Quality v. Quantity

Acham spends much time discussing Chris Rock and his “observations on black society.” Talking about the notion of a monolithic black society Acham says, “The issue of uplifting the race is a constant concern, because what Rock says is inevitably interpreted by a mainstream audience as representing the entire race, not the specific segment of the society that he focuses his observations on.” I think people see what they choose to see. I have to admit I have been ignorant to the way black people are portrayed in the media in this present day (although we have spent the last few class readings on how they were portrayed in the past). I don’t watch a lot of TV, movies are a different story. In the shows that I do watch, black people are few and far between. On the show Gossip Girl (yes, I used to watch it. Don’t judge me) I can think of one black character throughout the first two seasons. She was a background character, averaging maybe 2-3 lines per episode. She was one of the minions of the constantly changing “Queen Bee” in the show’s tale of Upper East Side high school hierarchy. And she was ALWAYS, always seen beside another character, her Asian counterpart, who played a role identical to her own. That was about the extent of the diversity in that show. I used to be a frequent watcher of Grey’s Anatomy, which cast Asian, Black and Hispanic women in leading roles leading its audience to believe diversity is well-represented. I think Acham is right when she (he?) calls the representation today “uneven.” Today maybe it is not so much the quality of the roles to be cast in, but the under-representation and lack of roles.