I was part of a fortunate generation of Black youth who eventually did get to see people who look like me represented positively on prime-time television. The Cosby Show (whose reruns have recently been pulled from networks following Bill Cosby’s guilty verdict in a sexual assault case), A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Martin. I enjoyed them but took them for granted. The problem was familiarity. Theo (Cosby Show), Will (Fresh Prince), and Martin (Martin), they were like family, cousins. I couldn’t appreciate their significance to my life or to the lives of Black—and White—people.
Strangely, I could imagine that the characters on White shows were depicting something that was real. But what was on Black shows wasn’t real—just mindless entertainment.
So, along with mainstream America, I continued to watch mostly White people living their lives. And a disturbingly consistent storyline emerged: the traditional White male narrative (TWMN). The White man as hero—father, lover, soldier, as creative, as humorous, as resourceful, the problem-solver. The White man as savior with justified violence. The White woman as every man’s desire, sometimes a damsel in distress, sometimes a badass who could keep up with her man.
I’d had enough.