Analysis Of Scandal And How To Get Away With Murder

After becoming the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for best actress in a drama, “You can’t win an Emmy for roles that simply aren’t there,” Viola Davis said in her acceptance speech. Thanks to breakout shows like Empire, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder – the drama of which Viola Davis won her award for – demand for more diverse casts has risen and series lead by women of color i.e. Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. Shonda Rhimes the creator of Scandal and the first show in decades to have a black woman as the lead character. Rhimes’s successful series has paved the way for new shows centered on the lives of people of color such as, the CW’s Jane the Virgin, ABC’s Black-ish, and Fresh Off the Boat. While cable TV

has gotten more diverse shows, sitcoms and dramas alike, there is still a lot of growing left. It is true now that cable TV is changing, becoming more diverse, at least it looks more diverse, but what about the writers’ rooms. Who is actually writing that Latino, Asian, or black character? “WGAW [Writers Guild of America, West] reports show that males (particularly white males) have traditionally dominated the high-status position of executive producer in the television sector. Data from the 2013-14 season reveal that little has changed in this regard (Hunt, 7).” This uncomfortable statistic is why writers’ rooms need to be more diverse. Aisha Harris states that “staff employment for people of color actually decreased between the 2011–12 season and 2013–14 season, from a peak of 15.6 percent to 13.7 percent.” The Writers Guild of America’s 2015 study revealed that black writers staffed on the networks UPN and WB in the 2000’s writing for ‘black-themed’ sitcoms have all been cancelled. “These sitcoms for years accounted for the majority of employed black staff writers. The removal of the shows from the air, combined with the “typecasting” of black writers, partially explains why the black share of minority staff writers has declined since 2001-02 (Hunt, 6).” This may also be the reason for the agonizingly slow progress of diversifying cable networks and why more often than not audiences are left with two dimensional or straight up poorly written characters of color. Because white writers are writing people of color based on assumptions and expectations that they’ve ‘observed’. With one black writer in a room of seven white writers it is hard for black, Latino, or Asian writers to speak up about a scene that is offensive. This is where cable networks start stereotyping people of color and shuffling people of color to the side as the ‘token black friend’ and ‘geeky Asian sidekick’ etc. This is what happens when white writers don’t realize how harmful these stereotypes are and continue to perpetuate the idea that all black men are ‘thugs’ and all Latino’s are trafficking drugs. This is why it’s important to not only represent people of color accurately – beyond shallow stereotypes – but as humans. TV does not represent the diversity of America because writers’ rooms are predominately white, people of color are written stereotypically, which perpetuate negative stigma against people of color.
Of course some disagree and simply think TV is fiction and therefore isn’t responsible when it comes to representing reality. Hollywood and cable networks aren’t out to make great masterpieces they’re main goal is to make money and appeal to the masses. Hollywood assumes that their audience is mostly white males. According to the MPAA Caucasians make up 54% of ticket sales and men (race notwithstanding) make up 50% of sales, (Theatrical Market Statistics, 13). Interestingly enough, “Hispanic women over the age of 25 are the most avid summer moviegoers,” writes Eliana Dockterman, quoting Motion Picture Association of America they state “…the group [Hispanics] bought 25% of the movie tickets sold in 2013 even though they make up only 17% of the total population.” Hollywood’s largest audience is in fact Latina women, not white males or women. Why does Hollywood assume that white audiences won’t be able to relate to black or Latino/a leads when black, Latino/a, and Asian men and women have been relating to white leads since they were children? This assumption that someone with light skin can’t or won’t be able to relate to someone with darker skin on the big screen is wrong. Wouldn’t appealing to wider and a more diverse audience make more money for Hollywood? By alienating people of color on the big screen not only in fiction but in biographies as well. Recently the UK movie Suffragette ¬– “Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and especially Anne-Marie Duff do the original white suffragettes justice with their performances as the key white women, from all class backgrounds in the early 20th century, who risked life, limb and family for the white female voice to be heard,” Hanna Flint summarizes in her article criticizing Suffragette’s blatant white washing of key suffragettes, and for good reason. Director Sarah Gavron explained that amid historical census and photographs it appeared there were only two women of color who joined the UK movement. “Of course there would be less evidence of ethnic minorities campaigning and such at that time, because the country was still dismissive and less willing to include non-white people within society,” writes Flint. In fact, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh was a prominent suffragette and member of the Women’s Social and Political Union. She even marched with Emmeline Pankhurst in the 400 strong protest known as Black Friday. Quite the oversight on Sarah Gavron’s part, but like they say hindsight is always 20/20 maybe the UK can get it right next time.
Diversity in writers’ rooms is a priority, but finding, people of color is not and should not be a problem.

