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OK, @IWriteAllDay_ ’s thread inspired me to express my frustrations about the one black male leading character on Buffy/Angel: Charles Gunn.
When introduced, Gunn was your “streetwise Black” character, living on the streets fighting vamps. https://twitter.com/SER1897/status/1278445736712167431
When introduced, Gunn was your “streetwise Black” character, living on the streets fighting vamps. https://twitter.com/SER1897/status/1278445736712167431
It’s weird to me that predominately white writers rooms will write *that* character. It’s not like “streetwise Black men” don’t exist. It’s just ... I don’t personally know that many and I’m Black. I don’t think the white dudes from Harvard have more experience in that area.
I’m not vain enough to think that every TV show should have a SER character but Black guys like me tend to be who these white writers have more likely MET (college, work, etc).
Same with Black women who are like me. I was talking to a blerd lady friend and she lamented how Black women like her NEVER EXIST on these shows. 30 ROCK will have “sassy Black lady” and it’s like, “you literally are writing characters based on reality show you watched."
But you can’t create a character based on one of three Black women who were in classes with you.
And when they do write characters like us, they are often “not really Black” jokes because no one is a better gatekeeper of what’s “really Black” than white people who have 1 Black friend.
Anyway, sorry for digression, but one major story arc for Gunn on ANGEL was that he fell for Fred, a white woman. The ENTIRE ARC is about how he is unworthy of her intellectually and their primary connection is sexual. It is ... like .. wow... this is 2002.
Fred’s “true love” is Wesley, a smart white guy. Gunn always feels inferior and like nothing more than the “muscle.” Meanwhile, Wesley “toughens up” so he’s also “muscle” with brains.
Anyway, that relationship falls apart and we get to the final season, which is my favorite, but has the weird plot line where Gunn is “given” artificial law knowledge.
Again, he is made to constantly feel inferior around his white peers. He was the damn leader of his (Black) crew.
Everyone’s else’s skill (science, magic, etc) is natural. Gunn’s is Affirmative Action. Again, this is 2003.
They didn’t have to do this. The evil law firm is like Willy Wonka’s factory -- anything can happen. You could have him attend four years of law school in four minutes in an alternate dimension or something. He has a brain. The show doesn’t believe it though.
What stands out upon reflection -- and it pains me to realize how long it took me to “get this” -- is that we’re supposed to fully accept Angel as CEO of a global firm.
Angel was literally homeless for decades. He never attended college. His 18th Century formal education would probably not translate to leading a 21st Century corporation.
But he’s a white man. We accept his natural leadership skills, strategic acumen. We accept those things as *innate.*
