African American women seem to be marginalized in this show so far. I just got through the first episode and besides the sidekick African American friend of Mylena the story seems to focus on the Mylena character as one of the main female characters. Interesting that the church going gospel singing female character is not African American, which is usually the case.
shareWell, wouldn't Mylena be Afro-Latina?
That aside, I do agree it is rather strange how small the roles are for Black women, especially those not racially ambiguous, on this show. However, I must note I loved Fat Annie. I do hope there is more of her next season.
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Either let your insanity become genius or trade it in for normalcy.
*****Mylene
But yes, the dark skinned black women in the show (like Zeke and Mylene's teacher) are desexualized, and practically all of the wives are lighter than their husbands. Fat Annie is the only dark skinned woman who displays sexuality, though inappropriately with a very young adult whom she presumably took care of since he was a child(?) so...
I will say that it's great to see a positive, healthy marriage like Mr and Mrs Kipling's represented here.
I will say that it's great to see a positive, healthy marriage like Mr and Mrs Kipling's represented here.Agreed. They were a great couple and good parents.
There's really no way to win with black people. If the women are oversexualized people will talk. If black women aren't show in roles as sexually desirable people talk. Mylene is black. One does not have to be full-on African to be black. This is Bronx story and people are expecting to not see Hispanics lol.
shareSo you based that opinion off one episode?.
I think it goes without saying that this show isn't about "black" people. It follows the story of 2 kids of mixed Latin and African ethnicity who have black friends. Not to mention the Bronx in the 70s was mostly Latin. Chill out and stop diving so deep, enjoy the show.
@Sanddmon
Uh,what? The show is clearly about both black AND Latino people, some of whom were also Afro-Latinos. It is about both, not just one or the other. To say it isn't about black people is truly ridiculous, since it's pretty obvious that it is.
I had the same thought. Light skinned folks are central and dark-skinned characters are sidekicks at best, at worst, marginal. I guess when these directors/writers have an image in mind, they always imagine the silky haired light skinned lead and the dark-skinned sassy or street-wise sidekick.
share@bronte_sista
There is a little bit of truth to that, but the thing is, since most of the main characters are of people of color, none of them are marginalized or shoved to the background like they would be in a typical Hollywood production. Hell, if this show was a typical Hollywood production, most of the leads (or the cast, for that matter) wouldn't even be people of color. The only people I see being marginalized to some extent in the show are white folks. which is refreshingly different for a change,lol.
Also, to be fair, none of the leads are even what you would call light-skinned to begin with--it's pretty obvious that they're brown-skinned black Latino people,period. So that racist "light-akinned leads/dark-skinned sidekicks" Hollywood formula really dosen't apply here as much as it would in a Hollywood production.