Media Like Me

By Kenyell Parris

                                               

                                The role I play in media is the role millions of people play in too. I consume media every day on my phone via social media, on television and web surfing. I also critique it. By sharing my opinions with friends on the telephone and social media. However, I want my biggest role in media is to create media. I want to create television shows about people and for my people who share the same black skin as me. As far as I can remember, in the 90s there were numerous black shows on television. For example, Martin, Living Single, Mr. Cooper, The Cosby Show, and A Different World . The list goes. I remember just a few years ago, I had a conversation with a friend and the topic of discussion was the lack of black television shows and we were curious about the lack of black people being represented in media. Because we had a variety of black sitcoms in the 90s and a few in the early 2000’s. There was a few in the mid-2000s. There was a drought in the mid-2000's.

                                    However, the tables are slowly turning back. There is more representation of black people on television. For example, Insecure, Power, Atlanta, and Snowfall are television series for us by us and they are doing pretty well in ratings. There are other black television shows on streaming platforms.  As a  black man, I can relate to some of the characters on the show. Especially Danny Glover character Earnest Marks in Atlanta. In the first episode in the first season Earnest had no sense of direction on what he wanted to do in life, he was broke and had to take care of his family. I can relate to because at one point in my life I didn’t have any plans or goals for the next two to five years. So I can definitely relate to Earnest. 

 I must admit, only part of me can identify with the characters in these series and that’s because these series don’t have anyone gay of color in them.  All the black male characters in each series are heterosexual. I can’t measure up to these media outlets.  I used to strongly but not entirely relate to the Noah Arc series because the entire cast was gay black males.  It’s sucks that the series ended in 2006 in the middle of the drought. There haven't been series like it yet. I'm proud of where we are today with the representation of black people in our media, but we need more and as a future media creator it will be my duty to create more television series that’s for us and by us and represent people of color in LGBTQ community. 

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