Percival Everett (author of JAMES) at the FYE® Conference 2024

Percival Everett, author of JAMES, speaks about his book at the First-Year Experience® (FYE) Conference in Seattle, Washington.

[erniereyes]

There are black characters in Friends and Seinfeld, but perhaps Everett is asking, Why aren’t there prominent black characters in these iconic television shows from the 90s? And that’s an interesting question, but in some way, that would be to misunderstand the concepts of those shows. Taika Waititi says it’s unrealistic for every friend group to have friends of all colors, and that’s true. Culturally, times were different. A stronger case could be made that non-residents of the US see being American as being anglo, straight, middle class, etc. That is due to the representation of a single class of people in pop culture, which is the system of Americanization that, as a result, perpetuates notions of white supremacy. As Junot Diaz claims, you can take all the white people in the world and ship them to a different planet, and white supremacy would still exist: that is interesting as it is problematic and worth talking about—not for a supposed lack in diversity of old sitcoms.

“James”, by the way, was brilliant.