looking back on 15 years of television watching — which started in the 90s when shows were actually more diverse than they are now — and I’m recounting how many times I’ve given a pass to and fallen for a show that marginalizes people of color, I’m incredibly disappointed. Tyler Perry productions don’t appeal to me at all, but Tyler Perry does employ black actors. I didn’t love The Game, but it was a comfort to know it was on. I don’t believe in black shows and black magazines and black movies just for the sake of having them, but I do find the consistent failure of the shows I love to represent women and people of color with any depth…taxing.

Shani

Latest posts by Shani (see all)

  • I kind of thought of it as Hollywood’s own bastardized one drop rule. See they add just one ethnic character and not change the flavor. However, any more than that and the writers probably feel that it would probably transform their artsy flick into a Madea flick with a few more white people…whew, it’s just not the type of movie they were trying to make.

    What is kind of cool is the prominence of these interracial characters, and thus the black/ethnic female is getting a larger role. The pairing of white characters with black/ethnic characters (where there are starring roles) is also allowable because of something to do with the ‘halo’ effect. Because white is so normalized and associated with good characteristics, pairing an ethnic love interest with a white one transfers a little of that halo. So, that ethnic character is no longer as angry/emotional/irrationally religious/ and allowed more screen time, then if they had been ‘unattached’.

  • Grump

    I don’t believe in black shows and black magazines and black movies just for the sake of having them, but I do find the consistent failure of the shows I love to represent women and people of color with any depth…taxing.
    **************************************
    This right here I can definately agree with you on. Its tough to handle watching a show or movie that appeals to you in one manner but severely lacks for you in another. And then, trying to make up for whatever deficiencies that may occur. I read Esquire and GQ, but I had to get King just to supplement those 2 other magazines’ lack of “a cultural appeal” being a Black male.

  • Shani, this is an interesting topic (ok, all your topics are interesting), but I know from Toldja’s tone (that is a clever-ass name right there) that what she really wants is nobody dating ‘her’ people. I dunno, maybe because I am mixed or maybe because I am in a ‘mixed-race’ marraige (to an Asian woman no less! Someone call Angry Asian Man!), I can usually pick up on people who might, as you say, raise interesting questions (which is a dubious accomplishment to me) versus people who want their men/women not to date outside the race (and even keep the bloodlines pure), and Toldja is most def in the latter category. Hell, I am a race-traitor/abandoner to boot! To people like her, I heartily give out a middle-finger.

  • What I find really interesting about Sister Toldja’s original post was the discussion of Rashida Jones, who I had NO IDEA wasn’t white. So, in addition to characters like Angela on Boy Meets World, who kind of just exist in some whitewashed netherworld void of any critical identity exploration, it’s also interesting to see women of color “passing.” You know, here you have a woman of color getting pretty big roles, becoming a pretty recognizable face, and folks like me don’t even pick up on the “of color” part of her identity.

    I wonder if network politics/network decisions play some role in this. Tristan Wilds’ character on the new version of 90210 is a black kid adopted by a white Kansas family that moves to LA. There was one scene early on in the season in which his racial identity played a role, but you’d think the particularly odd circumstances of his character would call for a few more plot lines related to the fact that he’s an adopted black kid at a rich white school. He even dated a white girl, visited his (black) birth mother, and was tempted by a black cheerleader to cheat. Yet, nothing even came close to an interesting discussion of racial identity.

    (this should go without saying, but don’t ask me how I know so much about 90210.)

  • Why ARE shows and movies so much less diverse now that 10-15 yrs ago? I watch A LOT of Law & Order, and have the first 4 or 5 seasons on DVD, and it’s SUCH a different show in terms of characters and story lines.

  • Ok, I am going to try and write a response to this issue that goes beyond my personal paranioa (is that even possible?). There are two things that stood out to me from your piece Shani that I really felt uncomfortable about:

    “The majority of writers and showrunners are white males, and they either have hangups about black male/white female relationships, or, more likely, they’re writing stories from their own perspective. This ultimately means that the main characters are most often going to be white, and diversity has to be satisfied with sidekicks and girlfriends — neither of which are known for having three-dimensional roles.”

    I find this line of thought troubling because it assumes a linear movement from identity to writing that I find quite pernicious. Yeah Good Times was not perfect (in terms of initial idea to the way they handled JJ and everything in between), but the writing was always solid for a sitcom. I mean, if writers can only write from their own perspective, then I suppose movies should only have white leads because whites cannot empathize with any other race. I know you are not implying the latter, but I see the same twisted logic in both arguments. Not that nowhite writers should NOT be writing, but I will not grant that whatever amount of black writers on any given show would make the black characters ‘better’, because then all that means is that black writers are only good at writing about black characters. This is a really tricky series of issues but I urge caution in terms of the solutions.

