Can y'all hate black women less please?

Watching new movies and TV is getting harder and harder. Not simply because it sucks and originality is dead, but because as a black woman who desperately wants to see her self represented correctly, it's no longer worth it to watch these shows. And a lot of them do truly suck but that's besides the point. Why is it so hard for television and movies to represent black women, specifically dark skin black women, as full human beings? Why do you dusties insist on disrespecting us every time you think to put us in your hack shows and movies?? Is that what the MAGAts want? Those must be the coins you're going after because I really don't see a reason why in 2019 black women only exist in shows and movies to be punching bags or the comically evil, one note villain other than "yes, we hate them let's make sure everyone will always hate them forever, muahahahaha." Even shows we consider as brilliant and well done do this and I know for me, it makes me never want to watch television again.

An example of this is the critically acclaimed show 'Pose" on FX. Now, 'Pose' is revolutionary because it is the first show in which we get to see LGBTQIA+ brown and black people as real characters who do more than act as magical spirit guides so the straight people learn to stop harassing them. It humanizes these people and for a lot of cishet people, it is their first time seeing these people portrayed positively in any form of media and that is important and I don't want to take away from that. However, as revolutionary and current as it is, 'Pose' has the same ancient colorist problem as so many other shows. You can see this in the contrast made early on in the show between Blanca Evangelista and Elektra Abundance. In the show, Elektra is the house mother and mother figure to Blanca. She is outrageous and funny but she's also brutally cutting, dishonest, toxic, and is consistently horrible to all of the people that love and respect her. On the other hand, Blanca is sweet and honest and even though she has not had to work and learn how to build and run a house like Elektra, she is instantly a better mother than Elektra and is more inspiring to her children. While Blanca and Elektra suffer throughout the show, Elektra is consistently punished and is even abandoned, while Blanca receives moments of catharsis and reprieve from her suffering. Some of you may be saying "well damn, what is the problem why are you whining ughhhh just watch the show and be happy there are darkies in it at all" and to be honest, I don't want to dignify that with a response but I will say that this is a pattern. We've seen it so much in so many other shows from the Proud Family to Martin and everything in between, that it's become impossible to ignore. By portraying these characters as such, it continues the tradition of continuous bad behavior and punishment for darskin women and femmes and good behavior and reward for their lighter skinned or even non-black counterparts. It's taxing and it reflects just how badly colorism permeates even our most marginalized groups.

Another recent example of this would be the character of Erica Sinclair in one of my favorite shows, 'Stranger Things'. Season 3 just premiered and as I did with the last two seasons, I watched every episode in one sitting and I couldn't help but notice the way they portrayed Erica's character. In this season she:

• Is rude and condescending
• Is strangely pro-capitalist for a little girl with no income in a season that was already strangely pro-capitalist
• Is unbearably sassy

Needless to say, I was not amused. All of these are very old cliches that fall loosely into the Sapphire troupe that black women characters are classified into (Sapphire of course being one of the three main troupes that black women are allowed to operate from, with Jezebel and Mammy being the other two troupes). There is no reason for Erica to be this way. It's tiresome and annoying and it takes away from how intelligent and fun this character could be. It's also sad because a character in a show like this, that so many children watch, means that an entire new generation of kids is growing up with one of their few representations of black girls being generally unlikable. And that affects how black girls grow up around those kids. If all you have ever seen of a group of people is that they are mean or unlikable as a kid, it becomes easier to assign mean and unlikable to individuals you meet that belong in that group. I went to Elementary school, I know. And the show-runners and writers have to know that too, which is why it always kills me watching them be so irresponsible and negligent and ultimately problematic. 

What I'm trying to say is that all of this translates into hatred and maligning of black women. The darker you are, the worse off it is and it translates to everyday life. By writing shows and characters like this, these writers and show-runners are directly contributing to life being harder for black women and it's so pervasive that it's hard to believe that these people in the writers room don't hate us too. How else would you explain it. Whatever the case is, it's becoming harder to justify watching these shows and that's just sad.