By Jocelyn Jackson Williams | Special to the OBSERVER
OPINION – I remember being so hyped when MTV first came out. I told my mom with excitement that it was going to be a channel that played music videos all day. She was not enthused. She knew what was about to happen. In my house, we listened primarily to soul/R&B, none of which made their airwaves on the Music Television Network. It would be a year before they showcased a Black artist and another year before they played Michael Jackson for the first time. That same year, David Bowie called them out in an interview for only featuring white artists on the platform. MTV finally addressed the demands to desegregate their channel and circumvented the perpetuation of systemic racism. Unfortunately, this problem persists in other entertainment spaces.
It matters how a television show establishes itself with its viewers. If a show lacks diversity from its inception, it participates in the form of systemic racism that places white people as central characters and all others orbit respectively. Whenever you introduce a person of color into this environment, they are perceived as a retraction from the “proper standard.” That proper standard is the core of systemic racism—casting decisions that feed the socio-political belief that white people come first.
The creator of the Bachelor franchise (who was ousted from the series after an investigation into racial discrimination practices) was quoted to have said, “Minorities don’t get ratings.” This is the story that has been told to override demands to reflect onscreen the actual diversity that exists in real life. The inverse of ‘minorities don’t get ratings’ is ‘people only want to see white people on the screens.’ This is the unspoken language of systemic racism. It’s what MTV perpetuated back in the day and it’s one of the branches on the tree of discrimination that has yet to be torn down.
Recently on the Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship, a troll commented on social media how the black woman didn’t deserve to be in the finals and how it was obvious that the one black judge was going to let her in the finals, but why did the two other white judges allow that to happen. That black judge, Kardea Brown, had enough and posted a video on her IG voicing her frustration that season after season, black contestants are dehumanized and dismissed for daring to compete in these spaces. As of today, I have yet to hear the Food Network take a firm stance against bigotry. Because I watch numerous shows on the network, I know it’s not just a problem on the Spring Baking Championship. Another example is Tournament of Champions, when an Asian woman won the competition, instead of her just receiving the customary accolades, detractors said that it was rigged and producers “had to let” a person of color win.
Back to the Bachelor franchise for a moment. On the most recent season of the Bachelor a Filipino/Black woman made the Top 3 only to receive hateful DMs to the likes of, “it makes me want to vomit watching you kiss (the white lead).” During the show’s live reunion, she was allowed to share with the audience a sample of the hateful things she has endured. That was the extent of the show’s visible damage control. But you can’t put a Band-Aid on something that needs to be uprooted from its very source. Cultures that create a hive for white supremacists to gather and attack cannot be resolved in a 60-second PSA.
So, what can be done? Quite a bit, actually. Networks, you can:
1. Speak up and speak out. Silence perpetuates systemic racism. It’s not enough to take 60 seconds on a show to tell people to be nice to each other. Networks need to address the hatred and stop using ratings as the benchmark for transparency.
2. Engage in allyship by publicly promoting, supporting, and protecting the people of color on your shows. Throughout the years, black people have reclaimed our humanity through telling our own stories. The narrative comes full circle when those in positions of power do the same.
3. Demand Better from Your Viewers. Growing up, there was a saying when you played dominoes: “Not all money is good money.” Likewise, not all ratings are good ratings. If a portion of your viewership feels free to spew hatred, you can publicly divorce yourself from them. You can do this by monitoring sites and restating to each hater, ad nauseum if need be, that you don’t support what they bring to the table and they, in all their entitlements, are the ones who are not welcomed.
Every time I write a column of this nature, I am greeted by the thought that I am too idealistic. Maybe, I am. But I am also onto something. Positive change occurs because of a plan being put into action. Socio-political achievements such as desegregation, the Crown Act, and a diverse and inclusive MTV are just three examples. Dear Network television, be the next.