Everything Wrong with Black Representation

This video review everything wrong with black representation historically and reviews how black representation continues to be problematic today despite efforts to be more inclusive in media. Representation in media including print, television, movies, and radio. It is the job of all media to represent Blackness in an efficacious manner, but it often fails to do so. This video reviews the myriad ways in which media representations fail to live up to the diversity, nuance, humanity, and reality of the what described as the Black race of people.

Please, keep in mind this video is an anthology of well documented arguments about things that are wrong with black representation in media. It isn't to be taken as single essay or indicative of the pervasiveness of any of these tropes.

Cheers

Table of Contents

00:00 - The Focus
01:08 - Black People Not Existing
02:07 - Historically Racist Black Stereotypes
04:54 - Modern Black Stereotypes
07:58 - Problematic Depictions Intro
08:23 - Black Diversity
12:01 - Black Leadership
13:47 - The OREO Dilemma
16:04 - The Fish Out of Water
17:59 - Black Culture isn't Racism
20:02 - Black and Animated
20:50 - Fin

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#BlackRepresentation #BlackPeople #VideoEssay

[devinsauls]

I need to show this to my friends to prove to them that Representation of Black people needs to be better

[deredere]

Thank you truly for this video. You've helped many people with this slice of advice. As someone that is bi-racial and an "oreo" it feels nice to hear that we are just one of many voices and that we are valid, but that I am not the only story to tell. Sometimes it feels that maybe there is only two to three options for black people when there is a whole array of black people. I mean look at Encanto and Pepa's side of the family, her children are all very different and yet are black. They all have their quirks such as Camilo snapping his fingers instead of clapping. Those small nods mean a lot and shows care.

I also know that you are just one voice as well and also can't speak for everyone and you are not a messiah for all black people, but we do not like racism which we can agree on.

[YemiTheCreative]

We've also had significant findings, changes, insights in education and policy in the sciences, maths, engineering, etc. That is also apart of our culture! 🎉😉 I noticed that you only mentioned music, arts, food, faith, etc. in your 'Black Culture isn't racism' segment.

This was a great video, several strong points. Really enjoyed the way you broke it down 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[pearlwalker]

Why the hell is this channel so small? This video was well made and interesting to watch

[yanutchouangeup]

This video really opened my eyes to the shear lack of representation of non-afro American black people in western media. I would love to see more representation for all black people, especially for those with parents hailing from Africa, as I am from the UK and my parents moved here from west Africa. I know this comment is late but, great video

[hilili]

I am sorry but when you said "it made real NY look like Zimbabwe" i burst out laughing. But I love your channel because finally having a black person dissect certain media and or anything is really needed on yt because so many non-black are on hear speaking for us is really tiring no-matter if it comes from a good place

[ChrisR]

That was a really well-explained video with some very good points. Subbed.

[blerdfax]

As an artist trying to learn and get into my work or do wat ever. Your video captivated me to research different black cultural architecture. I love anime and etc my bread and butter but your video made me think hard about stuff.

[milkyy__strawbrain]

I use a translator, so there may be errors here:(

thank you for this wonderful video. I'm going to create my story in a cartoon in the future and I would like to make as good a representation of black people as possible. your video helped me a lot, I admire the work you have done<3333

[JLisleWrites]

Any spelling typos in this video are actually a very intentional use of dialect. Thanks for watching!

[RedFangXIX]

Glad I stumbled across your channel. Great video

[aguyontube]

This was pretty informative, good watch

[matthewjohnson]

In regard to your mention of the "magic negro" trope and your display of Morgan Freeman in "The Shawshank Redemption", the character of "Red" was not written as a black man in the Steven King novel. In the novel, the character was a white Irishman with red hair, hence the nickname of "Red". So that wasn't really an instance of the trope you mentioned. It was just a race-swapping of a character, partly because Red served as a narrator for the film and you just can't beat Morgan Freeman when it comes to narration. That man could narrate federal tax code and make it sound good.

[helfrieda]

I’m a white writer who is attempting to make my stories diverse, but I’m afraid that no matter how much research I do, my non-white characters will come off as disingenuous, especially since I grew up in a 95% white area. So far the only solutions I can think of is to try to go to college somewhere much more diverse and maybe meet some people who would like to be cultural consultants that could help me write my stories. Also, later on in my Universe’s timeline race becomes less prevalent because the majority of people are mixed and racially ambiguous, and society has progressed past a lot of racial issues. (My story expresses a more positive and uplifting yet realistic future. Or at least that’s what I’m attempting to do.) Anyways I brought that up is because my concern is that my attempt to be neutral may come off as white, and I’m not sure how to counteract that. My current plan is to try and predict how cultures will merge together overtime. I’m just putting this out here in case anyone would like to give me some feedback, but I don’t expect anyone to respond.

[stephaniewilliams]

This totally addresses why I dont exactly think Craig of the Creek is better than, say, Static Shock which had more black culture on screen

[dom]

Another comment so you get my guy. Feed the algorithm

[Uahuu]

What a terrific video! Thank you so much for sharing ❤

[Muddy]

Great video and amazing analysis, but just wanted to ask something. If you feel you touched the topic already then ignore it. This came across vague in your videos so I wanted to ask myself to clarify. How much do you yourself with your views, take into account people’s differences personality wise? I’m just curious because it was vague to me. I learned in your videos culture is important and I agree and that makes sense. Culture is very important, rather than just token adding in black people for instance and calling it a day. So I agree that, but also a big important thing with people are people are different and their born different personalities, regardless race, gender, sexuality, parents or anything else in it. A black person could grow up in a black family with a black culture upbringing and still be themselves regardless and different, or who they are, or have personality traits out there. And there just as black as anyone else. I’m glad you broke down stereotypes as being not always true and bad and people are people and different in that regard. But I just wanted to talk about the culture aspect to it you presented. Some black people don’t like hip hop, doesn’t make them less black that’s just there preference and depends on them. Not all black people talk, act, and move the same since everyone is inherently different. They might have some other aspects of the culture like where they grew up, or any part of the culture they grew up with into. But who knows, it just depends on them, their values, and personality. I just wanted to know do you take that into account is all. If you do and that was conveyed in the video I apologize, your style of commentary is really good and unique but in some areas I got your messages implied and not as easily understood if that made sense. One thing I think I did understand from your points is black people with different personalities will maintain their inherent personality still if they grow within their culture with black people, and naturally obtain dialect, clothing from the culture and so on assuming that was one of your main points in the video. As one point to bring up there on making sure to understand your video perspective. Fantastic job with the video though, this video and its points and analysis is really good and I can tell you put in a lot of effort and analysis research into. I just had this burning question or so in my mind and had to ask it is all to you, if it matters I’m black by the way lool. Hopefully my question isnt too confusing and you get what I’m getting at. I might be overthinking the video, as usual with me but it was on my mind so I figured I'd just ask and get it off my chest and see your opinion completely. Hope that was ok.

[misericorde]

Video game consulatation companies most notably Sweet Baby Inc. should watch this video. These companies have such a negative impact that it's caused a lot of potential game buyers to side-eye games with a Black female main protagonist and wait for some demo videos on YouTube, before being willing to open their wallets.

[azazelgrigori]

Is there a problem with a Caribbean descended water mage for a fantasy story in your opinion?