The Excessive Exploitation of Black Roles in the Media

By: Inky Rose

! Disclaimer: This may be perceived as a sensitive topic to some, don't read if you are offended easily, or aren't willing to hear my opinion on this subject. If you are, don't worry, just keep scrolling, there's plenty of other things to read!

Hello again Inky Buds, today I will be discussing the roles Black people play in movies and TV. You most likely noticed the disclaimer I wrote at the beginning of this post. I will put these disclaimers on touchy subjects that may not sit well with some audiences. Now on with the actual subject.

So, lately in these last couple of years Black Americans are getting a lot of "representation." Such as the pending Little Mermaid movie, set to release in 2023. An actress named Halle Bailey is Ariel. This may seem nice and an advancement for Black people, but is it?

Let me ask this question, if the film industry really cared about cultural representation, like they say they do, don't you think they should make new stories and characters to show it? Instead of looking at a Black actress for profit by making her play an originally white character. Honestly, that's all you, or any of them are. Profit. All they want is money. They decide that in order to make more money, they recycle an old idea and make it current with the times, even being inaccurate. For example, other than the Little Mermaid movie, there was a reboot of Alice in Wonderland titled "Come away." It was released in 2020 and was like a crossover of Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. It was somewhat historically inaccurate for its time. It doesn't officially say when the movie takes place, but it all looks like it takes place during the Industrial Revolution. I am sad to say that bi-racial couples weren't as prominent as they are now back then. In fact, they were somewhat taboo.

Actually, according to thoughtco.com: "The Commonwealth of Virginia bans all interracial marriages, threatening to exile White men and women who marry Black people or Native American people. In the 17th century, exile usually functioned as a death sentence."

This family in the movie "Come away" lived on the outskirts of London however. But practices travel overseas. According to huffingtonpost.co.uk “Despite changing demographics in the UK, where one in every 10 couples identifies as intercultural, intercultural couples still experience considerable racism,”

So how were a biracial couple in those time going to be together when the penalty in most places was death or exile?

This comes to the realization that they only use cultural "representation" when they want to. But I'm not saying to completely boot African Americans from the film industry, there needs to be more originality!

Let's take Tiana from the Princess and the Frog movie. A famous Disney movie/princess, and one of my personal favorites. The movie was great, I loved it! She was a go-getter girl that wanted to open a restaurant, and also saved a prince from a voodoo curse. It was original, new and still was a hit. It featured a strong African American woman in a positive way, and it was one-of-a kind.

Another example is the movie Hidden Figures, a historical movie about the women behind NASA during the 50's.

The movie was enjoyable not just because of the cultural representation, but overall shows girl power and strength in the form of these mathematicians and trailblazers.

Not only is the idea of "Black leads" overused and plastered on wherever it seems convenient, but there is also hardly any representation for any other cultures to start.

You won't see the same "eagerness" for a person of the Latino or Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

You may notice that on several streaming services, there are sections for genres. There will most likely be an "Black stories," "Black voices," or anything similar sections. I've noticed that under sections for Latino culture and media, it just says "Latino." Seems to be no desire to amplify them is there? The same goes for Asian, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. There may be a handful for the latter two but that's about it.

You may notice that it was Hispanic Heritage month for a while, which just ended on the 15th. Throughout the month, that culture was finally amplified, but the section for "Black voices," was still there. My question is: "Why do Black voices get amplified year-round, and other cultures only get their designated months?"

Once the month ends, the section goes away and is hidden among a plethora of movies. It is still available but isn't as visible to the viewers as it is on Hispanic Heritage month.

The same goes for practically other cultures besides African American cultures. There is no equality there, and it is clear to see who the media favors more.

My conclusion is that there needs to be more new ideas made into movies. There are plenty of writers and authors with worthwhile stories, but they aren't given opportunities. Instead the same old ideas are reused, recycled and remade. I think there is an age of recycling going on recently. The Aladdin movie, Lion King, and now Pinocchio and The Little Mermaid are being remade. Some of them are fairly good, but they aren't different besides who plays the lead, and the animation style. This was the case for the Lion King movie which featured Beyonce. It was all the same, word for word, the only difference was the animation style. I personally thought it wasn't worth the money or time and was a poor excuse of a movie. It was fairly obvious that it was just for the money, but c’est la vie.

To put it shortly, the movie industry needs to be more original, instead of using the same old ideas and just making the main character Black, or any other ethnicity. It's time to break the mold, write new stories, represent people how they want to be represented. It's time to stop thinking that "representation" is just making a character that was originally a different ethnicity, into something completely different.

I think all people and all ethnicities are worth something originally made, not just a remake!

That concludes this post for today. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thanks for reading!

Have a good day/night Inky Buds!