The "Quirky Black Character" - How Black Creators Challenge Stereotypes

and i'm awkward and black someone once told me those were the two worst things anyone could be the quirky black character dares to be dorky imperfect and most of all themselves this character tends to be socially awkward may have an eccentric or experimental look and has interests like alternative or indie music comic books and science fiction that are coded as culturally white their nerdy obsessions and screwball antics are deliberate rejections of the one-dimensional often offensive black caricatures that long dominated film and tv you love bebop but you've got a thing for taylor swift i know cause my mac picks up your max library you're so careful but the history of the quirky black characters rise is one of having to constantly fend off criticisms of whether or not they're perceived by audiences as black enough even in our modern era insecure creator issa rae has talked about facing pushback from executives who thought her stories didn't deal with the real black experience why you talk like a white girl more than ever today the quirky black character is becoming a well-rounded protagonist in a black created story expressed not just as a personality but through an individual or downright weird world view that shapes the whole texture of the narrative here's our take on how the quirky black character became a trope that challenges racial tropes and gives us characters who get to simply exist as their goofy authentic selves perhaps opening up our minds a little in the process i listen to different type of music i dress a certain way and constantly i'm hit with these these micro aggressions of you know you don't sound black [Music] if you're new here be sure to subscribe and click the bell to be notified about all of our new videos this video is brought to you guys by movie we love movies so genuinely it is a key part of our lives moby is such an incredible platform it has wonderful movies and interesting conversations around those movies loopy always picks something that's interesting that's quality i crave that curation today you feel like you've actually taken in something substantial and then you think about it you dream about it it stays in your head they have great taste it's something for everybody if you want to know about the world and culture and what's really fun and worth watching check out movie right now mubi is offering our viewers 30 days free just click the link in the description below to start streaming now thank you movie for supporting the take and for helping us bring these videos to you black people haven't really had a chance to just be i guess just regular people have sit in these these moments of normalcy today the quirky black character has come a long way featuring more than ever as the quirky black protagonist expressing the unique world view of an individual black creator in part today's quirky black character stems from a certain personality type that was long lacking on screen as a young viewer issa rae related to shows like curb your enthusiasm and 30 rock but didn't see any black personalities in those spaces that she could identify with i thought that there was a specific type of black girl missing and i always identified as kind of awkward and decided to create this character awkward black girl her youtube series the misadventures of awkward black girl positioned her as this new awkward black girl archetype which eventually grew into the hbo hit insecure insecure's isa d has become the seminal awkward black girl who's unabashedly quirky frequently uncomfortable went to stanford but is still figuring out her life plan i don't know that i'm on the right path and gives herself pep talks in the mirror in the form of introspective freestyle rapping you gonna go back home or not you gonna claim your throne or not is you khaleesi or that other his name i don't remember the show seamlessly integrates black culture but in the personal way this character relates to it [Music] is world isn't characterized by dramatic moments of racism but microaggressions and moments of white obliviousness insecure depicts issa as the only person of color working at the well-intentioned but tone-deaf we got y'all where she confronts the kind of subconscious everyday racism that's realistic annoying frustrating and awkward let's just ask myself what's on fleek the plot when she decides to stop being their token black employee and start her own business hosting community and cultural events for black people mirrors rey's own trajectory tired of feeling underrepresented or marginalized she decided to create original work based on her experiences moreover issa's character is surrounded by a crew of uniquely quirky black women playwright turned showrunner michaela cole also uses variations of herself as a quirky woman leading us through unique television worlds chewing gum follows tracy gordon's hapless cartoonish awkward escapades as she attempts to lose her virginity hilariously subverting the jezebel stereotype and reclaiming the character's sexuality from anyone else's expectations cole also won an emmy for her groundbreaking semi-autobiographical hbo series i may destroy you which stars another messy flawed and pretty quirky character arabella but shows how this individual faces a deeply serious and traumatic event i'm here to learn how to avoid being raped there must be some way because if there isn't i don't know what kind of well that would be what unifies many of these characters is that they're undergoing a journey of self-discovery shows by creators like issa rae and michaela cole and to a lesser extent donald glover tend to have autobiographical elements prioritizing the importance of portraying an authentic and unique personal experience the goal is an honest portrayal of a particular black person just living their lives and sometimes even as rey puts it being boring in this sense the quirky black character is an anti-archetype intended to show that black people can't be put into a box but it's been a long fight to get to this point where the quirky black character isn't expected to speak for all black people in general the quirky black character rose up in sitcoms often created by white showrunners featuring varying levels of involvement from black riders which have long been plagued by a debate around what is an authentic black experience or black enough being black isn't what i'm trying to be it's what i am starting in 1968 nbc's julia the first series to center a non-stereotypical middle-class black woman was criticized for not depicting the true black experience even star diane carroll said the show was presenting the white negro who felt safe to white