As a child, I never really noticed the lack of cultural diversity in the shows or films I watched. Since I was growing up in a fairly diverse city, race wasn’t something I was very conscious of – until I started to get older. That’s the thing about systemic racism; you don’t necessarily notice it until you actively start analyzing and questioning the societal “norms” we were taught. People may not have been calling me names or making fun of my culture in obvious ways, but racist ideologies and cultural ignorance were (and are) embedded into institutions and every day life, and treated as if that was standard. I didn’t know any better, but now I do. I thought watching shows where the cast was all white was just how it was. It took me a while to question why I wasn’t seeing people like myself or my friends, who were coming from all kinds of cultural backgrounds, onscreen. Whiteness always prevailed, and it was taught to us systemically that this was the normal, most universal way. Fortunately, shows like “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”, “The Cosby Show”, “Family Matters”, and various other shows paved the way for showing diversity in the sitcom world.
These days, thanks to the bravery of our oppressed predecessors, we are becoming more and more aware of the unjust and unrealistic nature of “white-washing” in mainstream media. People – race, gender, and sexuality alike – want to see themselves onscreen. We want to see the diversity of the world reflected onscreen, characters that go through the struggles that minorities go through on a daily basis. We want to see PoC characters that aren’t just the sidekick, a minor presence, or written as racist stereotypes. Most importantly, a depiction that is not pushed out through the white lens, but one that is authentic to its subject matter. Since television and videos are able to reach people all over the world, it is important that we use this platform to build towards more acceptance and understanding between each other. Here is my list of five great shows that show authentically diverse representation, and aid in teaching us to be more mindful and aware, as well as about different cultures, races, religions, and people.
Chewing Gum
Writer, creator, and actress Michaela Coel has written a hilariously quirky British sitcom about a religious girl obsessed with losing her virginity. The show highlights the taboo nature of sex, sexuality and romance within some strict religious households, and working through that curiosity and internal guilt. Coel keeps it light and funny, but through that highlights some pertinent things: being Nigerian in London, how familial relationships are affected when navigating your own values, being first-generation born in a western culture, and how other people perceive religion. The show works hard not to reduce anything down to a trope, and maintains a relatable quality to anyone that might deal with a religious or culturally strict household. Even if you’re not coming in with that background, Chewing Gum is a delightful show that is unafraid to approach its topics, ultimately making you feel that no matter your race or religion, we all go through the same internal struggles sometimes.
Master of None
Aziz Ansari has been active in the comedy and acting community for years, perhaps best known for being in Parks and Recreation. So when Master of None came out – created by Ansari and Alan Yang – people were familiar with his face, but probably weren’t expecting the masterfully introspective show that it turned out to be. The show ranges in topics and perspectives, with an inherent focus on minorities and the complex identity of being first or second-generation born in the Western world. Through the show’s platform, Ansari and Yang focus on the depiction of stereotypes within various minority communities, generational differences, familial relationships, religion and culture, dating in the modern era, and more. The list could honestly go on forever, because even though each of the two seasons has a limited number of episodes, numerous issues are visited. Master of None gives viewers insight into various perspectives, and while Ansari’s character Dev mainly stays at the forefront, some episodes hardly involve him at all, demonstrating the show’s need to explore a diverse range of cultures and lenses.
Kim’s Convenience
I’ll admit that I’ve only watched a few episodes of Kim’s Convenience, but boy is it great. Set in Toronto, the show follows a Korean family that owns a convenience store, focusing on the relationship between the parents and children. The cultural divide that is inherent between immigrant parents and first-generation born Canadian children is expertly and unabashedly shown here. The complex cultural identity I mentioned earlier when talking about Master of None is evident in Kim’s Convenience as well, but in this case the self-journey focuses on every family member. We are reminded that parents learn and change through their children just as much as children learn from their parents, developing together even through alienating instances. The show deals with traditional cultural ideologies, and sometimes intolerances or concepts that our parents’ generation may have, in contrast to the Western society that they are living in. This is not to say that the Western ideologies are depicted as being “better”; rather, the show seems to emphasize the maintenance of balance between different cultures, and the way we cultivate relationships with our parents even if we feel we are vastly different from them.
Dear White People
Similarly to Kim’s Convenience, I have only watched a couple of episodes, but I am already hooked. This show is exactly the kind of raw, blunt, tongue-in-cheek, satirical drama that we need in this day and age where cultural appropriation, systemic racism and just straight up racism are unfortunately still present. Taking on the perspective of a different character in each episode, I can already gather from the few that I’ve seen that this show tackles white privilege in the most informed, straightforward, and hard-hitting way. It deals with racism, stigma, injustice, and stereotypes within all communities, but chiefly focused on the black community in a primarily white university. Social justice activism and interracial love are just a few of the topics I’ve seen so far in the show, so I can only imagine what amazing things the rest of the show has in store. Dear White People is an empowering, eye-opening work that is incredibly important for everyone to watch in order to gain a better understanding of the harrowing racism – in all its forms – against the black community in the Western world, particularly in America.
Jane the Virgin
Some of you might have read the post I wrote about satire in Jane the Virgin, but what this show also has is incredible insight on being Latin American living in America, made possible by an awesome PoC cast. The whole concept, in fact, revolves around Jane’s own religiousness as per influenced by her devoutly Catholic grandmother, who teaches Jane at a young age that she must save her virginity until marriage. Throughout the show Jane struggles with her values, identity, sexuality, and spirituality. Jane the Virgin explores the individuality of religion, and the stigma attached to it, as well as highlighting some of the negative impacts – such as shame, anxiety and guilt – that certain religious doctrines can create within a person. The show also highlights being an immigrant and illegal resident in America, and the systemic racism towards Latin American peoples. Ultimately, it is an extremely personal journey, and it is due to the unimposing nature of Jane and her family that many of us viewers end up relating to them.
~ Z ~
Photo by Vladislav Klapin on Unsplash
