Diversity in Streaming...are We Dreaming?

While there has been a lot of attention concerning #Oscarsowhite - and the recent news that the Academy has offered a seat to more people of color than ever before - I have to now focus my attention to a  newly up-and-coming form of network television: The streaming networks of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu (and suprisingly now YouTube). 

Are they, being a new platform, catering to the demographics that watch them? Is the playing field once again, uneven?


The future of television seems murky: there may be too much for one human to watch, and to weed through the menagerie of selections for QUALITY programming is even murkier (if that is even a real word). With regular television, cable, Dish/Satellite, online/apps (pirated) direct-to-video, Network Websites, and of course Streaming Networks - this creates a lot of shows, but strangely - the diversity issue is apparent in all of them. 

What streaming networks may lack in direct diversity, they do get points for showing lively content that seems to edge on the border of racy, controversial, or different. Just look at the recent content on Netflix with Daredevil, or Hemlock Grove - with visuals more disturbing and shocking than you would find on many of the CSI shows. I believe the word would be GRITTIER content.


While there are shows that deliver on a multi-racial cast, there are far and few with a person-of-color lead (African American specifically). Lets take a quick look at what we have:

Diversity is a many-headed beast

NETFLIX

The Mother of All Mothers, who has developed an array of original programming to challenge any cable provider out there, is actually doing a good job with diversifying its portfolio, giving us shows like Orange is the New Black - with a very diverse cast, or with Atelier about an Japanese lingerie company and the young geek that works there. Even with Aziz Ansari and his highly reviewed Master of None, the presence of people of color isn't all together absent, but African Americans watch Netflix in great numbers too. And while I am not trying to carry a banner for them to flood the screens with our story, I am wondering why nothing is really represented.

...and if you have any doubt, it is suffice to say, that Black people coined the term " Netflix and Chill." (At least if we aren't watching it directly - it's on somewhere in the room during those CHILL moments). 

There are the documentaries like Beasts of Nation and Nina Simone, which offer an interesting view of a Black experience, but where are the series that branch off into that life on a more personal level be it comedic or dramatic. 

The Get Down Sizzle...sizzles!

There is on the horizon a new show based on the early era of Hop Hip Hop (The Get Down Sizzle) in the 80's, that stars a stellar black cast (despite it being produced and written by a team of whites), and that is a good look in the right direction. But it also feels like a cop-out, to create original programming, based on nothing really original, or real (well, there is Luke Cage (set in modern day Harlem), slated for later this year - who is a Black Superhero - let's see how that will work. It's still not a REAL black experience).

*Side note: Luke Cage was the first African American to receive his own comic in Marvel, to reel in the black audience, and to also jump on the bandwagon of Blackspoitation Films of the 90's.*

Mike Colter talks about his Luke Cage role

But thank you Netflix for the bone...I'll chew on it a while.

HULU

Ahhhh, now this is when the short list, gets even shorter. For a network that plays practically everything on television; it should see the importance of diverse programming. 

It appears that The Mindy Project and East Los High, are their move in the diversity/people-or-color direction: Comedy & Drama respectfully. It is good to see more of a Latin presence on streaming Networks, but the hope for an African American show seems far off, and not in the future for Hulu.


AMAZON

Amazon has a lot going on, and I mean with the company itself. I think that it's original programming is a testing ground for including just another shelf in the world of streaming content to rival those that have made a success of it thus far. So it is not surprising that there is a limited catalog.

Their take on diversity has to be pegged on Transparent, which has won a good amount of Golden Globes, and is a very good series focusing on Transgender lifestyle. The LGBT community as a whole has a lot less programming as well, and they are duly represented here. 

But with Mozart in the Jungle as their Latin star puppy (which also has won a Golden Globe), should incite Amazon to realize that diverse programming can win. There isn't anything on the horizon for Black programming it seems, but hopefully, with their niche for trying everything once, that this will be on their radar.  

The Step Child: YouTube

They are new to the game, and are playing a different game altogether it seems. The shows they are presenting seem geared to a more video savvy audience - and by that I mean, an audience that is young, used to quick action, and mildly diverse in its casting. It almost seems to be targeting fans of YouTube for Stars of YouTube. But at $10 a month for limited (and unknown) programming, I am not sure how far they will go. 

But as for diversity, they have it in their casting with shows like Dance Camp, Foursome, and Lazer Team (they are called the Associate Black - kept there to keep us quiet, as an accessory).

It is too early to see where this network is going, and how many YouTube stars are actually people-of-color...but with it's young demographic, it will be interesting to see where it is headed. 

Final Thoughts

It appears that there is a need for the expansion of African American/Black television, but we need to either be in those positions of power, or those that are, feel the need to create a platform for the masses. 

Netflix is planning to take the world by storm, and I figure it's diversity footprint, so spreading the love over such a wide arena will leave only small footsteps for us all. 

The real issue lies with networks of any kind realizing that Black people...or for that matter, ALL PEOPLE, watch all kinds of television, and that Black television is not going to turn off any other race from watching it. This is the big fear, and the numbers see it. Crossover appeal is what makes the money...but ironically, betting on White can do the same thing.

So guess where the networks are going to spend their money first?

But they also need to realize that we watch television, in mass numbers, and we are more apt to watch a black character with a fill history, than one used as a placematt for a diverse cast.