not here

You can surround your white main characters by people of color and call it diversity, but is it really? Diversity is such a buzzword these days. We talk about it all the time, and as it gets discussed more and more, white writers have seen it not as something to actually strive for, but as an opportunity. The 100 was praised for its diverse cast, yet it has treated both its actors and characters of color terribly. It focuses on the white protagonists and their journeys, while using people of color as props and killing them off or torturing them for shock value. But technically, it is still diverse. Sense8, another show hailed as diverse, utilizes many racist and stereotypical tropes for its characters of color, while focusing the narratives on its white characters. Sleepy Hollow marketed itself with its diverse cast, including a black woman as the main character, yet it continued to focus on its white characters until the main actress actually quit due to the lack of development and screen time for her own character. But again, it is still diverse.  Maybe it’s time that we stop focusing on diversity, because obviously we’re missing the point. Diversity is not having a certain amount of people of color in your cast. Diversity doesn’t matter if the story is still primarily about white people.