Which is why it’s a problem, “NBC’s Diverse Staff Writing Initiative, directly pay series to employ a “diverse” staff writer every season,” states Aisha Harris. Networks are trying so hard to have diverse staffs that they are paying staffers to hire people of color. Which is why it’s a problem, these ‘diversity’ hires fill up a slot, one slot, like checking off boxes, staffers think the one ‘diversity’ hire is enough. But one black person on a staff of seven is not diverse, it’s unequal. “I am making TV look like the world looks,” says Shonda Rhimes (Greys Anatomy and Scandal) who insists on having a diverse cast and staff on her series (Bacle). Her series success has proven that black writers writing black characters is a successful formula. Not only is Rhimes’s writers’ room mixed, “Rosewood, Fox’s drama starring Morris Chestnut as a Miami pathologist, the writers’ room is mixed, with several black writers and a Latina, according to Jamie Turner,” writes Harris, in the writers’ room Chestnut was able to make a suggestion to change a line that he didn’t agree with and the group of writers’ were able to change it. That’s what these writers’ rooms can accomplish such as, “…Jane the Virgin’s liberal use of Spanish when Jane’s grandmother is speaking, forcing us non-Spanish-speaking viewers a bit out of our comfort zones with subtitles,” states Harris, explaining how

shows like Jane the Virgin can appeal to wider audiences and feel more comfortable to those familiar with the setting.
“Much of what audiences know and care about is based on the images, symbols, and narratives in radio, television, film, music, and other media.

How individuals construct their social identities, how they come to understand what it means to be male, female, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American…Media, in short, are central to what ultimately come(s) to represent our social realities” (Brooks, Hebert 297). This is why it’s important to positively represent people of color in media, because negative imagery displayed can be mistaken for expectations. Medias’ stereotypical portrayal of people of color is a casual suggestion that that is what society expects. It tells that little black boy that he’s not the superhero but the superhero’s sidekick, it tells the Latina girl that she can’t be too bossy or loud and just the right amount of Latina. It says that Asian-Americans have to be smart and act a certain way, it tells the mixed kids that they are “other” and that they have to pick a race. Positive representation is important to the self-esteem of black, Asian, Latino/a, and Native Americans as Western culture sells the idea that straight hair, blue eyes, and light skin are the ideal body type. It can lead to children disliking their appearance, culture, and using skin lightening products that can damage their skin. Positive accurate portrayals of black, Latino/a, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans are truly

important.
Whether or not we know that what we’re consuming is fiction, we are still subconsciously absorbing the ideas and images we’re seeing. Inaccurate portrayals of people of color can have negative effects on those who view them, especially on the children who view them. Stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Latino/a and any marginalized group sets up expectations in the mind. Networks setting white characters as the standard of intelligence and beauty and then tacking on the token stereotypical character is not positive representation, it only perpetuates hurtful stereotypes. As human beings we should know that not all black people are ‘thugs’ and Latino/a’s are ‘drug dealers’ the same way no one assumes all white people are racists, but that some are. Stereotypes of white people on TV – ditzy blonde and the annoying frat boy – don’t hurt white people the same way stereotyping hurts people of color. This is not to be confused with comparing struggles, since the unrealistic body images of white beauty is in fact hurtful to both young white girls and people of color. As one group tries to attain that impossible body image and the other realizes that their own skin color does not meet Western beauty standards. This is why TV needs to properly represent reality and the world, TV needs to “normalize” – to copy a phrase from Shonda Rhimes. Which is apt because black, Asian, Latino/a, and LGBTA+ characters are normal anything else would be fiction.
The United States is commonly referred to as a ‘melting pot’ with many ethnicities coming together to share their culture and lifestyles. Unfortunately that’s just what they tell you in brochure, ‘melting pot’ more or less refers to the ‘diverse’ cultures of white European immigrants and their American descendants, never mind the African lives that died to ‘build this great country’ or beautiful culture of Indigenous Americans that was destroyed in the name of ‘Manifest Destiny’. If the phrase ‘melting pot’ was really embraced then TV would represent the working class American – the demographic most media is aimed toward – and have more Asians, Latino/a’s, and black people in leading roles. There would be more people of color in writers’ room making decisions and writing rich multi-dimensional characters of color. TV would be more realistic, less stereotypic against people of color, and cause less of a negative impact on the lives of people of color. In order to battle Hollywood and the media industry and demand more representation consider critiquing your favorite show and asking if that show is problematic. There is nothing wrong with watching a problematic show but it is more beneficial to be aware of any negative aspects of media.