audiences and was distanced from what life was really like for most black americans in the 70s norman lear's shows sanford and son and all in the family spin off the jeffersons proved that white audiences were willing and even wanting to watch black casts and employed black writers and comics like paul mooney richard pryor illunga adele and sarah finney johnson who would go on to create the 90s show militia these 70s shows featured four runners to the quirky black character in the form of occasional quirky elements like the george walk on the jeffersons want to be like george then walk this way by the 1980s and 90s the black sitcom featuring an array of quirky characters had become a bona fide cultural force with hits like the cosby show family matters and the fresh prince of bel-air in the cosby show spin-off a different world quirky denise huxtable goes to college with an array of personalities amongst a predominantly black cast illustrating that blackness isn't a monolithic experience every year we would go to spelman and morehouse and do research and talk to kids about what was going on and basically the students telling us what they were going through and that's what gave the show it's it's richness writers from a different world went on to pioneer black representation in some of the most influential black shows of the 1990s an era that explored the myriad variations of personality black characters could express moisha followed an upper middle class teen girl played by brandy finding herself in the world while sister sister gave young adult audiences a parent trap formula show about the opposing quirky personalities of reunited twins i always like to get a good night's sleep before a test i usually get my sleep during the test family matters steve urkel and fresh prince of bel air's carlton banks presented audiences with the black nerd character whose utter geekdom failed romances and tendency to suck up to authority figures made them frequent punchlines but audience favorites both urkel and banks established the quirky black character as despite his awkwardness ultimately okay with being different and comfortable in their own skin which made him kind of aspirational take a hike she'd rather eat worms okay some other time then many of these shows had middle to upper class settings which seemed to implicitly make black quirkiness welcomed and acceptable to white audiences but susan fails hill a black writer on the cosby show remembers a white executive saying that the huxtables whose parents are a doctor and a lawyer were a true representation of black families black writer and producer felicia d henderson who worked on family matters which was led by white writers also remembers being ignored when she protested that no black father would say this to his son then he made me get out of the car and lie face down then he cuffed me that's unusual procedure unless you provoked it henderson uses the phrase negotiated authenticity to describe how black writers had to handle blackness in a way that was palatable to or deemed realistically black by white audiences and showrunners because of their bougie lifestyles and proximity to white culture the banks urgles and cosby's were sometimes viewed as outsiders to black culture i'm not accepting no prep school bella bread sell out into my fraternity the quirky black character became a touchstone in respectability politics the idea of marginalized people adopting the trace of mainstream society to get ahead or simply blend in a stereotype about african american people as we like to listen to our music really really loud so if i was practicing respectability politics i would turn my music on medium or low but the glaring double standard is that white characters have never been burdened with combating all stereotypes or representing some all-encompassing experience for all white people to this day not only fictional black characters but real public figures have to walk an impossible tight rope between being perceived as two black or not black enough a key part of understanding the 90s television ecosystem is the commercial piece networks like fox wb and upn were intentionally seeking out these diverse stories and making content for black audiences but eventually these shows were cancelled because they were deemed less profitable from an advertising revenue standpoint the african-american shows indexed lower in terms of household income so over the course of the decade the network started to move away from those shows to this day we can see how the popularity of the quirky black character or subtype of the black nerd in mainstream popular narratives still operates as part of a commercial formula today the eccentric or nerdy black character risks becoming a marketable cliche another token stock character a safe formulaic one that's used to check the proverbial diversity box and round out mostly white casts one important way to avoid this kind of superficial tokenism is to reject the implicit assumption that there can only be one featured black character on a show when new girl brought on damon wayans jr as coach in its third season after he'd originally left for another show and lamorne morris came on as winston critics actually questioned if two black leads in the same show could work you go do these interviews with some of these publications and they would go so now that damon's coming back are you leaving the show being able to shine as an individual new girls winston bishop took quirkiness to a new high this was on a show that was already marketed around the adorkable quirkiness of zoey deschanel's jess but over time jess just couldn't compare to winston's glorious off-the-wall weirdness the werewolves come out at night man i don't want nobody to eat me i got big thighs i got a fat ass winston tries to steer his friends and the audience into seeing that blackness is as varied and multi-dimensional as whiteness being black means whatever i want it to mean the quirky black characters of comedies today are still constantly dealing with that old question of whether they're considered black enough but more than ever they're confronting it head on and calling out white assumptions about what that even means abc's blackish centers on another affluent and lovable quirky black family including the goofy andre junior's obscure game of thrones knowledge and embarrassing love of owl city's fireflies two million fireflies is hard to recover from but central dad dre openly works through his anxieties that his decadent suburban lifestyle is making his children less black and the show is constantly making the racially insensitive attitudes of the white people around them the butt of the joke not while we're all living through