Aesthetically Pleasing

“Black Best Friend” definition: The sassy, insightful, and usually comedic minority in a TV show or movie who is the sidekick/supporting role to the white protagonist.

I came across this term yesterday in an article on the Washington Post online (Read it HERE) It’s one of those things that has always existed, but you never really noticed it. Think about all the shows and movies on TV these days; there’s probably a funny black guy, a witty asian, or a black girl/latina with just enough attitude to be “cute”, but not ghetto. 

Yeah, you can say TV has become more diverse, which it has, but their attempts at diversity are starting to seem forced and reluctant. These sidekick roles seem like fillers, quotas even, just to throw in a minority here and there to say they have diversity. They get no real plot and few glimpses into their character’s life on the show. These roles are in no way helping to represent a wide array of people when the characters always have the same personality.

And it’s a shame that the same archetype can be seen in plenty of children’s shows. Remember Libby From Jimmy Neutron, Cookie from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, Michael from Zoey 101 and who could forget the lonely black Power Ranger…it’s been around for decades. Is it starting to make sense now??

It’s nowhere near representative of the modern American population. I can count on one hand mainstream roles played by Indians/South Asians on TV now (Aziz Ansari-Parks and Rec, Kal Penn- Harold and Kumar, Shelly Conn- Terra Nova, Mindy Kaling- The Office, Danny Pudi-Community..). Asians, Arabs, Latinos, Native Americans, Africans, they are everywhere in America except TV, Movies, magazines, etc.

Personally, I think this is a problem. What about you?

~Pepe