In living colour?

by Devil’s Food Cake

Newsflash from the world of celebrity, where every opinion is indispensable: apparently, according to Jeremy Clarkson, TV is obsessed with hiring ‘Black, Muslim Lesbians’. This is to balance out the heterosexual, white male surplus. Forget the fact that I generally think Jeremy Clarkson is a knob, what I’d really like to know is where all these black, Muslim lesbians are. That’s a show I’d definitely watch.

I get what he’s saying obviously – that there appears to be a trend towards balancing out what tends to be an ethnically/racially/gender uniform appearance on TV. But I’m not sure he understands the point here really, the crux of condemning efforts to diversify. What he’s saying is that it’s okay for the entertainment industry to represent people of one colour or creed, whilst ignoring the fact that the rest of the population may not identify.

Now, this is harmful for a couple of reasons. I did a couple of years on the NUS LGBT and Black Student Committees, and we’d run workshops with students. One of the exercises we’d do is to try and get people to name LGBT entertainers and celebrities – easy enough to come up with a decent list. You do it. Now – try and see how many people on that list are women. Still okay, right? Now count how many of them are of colour. Suddenly you’re left with one or two names. The thing about celebrity is that these are generally the people we look up to, especially when we’re younger. Growing up thinking that you’re the only gay in the village is bad enough. But thinking that there simply aren’t any role models for you if you’re a young’un going through the coming-out and realization process and happen to also not be white is just that much worse.

So yes, back to my earlier point. While I understand Mr. Clarkson must be frustrated at the idea of a more representative world of entertainment, I hope he’ll take a moment to consider all the people that watch his show that aren’t white, or men, or Christian or heterosexual or whatever he thinks the norm is. I hope he’ll consider them, and the patronage they’ve given him over the years or months or days or whatever, and reconsider his comments. Also – if he’d be so kind as to specify these shows that are obssessed with Black, Muslim Lesbians, I’d be ever so grateful.

Read the full article here. What do you think of representation on TV? Am I just making too big a deal about this?

NB. The picture of Erykah Badu is merely gratuitous. Because I love her. But make no mistake, if she knew about this, she’d be pissed.