Insecure
The black female experience is still largely unexplored, at least in the way Insecure attempts to frame that exploration. This is just about two friends, going about their lives, facing normal issues, and solving them the only way they can, considering their background and the racial issues facing the black community, which are in many ways compounded when we talk about black women.
Pose
Diversity is built into Pose’s DNA, as the show centers on New York’s African American and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming ballroom culture scene in the 1980s and early 1990s. In the old days a show like this would have been thought as niche, but if Pose has done anything is prove that good stories are universal, and that we can all fall in love with, and relate to characters conventional TV would have disregarded.
Queen Sugar
What Ava Duvernay has created with Queen Sugar is an environment where being a woman, and being a POC, isn’t a disadvantage, but something to be celebrated, and supported. Who else can get away with all-female directors? Yes, the #AvaEffect is real, and this is where it all started. That, of course, translates into a show that celebrates womanhood, and family, and one that feel instantly relatable to everyone.
All American
This show is anything but a typical show about a young black teen, and no I’m not just saying that because there’s sports. I’m saying that because this show isn’t just about football, or about friendships, or even about families, the ones you are born to and the ones you make for yourself, this show is about what all of that means while existing on a world that still sees you as a football player first, person second.
Black Lightning
Yes, this is a superhero show, but it’s also a show about what it’s like to be a normal black family in the times we’re living in. For a while there, when this show was announced, I fear that they would just make this family’s environment be the same as any white family, but instead, the show has dealt with social issues head on, and though at times, that gets a bit too heavy, that’s life, and it makes for incredibly compelling television.
The Good Place
The Good Place has set the standard for diversity on-screen in such a way that, at this point, we don’t even realize that ¾ of the main 4 humans we have been following for years are not white. It’s the same for many of the guest stars, and the show often is right on point when it comes to …well, what it means anyone not named Eleanor, to exist in their own circumstances. And though I would have loved a bit more diversity in the writers’ room, I can still appreciate a show that, more often than not, said the right thing, with the right cast.
Honorary Mentions: Batwoman, Shrill, Bluff City Law, How to Get Away With Murder, Euphoria.
Do you know any other show that did diversity right in 2019? Share with us in the comments below!