Why it bothers me that there aren't more black kids on screen

Last weekend, Zippy and I went to see Chimpanzee. We've been looking forward to it since we first saw the trailer months ago and it was a fabulous film on all levels. But as we watched the previews - trailers for upcoming kid flicks like Brave and Madagascar 3 - I once again wondered, "Where are the black people?" This question has been on my mind a lot lately when we watch movies or television together. Zippy is becoming more aware of skin color and race, so I'm more tuned in these days to what media is telling him about it. What I'm seeing - or rather, what I'm not seeing - bothers me.

Sure, there is more diversity on-screen these days, and that is definitely a good thing. But as far as I can tell, people of color and especially black people are almost always relegated to supporting roles or to the background, even in children's media. Almost every storyline revolves around white characters. Well, white characters or talking animals.

Movies seem to be the worst offenders. Sure there are occasionally kid flicks with predominantly black casts. Occasionally. What is the last one you can remember? Disney's The Princess and the Frog, maybe? That was almost three years ago, and it was a very big deal at the time that Disney had a movie about a black princess.

The last several movies we've seen? All white. When we went to see The Lorax a few weeks ago, I searched the big dance numbers for a black person. There were, like, three. Okay, maybe a few more than that, but I fear there may be some type of Klan activity going down in Thneedville. Even if the entire leading cast was white, couldn't there have been just a little more diversity? I was so excited when we rented Rio and the little boy, Fernando, looked a lot like Zippy. Finally! A movie character that looks like my kid! "Hey, that looks like you, Buddy!" I pointed out. But then I realized that, in spite of being set in Brazil, where there is substantial racial diversity, the movie's main human characters are still white (an American shop owner and a Brazilian scientist), while the bad guys are people of color. Uuuuuuuugh. So we've got people of color, but not portrayed in a positive way.

Television is a little bit better. Lots of shows have ensemble casts, which usually include at least some non-white characters. Still, the group is almost always more white than not. There are a  few exceptions. Shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company do a good job including a solid mix of races and cultures. I searched the websites of the major networks focused on programming for young kids - Disney Jr, PBS Kids Go, and Nick Jr. I only found one show - one!!! - that centered around black characters, and that was Cosby's Little Bill. Unfortunately, since Little Bill does not revolve around animals, Zippy refuses to watch it. A few weeks ago a second show, Doc McStuffin, was also added to the mix. It has gotten good reviews, but I haven't had a chance to check it out.

This really bothers me. Marie Wilson from the White House Project put it perfectly and concisely: "You can't be what you can't see." Or, at least, you are less likely to be what you can't see. Ph.D. in Parenting does a great job of explaining how this applies to girls and women in the media; her explanation easily extends to black people in the media too. It bothers me because as my boys get older, they will look for themselves reflected in the world around them. What will they find? What will what they see - or don't see - tell them about the role of black people and about how society sees them? About their place in the world?

I feel like I've been writing a lot lately about my awareness of continued racism in our country, systemic and personal, and how much it sucks and what it means for my children and other children of color. I don't want it to sound as though I am cynical or all "woe is us." That's certainly not how I feel and I know the world isn't all about race. But these are things I'm noticing and unsettled by, as my perception of the world shifts from white-woman-who-thinks-racism-sucks to white-woman-who-is-raising-two-black-boys. 

A lot has been written about why African-Americans are so underrepresented in mainstream television and, to be honest, I haven't done too much reading on the subject. Regardless of the reasons, the end result is the same. I wish I knew how to change it. I wish I was a television exec and I could pitch a great new show about a biracial kid from a mixed family or an ensemble class that was 51% black.

In the meantime, we make a concerted effort to read our boys books with African-Americans in central roles. We point out positive black or brown role models. We take them to festivals or events about different cultures. We do what we can to show them that black people have a place of importance and value in the world around them, even if the big screen and the little one fail to show it.

Update 6/14/2012: Unfortunately, research suggests my worries are justified. Just a few weeks after I wrote this post, a new study came out showing that media exposure is linked to black kids - and white girls - feeling worse about themselves.