    The other thing I question is the issue of three-dimensional roles and the writing. Should we aim for more nonwhite leads, or better-written girlfriends? Both? Should we aim for ‘rainbow’ casts or ‘realistic’ casts (where the black lead dates white women) or ‘x’ casts? I think a better way of framing this is the deteriorating quality of pop-culture over the past two decades, but I wonder what the ‘better’ solution would be? I would go for realistic myself, so if your show was set in DC, Chicago, LA, NY or there would be a large black and brown presence, but that is just me.

    As per Toldja’s overall point, I heartily disagree. People do not realize just how taboo interracial dating still is and has been, and for every I Love Lucy or The Jeffersons there are fifty shows that would NEVER concieve of ‘polluting the blood’. Now, if you want to point out that a bunch of light-skinned mulattas are essentially passing and cashing out on their ‘exoticism’, thats all well and good (and I disagree), but christ, a string of popularish films where black women (thank you one-drop rule) date white men and its no big deal? This is a VERY different media environment in United States history, and while I am not arrogant enough to ask Toldja to wait patiently for moderation, I find this to be much more progressive than the idea of whites-only blacks-only dating (with apologies to Biko, Fanon, Assatta, Malcolm, et al). When we find our common humanity is where we find progress.

  • ladyfresh

    So THAT’S what happened to Trina/Angela thanks for the link!

    I’m not sure what to say here being a mixed woman. I’m torn between being happy at seeing black women with more options (i’m woefully tired of the cant find ‘a good black man’ there’s plenty imho and if not find SOMEONE, don’t restrict yourself), seeing black women on film in actual relationships (representation was mainly single for the longest or hoeish/sex kittenish)and yes as one of those black but not ‘fully’ black seeing women being chosen for some ‘other’ quality is conflicting. The same reason i ‘X’ people out of my life(can you handle the reality of my family?) i see being ‘X”d out in media they have no friends, no family only the SO apparently and it’s disturbing.

    It’s bitter/sweet feeling I guess. ‘Away We Go’ seems like something i’d like and will see.

  • There are a couple assumptions in this post (and Toldja’s) that I’m not sure make a lot of sense. The first is that there’s this new surfeit of white man/black woman relationships in TV/cinema, and that there’s a corresponding dearth of representation of black male/black female relationships. But aren’t the overwhelming majority of black characters on TV who are paired up with significant others linked to other black folks? And haven’t white male characters long been allowed couplings with East Asian women and South Asian women and Latinas as well? (J.Lo is a bigger name than any of her male leads, and has always been cast opposite white men; Lucy Liu is usually the only person of East Asian extraction in anything she’s involved in.) It seems like this “phenomenon” — to the extent that Rudolph and Jones portray characters that are even “raced” to begin with — is just a widening of the scope of who white guys are allowed to link up with onscreen. And yet all of that has gotten left out in the two posts.

    (Also, in the original post, Shani linked to my earlier PB entry about Medicine for Melancholy as an example of “quirky black onscreen couples.” But that’s a bizarre inclusion. One of the film’s central tensions is that the two leads are participating in a social milieu in which there were not many other black people, which meant that dating the people who liked the shit that they liked and into their scene necessarily meant dating people who weren’t black. The question they’re wrestling with in the film iswhether their blackness was a compelling reason for them to consider dating; invoking that movie actually complicates this conversation, because it was so ambivalent about the answer.)

    (Also, also: I recall Lisa Turtle having a romantic subplot and some Negro spontaneously materializing at Bayside for her to link up with.)

    And then there’s this weird, little digression by Toldja against Winslow:

    “you seem like the stereotypical Black man in mixed relationship who has some deep seated issues with Black women and gets unreasonably angry at anyone who dares challenge the allmighty Black man’s ability to boo and screw whomever he pleases. These are NOT the men who simply end up with a woman they love regardless of race, but rather those who are opposed to the idea of mating with a Black woman and will marry a soup can if there is a non-Black vagina on the inside.”

