An Open Letter to Network Television on Behalf of the Black People You Cast

By Jocelyn Jackson Williams | Special to the OBSERVEROPINION – I remember being so hyped when MTV first came out.  I told my mom with excitement that it was going to be a channel that played music videos all day.  She was not enthused.  She knew what was about to happen.  In my house, we listened primarily to soul/R&B, none of which made their airwaves on the Music Television Network.  It would be a year before they showcased a Black artist and another year before they played Michael Jackson for the first time.  That same year, David Bowie called them out in an interview for only featuring white artists on the platform.   MTV finally addressed the demands to desegregate their channel and circumvented the perpetuation of systemic racism.  Unfortunately, this problem persists in other entertainment spaces.It matters how a television show establishes itself with its viewers.& If a show lacks diversity from its inception, it participates in the form of systemic racism that places white people as central characters and all others orbit respectively.& Whenever you introduce a person of color into this environment, they are perceived as a retraction from the “proper standard.”& That proper standard is the core...