Behind the Scenes: Black Representation Today

 Behind the Scenes: Black Representation Today

Since the pre-Civil Rights era there has been a great jump in Black representation behind the scenes. With the help of show runners like Tyler Perry, Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Issa Rae (Insecure), Courtney A. Kemp (Power), and Lena Waithe (The Chi), we can see clear improvement of Black representation in the current era. However, inequalities still exist in American television today. According to an article published by McKinsey & Company, Black talent behind the scenes only make up about 7.9% of the different series we see on Netflix. And when there is a Black creator behind a show, roughly 72% of the series’ regulars are Black, and to add on, 15.4% of the actors are Black in a show run by a non-Black creator (Dunn et al., 2021). 

Even in 2024, we see similar reports across the majority of streamers audiences use today. So essentially it boils down to this: Black creators are responsible for representing Black people on-screen. Because there are not many Black creators today, we don’t see as much represented across television. A lot of this is due to the fact that Black creators aren’t getting properly funded to create their tv shows. You would almost have to follow a similar path to the great Issa Rae and develop your own story, and then release them on platforms like YouTube all to hope that whatever it is you created gets brought to light.