The black female narrative: a prisoner of oppressive TV and film tropes:

Black priest and civil rights leader Malcolm X once said: “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman”.The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” Unfortunately, this mistreatment has extended into the world of Television for as long it has existed.

Looking at present-day statistics, In 2019, only 20% of female characters in TV shows were created by Television production companies for black actresses, as opposed to 66% of those female characters who were created by the same production companies for their white counterparts. This appalling discrepancy shown in statistics is but the tip of the iceberg for the mistreatment of black women on TV. For those rare times when the black woman graces our screens, she is more often than not, misrepresented, tokenized, and violently attacked by the faulty narrative white male Hollywood producers spin for her. Black women are often portrayed as four common stereotypes: the mammy, the strong black woman, the sex object, or Hollywood’s favorite, the angry black woman. The mammy trope is depicted as a nurturing, always smiling, asexual creature whose only purpose in life is to care for the white children’s needs, popularized through characters such as Mammy in Gone with the wind. This stereotype was used by white producers in yonder years to justify slavery by promoting the idea that black women are, in fact, happy to serve white families. Whereas today, we are presented with the strong black woman trope which is portrayed as this unbreakable, almost superhuman character, a high-performer having overcome a great deal of adversity to find her strength. Think Viola Davis in How To Get Away With Murder or Kerry Washington in Scandal. Having no problems of her own, the strong black woman is often a caregiver, putting the needs of others before her own. Beyond that, the sex object trope, popularized through characters like Jezebel in the movie Boomerang, limits the black woman to her reproductive organs, often justifying the sexual abuse of black women. Last and not least, the angry black woman trope is commonly portrayed as irrational, short-tempered, sharp-tongued, and often emasculating to their male partners. This trope came to life originally through characters like Saphire in the Amos and Andy show and still exists today in many modern renditions of that character. The angry black woman trope is the epitome of the societal misunderstanding of the black, female narrative. Beyond the small screen, black women have suffered from mistreatment in TV award shows as well. In fact, out of the 6 Emmy winning categories, only 16% of winners were women, and only 33% of winners in both genders were black.

Looking at the bigger picture, this blatant misunderstanding of the black female narrative reflects a deeper issue than the lack of black female on-screen representation. It indicates the absence of black women in writing rooms, in executive production positions, in direction positions, and all around the sphere of TV production. Thus, the inclusion of black women ought to start from the base of the pyramid up. The TV industry is in dire need of black female writers to write authentic narratives, to then be brought to life by black actresses with the help of black female directors. And most importantly, the TV industry is in dire need of black female executives in positions of power, daring enough to hire those black female writers, directors, and actresses.