JOHN MCWHORTER COMMENTARY: The Evolution Of Blacks On American TV

The moderate-conservative commentator in New York City argues that while all-black shows are still too rare in prime-time, but that shouldn't be the only criterion. He states that on any night you can find African-American actors playing rich, complex characters in racially integrated shows. That's progress, Mr. McWhorter asserts, and we should acknowledge it: "Think about a typical NBC sitcom hit in the late '90s: Friends depicted a strangely vanilla Manhattan; black people were onetime guests now and then. Seinfeld was similar. Frasier was also a deeply white show. Occasionally there'd be a flop attempt at more of the same; shows like The Single Guy and The Naked Truth barely had more black people on them than there had been on Taxi or Cheers."

He continues his commentary: "Today [in 2010], on Thursday night, there is a sitcom lineup that makes all of that look like Our Miss Brooks, and the main thing is that none of it is even intended as a big deal. Community has not just one but two black leads, both with quirky and yet not deracialized characters to play. Parks and Recreation has a black secretary who can do more with one line than almost anybody on the show, and is again an individual in all ways -- we're a long way from, say, Janelle on Spin City, included merely as what might as well have been termed 'colored.' The Office's Stanley is neither heavy and jolly (comic relief) nor heavy and tired (earthy wisdom), but heavy and grouchy, plus married to a white woman (noted only glancingly now and then), but then only after a first marriage to a black woman -- and he's having an affair (with a black woman). And 30 Rock has several black characters, none of whom could be treated as stereotypes of any kind. Or, to the extent that they could be, the layered irony that the show is based on would make the argument much more complex than ones to be made about anybody on The Jeffersons."

Booker Rising response: While we're on the subject....don't forget black major characters in dramas. On September 20, "The Event" - which features Blair Underwood (in a role originally intended for a non-black Hispanic actor) as U.S. President Elias Martinez facing a huge government conspiracy - premieres on NBC. And where else but in America are you gonna see two foreign mulattoes (one Austrian, the other British) portraying a black American couple who rejoin the CIA as spies (also on NBC, premiering September 22) LOL?

This is in addition to Chi McBride as a detective on "Human Target", Morris Chestnut as an alien posing as human on "V", the black forensic pathologist on "Bones" (portrayed by Canadian mulatto Tamara Taylor), Coby Bell as a burned spy in "Burn Notice", Mekhi Phifer as an FBI agent on "Lie To Me"; Omar Epps as a neurologist on "House"; and Rutina Wesley as a bartender in "True Blood". I haven't even mentioned the black major characters in the various "CSI" and "Law & Order' series out there. I'm sure that I missed some other dramas out there.

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