[ part 1 \ part 2 ]
I have neglected to write a follow-up about the resolution of my Culture & Media thesis sooner, but even two years after the fact, I consider that final project—a 10,000-word essay entitled Familial Containment: The Domestication of Casts of Color on American Television—one of my proudest scholarly achievements, and it is still well worth the time to write this reflection to share the noteworthy research and conclusions I presented about depictions of people of color on television and general portrayals of race relations in the U.S.
My initial proposal in 2015 involved the question of why American scripted series with casts of color almost always revolve around family and the general implications of increased racial diversity on television. As the year went on, my focus narrowed to be less about the latter point, as I discovered that the former gave me plenty to write about. In my ultimate analysis, I mainly concluded that shows featuring casts of color use the premise of family as a way to pacify the severity of racial and other controversial topics and make for more comfortable consumption by viewers. At the time of writing, shows like Black-ish, Fresh Off the Boat, and The Carmichael Show were becoming known for their unabashed social topicality; much of what was said on these shows was racially charged and often extreme, but keeping this dialogue within the confines of the family tempered its perceived harshness.
Beyond the contemporary, I also examined how the trend of exploring minority families started and expanded with series like Good Times, The Cosby Show, Family Matters, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, All-American Girl, and George Lopez. Social and political attitudes towards race had a major effect on how television shows are written, and with racial tensions still present throughout the twentieth century and onward, non-white characters needed to be illustrated through a more relatable lens. These shows' portrayals of people of color are especially notable when compared with their many Caucasian-cast counterparts that use non-familial premises; these series are able to use the safe invisibility of whiteness—similar to the basic familiarity of family—to allow for more unique premises, such as work, friends, or fantasy.
Given that the majority of the examples mentioned were situation comedies, I also addressed the significance of adopting this genre versus drama or comedy-drama. The number of dramas about people of color is very small, and the examples that do exist, namely Soul Food and Empire, are heavily centered around family, and adapted telenovelas like Ugly Betty and Jane the Virgin balance outlandish melodrama with particularly grounded familial storylines.
I concluded with the acknowledgement that, of course, there are shows that put minorities in more divergent settings, even though they still depict social issues in some sort of contained, intimate environment. Well-known cases include A Different World, Martin, and Living Single, which all put their characters in pseudo-families, if you will, that can stand in as channels through which to tackle subjects like race.
However, in the past decade, there has been an increasing number of shows that I think are truly breaking the mold of how to illustrate diversity. In my piece, I mentioned East Los High, Devious Maids, and Telenovela, but beyond that time, more recent years have seen even more atypical depictions of minorities like Atlanta, Insecure, and Dear White People. These shows, alongside other contemporaries that feature leads of color like The Mindy Project, How to Get Away With Murder, and Master of None, are taking great strides towards portraying minorities in more complex, challenging, well-rounded ways. The question that remains is whether or not such innovative and important stories are here to stay.