>simple answer, urban centers are not monoliths. Many are still
>very segregated in terms of race (tied to the component of
>class). A show taking place in Los Angeles could look many
>different ways and be about many different things related to
>race, ethnicity, and culture. You can walk Santa Monica for
>two hours and count 20 Black people and then drive 20min
>Southeast on the 10/405 chill at Fox Hills and see nothing but
>Black and Brown bodies, etc

That doesn't contradict my point though.

I didn't say, all urban centers had an even distribution of ethnicities, or that ethnic enclaves don't exist.

I said that the over-representation statement doesn't hold water if you're going by population because national numbers don't reflect the demographics of people who live in the places where most TV shows take place.

It's Always Sunny is a good example of a show that accurately reflects how racial dynamics on TV can adhere close to real life. None of those characters would hang out with blacks or latinos on a regular basis. Philly is a pretty segregated city. However the show isn't devoid of minorities because no white person in Philly is going to live their life without encountering non-white people, and there's a better chance that they have a non-white friend than all the other white people in the country who almost certainly don't see black people on a regular basis because they live in rural areas.

That's why Friends and Girls caught flack. Not because these people wouldn't hang out with nothing but white people, but because it's set in a city where you're just going to see black and brown people by default. If Friends were set in Vermont, the optics wouldn't have been so bad.

Gilmore Girls is a good example. It wouldn't have made any sense for there to be black people on that show because it was set in a place where the percentage of black people actually is in the teens or lower.

>But I think another element of JF's post is the types of
>representations. So many Black shows are tied to realities
>that are outdated or dishonest. A middle class black family
>will more than likely NOT live, work, and socialize with only
>Black people, yet shows are obsessively tied to this idea. It
>literally colors America as Black or White, and some times
>Brown/Latino, maybe an Asian or two.

Are there a lot of black shows that don't have one or two white characters?

More importantly, it is entirely possible for black people to spend most of their time around black people, but still encounter white people. The same way it's possible for white people to do the same.

Your description of a middle class black family seems restrictive. It's like you're suggesting that black enclaves are some how different from other ethnic enclaves. We don't have our own neighborhoods? Churches? Business? Entertainment? I'm pretty sure every ethnic group has that somewhere, even if they still interact with people who don't belong to their group.

The only way it would be honest to have a show with white people who never work, socializw, or live near black people is to set it in a location that doesn't include a major city or metropolitan area. Otherwise, I feel like that charge you levied against black entertainment can be said of any ethnic group. Those same white people that I work with, but don't socialize with, also don't socialize with me. It's a two way street.

>so even with your caveat it is an over representation

I completely disagree, and I'll repeat on what grounds.

1) My initial suggesting that location in service of the narrative erases the 13% claim because the percentages are higher in those locations.

2) Location in service of narrative limits the extent to which you can claim that a given white person wouldn't interact with minorities. Like I said, unless that shit is set in Wyoming or New Hampshire it just isn't accurate. Hell, you'd be stretching that if you set a show in Connecticut and you didn't include 1 or 2 minorities. Even a show set in modern day Minneapolis should have a Somali cab driver or something.

>Blacks are still tied to super successful middle class tropes,
>hood narratives, or token face(s) of spiritual guidance or
>comedic/cool relief.

Right, that's a problem but I don't think that's a problem of over-representation, I think it's a matter of Hollywood being run by a pack of overly cautious leeches.

>I mean you made a great point in the other post that a show
>based on your life should work, but it would get tweaked to
>fit the modes and numbers of representation

I just meant that they wouldn't believe that there are black people who hang out with other black people, who don't do things that they'd consider traditionally "black". They'd have to shoehorn in a white guy to make it all make sense, even though all of my gamer, anime, movie, etc. friends are all black.

>"we're" over represented in the most cliche of ways

Yup.

>one, because i don't have to. it's that simple. if my reply
>seemed cryptic, maybe that was the point. confrontational, no.
>that is more about you than me

Thank you for explaining your motivations. If you didn't mean to be confrontational that's cool. That doesn't mean that's not how it came across. I wasn't replying to you, so you curt, cryptic message came off as confrontational.

I'm sure now that it wasn't so I'll pull back a bit from here on out. Sorry.

>two, i rarely go into long explanations on OKP, so it's not
>out of character for me


That's fair.