One of my best friends, who happens to be white has a friend (also white, but not a friend of mine) who told her that she couldn’t “get into” Marvel’s Luke Cage because the idea of a black superhero didn’t resonate with her. She just couldn’t “see it.”

That same friend of my friend also told her that Netflix’s “Dear White People” was offensive because “they’re talking about us.” “Us,” being white people. She didn’t even care to hear what was being said to white people, why it was being said, or how-negating all forms of expression made available to the black community when “normal” modes of communication regarding inequity, racism, sexism-every other ‘ism’ failed.

This is the problem with Black stories in film and television. I’m talking specifically about Black stories, not because they are more important but because my friend’s friend’s opinion is the majority opinion.

We all know it’s true.

If you were to call my friend’s friend a racist, she would cry (she’s a cryer) and insist she didn’t have a racist bone in her body-how dare you? She has black friends!

Black friends she clearly doesn’t care to know, which is the worst form of prejudice.

She is a passive/aggressive hypocrite of the worst kind. Not just stupid but fucking ignorant…and the thing is, if you didn’t know the inner machinations of her dumb mind, you’d come away from an afternoon of coffee and donuts with her, thinking, ” she’s sweet as fuck!”

And that’s scary and dangerous as fuck, because this non-racist, sweet, simple soul is unaware of her racism. She’s not the only one. The majority of white America can only see black folk in subservient roles that make them (us) seem less threatening, like in comedies, or as menaces to society to be pitied or locked away, the two of course, are not mutually exclusive.

To my friend’s friend, Luke Cage is white America’s nightmare: big, black, powerful. Fearless and…

…Resistant.

White America is comfortable with these Black tropes: sassy best friend, comic relief. God forbid a Black American tell their own story. God forbid the narrative comes from an uncomfortable perspective.

]African American stories discussing slavery and it’s legatee, racial injustice and oppression, that don’t feature a great white hope character, nor leave the audience with the impression that black folks were in some way responsible for the atrocities they faced, are uncomfortable truths. So uncomfortable that any movie or television show based on this premise struggles to see production. Harriet Tubman, 12 Years A Slave, Emmett Till, to name a few, bear this premise out.

Critical Race Theory faces this same backlash, and is also the reason for Governor DeSantis’s ridiculous curriculum standards regarding teaching Black history in Florida.

White people don’t like to see themselves as perpetrators of, or benefactors of systemic racism and oppression. They don’t want to be perceived as victims or oppressors-different sides of the same coin, which is why they get salty and tend not to like Black shows that forget their good graces-or wag a finger at them.

Essence Magazine just released a list of Black shows being cancelled this fall.

Full disclosure: I haven’t watched many of the shows featured in the Essence article because many of the shows weren’t my *steez (happy 50th, hip hop leave some comments below if ya catch my reference), because despite a lot of educated attempts to show otherwise, the sitcoms/dramas etc., played a bit too close to racial stereotypes.

One show that I thought did a fantastic job of trying to stay true to “blackness” while debunking stereotypes of “ghetto humor,” was Grand Crew.

I’m a self-described oenophile and so I was intrigued by the series title’s brilliant word play.

They (Studio heads) used the same formula: a strange hybrid of “Sex in the City: And Just Like That, and “Friends”.

The former should have been shelved before it premiered (and as of this time of writing has been renewed for a third! season-reinforces racial, cultural, gender and sexual stereotypes). Haute Couture or no, stereotypes are offensive!

The reluctant great white hope trope never disappoints as Miranda’s character force-feeds political correctness so far down your throat it makes you want to vomit.

And speaking of AJLT why…why…why! must they dress Nicole Ari Parker’s character so gaudily? Sometimes I wonder if her style was a deliberate and subtle attempt to offend black people with fashion sense. As if we don’t see this bullshit scheme. Why in God’s name would we advertise our maintenance secrets? Would Carrie do that?

Samantha, the oversexed (and my favorite) character that Ari Parker was accused of replacing would never wear those gaudy outfits, nor wear her beauty tricks so close to the vest.

I digress.

Black television shows are cancelled because, like my friend’s stupid friend believes,” certain things are true (and not true) of Black people.

Some of us are into viticulture, and oenology and live in nuclear families. Our story doesn’t start with Roots nor end with Power.

The black community, like white folks is not monolithic; neither are our experiences and the stories we tell. Network studios and executives must understand this if they wish our patronage to continue. And stop fucking cancelling shows that empower us.

Stop Cancelling Us

Let me end with this: Grand Crew is Friends, with an all black cast. Let’s not forget we’ve been here before. Friends replaced “Living Single,” which also had a similar premise; single, successful black folk living in New York City navigating life, love and their futures.

In Grand Crew, the crew congregate at a wine bar instead of at a coffee shop like the Friends gang. It worked for those yuppie white folks. In fact, Friends lasted for 10 seasons.

Why shouldn’t the same formula, rather why wasn’t the same formula applicable for buppies?

Perhaps it was the audacity of the network, studio heads, execs, etc., to feature a confident, beautiful, full-figured self-employed black woman as a lead (Nicole Byer is fucking sublime), rather than a waif thin, entitled, privileged, “Rachel” type that most white folks can- no-prefer to relate to?

I grew up with the Fred Savage version of The Wonder Years. It was a coming of age story that deeply resonated with my sister and I. Not once during watching, did we think the story of this white family from Anytown, USA had nothing to do with us. They were a family of siblings, a mother, father and friends, once again navigating life in pre Vietnam War America with all of its American challenges. I could have looked at Wonder Years back then, the way my friend’s friend did; they didn’t look like me, they didn’t come from where I came from. But they were a family, going through family shit, and at that time black family sitcoms were few and far between…

…What? OF COURSE I WATCHED THE COSBY SHOW! Which, when you consider the controversy surrounding the success of that show, sadly proves my point about how they see us.

And so, I await, with baited breath, what will become of…

…To Be Continued…