the worst thing to ever happen to women in this country but it's not the worst thing to ever happen in our history because black women were slaves identity crisis and calling out white ignorance are also running themes in dear white people a show that features a wide range of young black personalities including quirky kid lionel higgins a shy soft-spoken and gay black man whose quiet confidence and sharp mind help him blossom into a quality courageous investigative journalist damn lionel did you also find the zodiac killer possibly woke based on the real life of keith knight and starring morris of new girl touches directly on the not black enough question through the story of a cartoonist who after experiencing racial profiling suddenly becomes very aware of or woke about how blackness is perceived by others in the netflix series big mouth missy foreman greenwald comes to view her mixed race background as a source of pride after missy is mocked and scolded for letting others dilute her blackness she learns about code switching you switch up your speak and give your manner a tweet depending on the audience missy appoints herself as a champion for code switchers and mixed race kids everywhere mosaic missy a multi-faceted person who views both her whiteness and her blackness as integral parts of who she is oh there i am i'm all of these missy's all of them [Music] some black creators have gone beyond quirkiness into full-blown transcendent weirdness afro-surrealism a genre that uses freak encounters and other worldly realms shows viewers the mind-bending insanity of navigating a white world showing something weird and over the top and then showing how easily it can be placed with how weird reality is that's the technique i brought to get out first coined in 1974 the term afro surrealism was originally used to describe the short stories of henry dumas whose strange allegories were laced with powerful racial commentary jordan peele and donald glover who both got their start in show business playing quirky black men have employed the similar techniques and dream logic to create funny terrifying ever thought-provoking satire in glover's genre defying series atlanta a gritty realistic urban environment becomes a fever-dream world filled with awkward situations unexplained oddities oh it's justin bieber and profound observations on race stop stunning on me about my culture like i'm not gonna go back to africa and find my roots because you know what i'm broke dude darius epps atlanta's quirkiest black character reflects the drive to find insight through strangeness enigmatic and cerebral darius spouts conspiracy theories him the state government pursues wacky get-rich schemes plays chess with himself and readily believes in invisible cars yet his off-the-wall stoner logic is punctuated by moments of real wisdom and darius's radically open mind allows him to be radically kind and forward-thinking whether helping earn to invest in his future you said you wanted more money so i got you more money or just reminding his friends to see the big picture and enjoy life's simple pleasures breakfast carl you made that up everything's made up they won't jordan peels films probe deeply into america's racial undercurrents by putting the black experience in a space normally dominated by white creators genre film 2017's get out presents audiences with a horror movie premise that allegorizes slavery and appropriation black is in fashion and subtly exposes the more hidden racism of seemingly liberal elites who pay lip service to racial equality i would have voted for obama for a third term if i could peel and misha green's joint tv project lovecraft country blends the cosmic horror of hp lovecraft stories with the real horror of being black in the jim crow era the main character atticus a bookish sci-fi nerd who's criticized for his white interests has to grapple with both monsters spawned from the underworld and america's home-bred monsters white supremacists it's a powerful twist especially since lovecraft was a white supremacist whose cosmic horror stories reflected his own fears of the other including black and jewish people the show features multiple nerdy or quirky black characters including atticus's cousin diana who writes and illustrates comic books i really try to encourage people if they don't see themselves reflected in the medium to get busy to get to work that means that there's a story that hasn't been told yet and the audience is there waiting for you diana's mother hippolyta is an astronomer and sci-fi fan and her husband george loves horror and speculative fiction with more and more hit shows and blockbusters coming from black creators directors and writers and more hollywood studios hiring cultural advisors to accurately shape their movies maybe we are beginning to see marginalized communities define themselves on screen and off the most important legacy of the quirky black character is to remind us that a black character is no single thing as lakeith stanfield puts it about atlanta essentially what the show is saying is that being black is being human i'm a human first in black circumstances i'm rooting for um everybody black this is the take on your favorite movie shows and pop culture thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe thanks again to mubi for sponsoring today's video this month movie is looking back at the early work of director denis villeneuve whose sci-fi epic dune is the movie of the moment right now start by checking out his 2000 film maelstrom a psychological drama about a woman who starts dating the son of a man she killed in a hit and run as a special gift to our viewers mubi is offering 30 days free so click the link in the description below to start streaming now if you're anything like me these days you may be totally uninspired and stuck when it comes to figuring out what to watch next subscribing to movie completely fixes that their team of curators handpicks every film they show so there's always something new to discover they seriously love movies as much as we do so their recommendations are always top notch [Music] you

Channel: The Take

Views: 149,701

Keywords: isse rae, insecure, awkward black girl, donald glover, atlanta, community, michaela coel, chewing gum, i may destroy you, dear white people, lakeith stanfield, fresh prince of bel air, carlton, sanford and son, the jeffersons, the cosby show, family matters, urkel, lamorne morris, new girl, woke, black-ish, big mouth, missy, jordan peele, get out, key & peele, lovecraft country, lena waithe, black panther, mcu, monica, wandavision, a different world, moesha, sister sister

Id: ADx_hCivAao

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 18 2021