White Faced Screens are Out

Without Fred Armisen, the man whose racial ambiguity allowed him to play characters of many ethnicities and with Kenan Thompson’s refusal to dress in drag, Saturday Night Live has recently hired a female black cast member, Sasheer Zamata. SNL is one of the many shows that has recently been cataloged in the Internet community’s “hit list” of shows that need more diversity.

The Internet community is not at all at fault for its vehement protests, as the purpose of a television show involves maintaining a sense of verisimilitude even in the unlikeliest of circumstances. The world of television, though fictional, needs to maintain some semblance of reality, for the sake of the quality of the show and the viewers alike. Though one-third of the American population is comprised of people of color, many popular shows feature an exclusively white cast.  

Some of the lack of racial diversity could be due to the fact that only 7% of the people in decision-making positions or those working behind the camera are people of color.

Colorblind casting, however, could potentially solve many of the problems regarding diversity. Shonda Rhimes, creator of such shows as Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy, is lauded for featuring casts that realistically depict the diversity of America.  Having not decided on her characters’ ethnicities while writing the pilot, Rhimes’s casting process was described as “wide open.”

Given the high ratings and critical acclaim of both of Rhimes’s shows, the problem with diversity in the media is not due to America not “being ready” for a cast that reflects real-life America. Rather, Americans are just underexposed to heterogeneity on their televisions.

I’m tired of having to watch a white-washed screen all the time, but it isn’t enough for a TV show just to have diversity. Shows need to utilize their people of color without merely reducing them into trite stereotypes and tropes. Rhimes’s shows are successful not only for their filling the “diversity quota,” but also for portraying all characters as actual humans.

And as much as I would love to be a barrier-breaker and an Internet darling, loved by all of the commentators on Jezebel as the first East Asian female writer for SNL, I certainly hope that by the time it is my turn, I can waltz into the entertainment industry without being defined by my ethnicity. I would hate to be the one to set the precedent. Shouldn’t we have moved past the issue of diversity on TV by then?
-J

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