What does true diversity look like?
We’ve heard time and time again, Hollywood needs to open its doors up to Diversity both in front and behind the screen. Hollywood uses troupes time and time again when casting somebody who doesn’t conform to their Eurocentric appeal. But are we slowly reaching an era of Diversity? And if so, what does Diversity look like?
I believe diversity looks a little bit like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJp-BZpVBPA
Allowing people of different races, religions, ages, and appearances within narratives to just be, without carrying the cultural baggage that comes with their appearance.
This is Quantico, my favourite television show currently. Quantico features an Indian female lead, Egyptian Muslim twins (one who wears the headscarf the other who doesn’t), a Jewish boy, a White blonde woman who was fluent in arabic, a Chinese girl who is one of the most intelligent on screen, and an African- American woman whose leads the rest of the cast. BTW they’re all training to be a part of the American FBI. impressive right?
The beauty in Quantico is not in the quantity of their diversity, though I must hand it to them for being able to cast so many different people, but it is in the quality and equity in the characters screen time and development. For once we see a TV show which isn’t assimilationist, certainly not pluralist, and to be rather frank though portraying elements of multiculturalist goes beyond the scope of this definition as it dwells into the deep rooted lives of each character going beyond their perceived racial or cultural backgrounds but within their human psyche. The television show may seem multiculturalist as it deals with real life race problems in the face, such as the response to Alex Parish’s (Indian FBI character) character being framed as the terrorist because, “It’s easy to blame the brown girl”, or the Egyptian Muslim twins being warned against entering the terrorist intelligence squad in the FBI because “the terrorist only looks like you today, they won’t need you once the face of the terrorist changes”. But it truly is a testament which goes beyond and is even better than being multiculturalist as it doesn’t just limit itself to the racial and cultural issues which come with looking a certain way and balances it out with a focus on the individual. Each individual breaks norms from the White blonde girl who speaks Arabic, to the Jewish boy who is gay. This is what the future of television should be like, a fourth dimension to television maybe called “Diversity + Individuality”.
This is Quantico, my favourite television show currently. Quantico features an Indian female lead, Egyptian Muslim twins (one who wears the headscarf the other who doesn’t), a Jewish boy, a White blonde woman who was fluent in arabic, a Chinese girl who is one of the most intelligent on screen, and an African- American woman whose leads the rest of the cast. BTW they’re all training to be a part of the American FBI. impressive right?
The beauty in Quantico is not in the quantity of their diversity, though I must hand it to them for being able to cast so many different people, but it is in the quality and equity in the characters screen time and development. For once we see a TV show which isn’t assimilationist, certainly not pluralist, and to be rather frank though portraying elements of multiculturalist goes beyond the scope of this definition as it dwells into the deep rooted lives of each character going beyond their perceived racial or cultural backgrounds but within their human psyche. The television show may seem multiculturalist as it deals with real life race problems in the face, such as the response to Alex Parish’s (Indian FBI character) character being framed as the terrorist because, “It’s easy to blame the brown girl”, or the Egyptian Muslim twins being warned against entering the terrorist intelligence squad in the FBI because “the terrorist only looks like you today, they won’t need you once the face of the terrorist changes”. But it truly is a testament which goes beyond and is even better than being multiculturalist as it doesn’t just limit itself to the racial and cultural issues which come with looking a certain way and balances it out with a focus on the individual. Each individual breaks norms from the White blonde girl who speaks Arabic, to the Jewish boy who is gay. This is what the future of television should be like, a fourth dimension to television maybe called “Diversity + Individuality”.
While the Multiculturalist approach is a great start as we see in “Fresh off the Boat”, and “Black-ish” it’s also not enough. The mark of the plural is just as present in the multicultural approach as it is in the assimilationist or pluralist approach. Because unlike “Diversity + Individuality” the multiculturalist approach still feels the need to address racial stereotypes and cultural concerns in great depth in order to correct the perception the larger public has on a particular race. However, “Diversity + Individuality” uses a different tactic in order to combat stereotypes, rather than dedicating an entire portion of an episode as an antidote to a representation this dimension dwells into the mental state of the character, the back story, the story before the culture, the inner workings of a being ensuring there is harmony between viewing someone as their society but also as themselves. We need more character development in television, we need people who look a way but act in the opposite direction of their stereotype which we audience can swallow through solid justifications. We need more Quantico, more Quality.
Quantico is definetely one of the more progressive mainstream television shows when it comes to diversity. It's a welcome change especially when there have been few actors recently who have left television shows because as a poc actor they were not given any character development or equal screen time to their white costars.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of “Diversity + Individuality” which tends to get over looked because many are satisfied with only representation of diversity.