    This alleged phenomenenon — an army of self-hating Negroes who just love them some white women — comes up with hilarious frequency in conversations about interracial dating. “Oh, it’s okay if the people involved in the IR are actually together for the “right” reasons, but we shouldn’t countenance those creepy fetishists!” To the extent that interracial dating is a “problem,” talking about some obnoxious outliers who hate black women in EVERY CONVERSATION about interracial couples is sorta like talking about those fat babies covered in olive oil on Maury Povich in conversations about America’s obesity epidemic. How much of the larger phenomenon do they actually represent? (And, more importantly, why would anyone on the outside of that dyad be arrogant enough to name themselves the arbiter of whether it’s the “good” kind of IR and when it’s the “bad” kind?)

    “Y’all asses certainly identify as Black when the cops pull you over unfairly or when you are descriminated against or you feel that you have been violated in some such way. But then when it’s time to deal with women, it’s all “We are the world”.

    Huh? This weirdly suggests that people are incapable of holding two ideas in their heads at the same time, that they can’t critically think about race and be in interracial relationships. This is where Winslow, I think, is right: the tone of all these things together smacks of racial policing more than “raising interesting ideas.”

  • I’ve been lurking on this site for some time and I love it. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that it’s rough to comment on this issue without coming off as defensive since I am in an interracial relationship with the dreaded white man. We’re about to be married and have a little one-so these issues are top of mind for us both.

    In general, I’m not a fan of the “you have to wait your turn” meme. It reminds me of our recently past presidential election where there was some notion that it was white women’s “turn” in the White House seat. So for me the idea that we “As someone very smartly commented on Jez, we needed worry about normalizing interracial couples until we have normalized Black ones. Why? Because that’s the partnership that MOST Black people will find themselves in,” is a bit problematic.

    Widespread or not this is sort of paring is the norm for many people as is the existence of other sorts of “nontraditional” couplings including homosexual ones. Also, we shouldn’t forget that the ability for folks to marry/partner with who they choose has been greatly affected by a myriad of racist legal and social systems in this country. Because these systems are so ingrained, we’ve normalized these ideas of “sticking with ones own kind,” etc.

    Overall Hollywood is awfully mediocre on all fronts when it comes to representations of nonwhite people and that does need to change.

    Anyway, that’s just my two cents.

  • Well, right now Hollywood is hurting. They spend way too much money on these movies and the end result is disposable entertainment at best and since people are holing onto their wallets a little tighter they no longer as willing to take risks.

    We are living in what is essentially a “1960s-lite” and much like that era the ground is fertile for a filmmaking renaissance. Right now there is nothing out there (in the mainstream, where it matters most) that speaks to the pressing issues at hand. It’s just guys with hangovers, giant robots and spaceships. Now there is nothing wrong with that. But there was a time (60s, 70s) when Hollywood put out biting topical pieces (then Jaws happened).

    One would assume that as a result of the less than stellar box office returns we may see a film with “a big strapping black man like Idris Elba on screen with some lily white darling like say, Calista Flockhart” just for the sheer hysteria-inducing titillation factor of it. Although I think it would be more provocative if Idris was paired with Reese Witherspoon. I can already see it. A rural farm girl runs away to the big city where she hooks up with a tough-as-nails, but erudite former boxer, falls in love, gets married and returns home for the holidays with her new hubby, parents object. The film’s climatic moment happens when Reese reveals to her parents that she is pregnant. Family is ready to disown her but then Idris steps in and whoops Reese’s sister’s abusive alcoholic boyfriend during Thanksgiving dinner. I know, it’s cheesy, but that’s Hollywood. They won’t give you everything you want.

  • s. lux

    i went to film school. where i was the only woman and person of color in most of my classes. In most of the projects and jobs i have had. i was the only black person. lack of representation behind the screen will most definitely lead to lack of representation on the screen. i can tell u the powers that be DO NOT want to see us. They especially do not want to view us as well rounded humans. i often have to CORRECT thoughts and behaviors as it relates to US. Black Actresses have a lack of roles period, let alone quality roles. I don’t necessarily view Maya Rudolph and Rashida Jones as representing women of color. Their roles are easily interchangeable and their phantom family and friends prove just that. this is DEFINITELY NOT PROGRESS. Someone mentioned Chicago, and LA. I can tell you from living in both places that they are very segregated. So how a show would realistically represent those cities would be interesting. they way we will be represented adequately is thru indie cinema. now distribution is a whole other animal.

  • The episode you’re thinking of is when Angela and the gang are playing a game called ‘What’s Your Soap Opera Name?’ where you’re supposed to take your middle name and combine it with where you live. So she says her name was ‘Shaynaynay Martin Luther King Blvd’. None of them get the joke, and she laughs and says ‘Boy I really need to get some more black friends’.

    Its Shawn, by the way, not Sean. And yes she was absolutely gorgeous <3