Woke television has apparently gone so far that not even black showrunners are safe from being cancelled. The latest shift comes courtesy of the L.A. Times condemning a supposedly growing rise of “black trauma porn.”
On April 19, the Los Angeles Times ran an article decrying “media images of Black death” in recent shows and movies that deal with racism. Using the latest Amazon Prime series Them as an example, staff writer Greg Braxton wrote about how “numerous Black viewers” and critics were “outraged” at the depictions of violence against the black characters, including a woman being gang raped by white men while her infant son was killed, with one labeling it “racial horror porn.”
Braxton specifically quoted USC professor Robeson Taj Frazier regarding the violence:
“I can certainly understand the negative reaction, and why viewers found the violence a bit excessive. Have we seen this kind of terrorization of other races on TV? People recognize there is a need and necessity to tell difficult stories, to interrogate the sickness of this infrastructure of white supremacy. But people are also asking, ‘at what cost?’”
It’s fascinating how shows like Them, Watchmen, and Lovecraft Country, which go to great lengths to show how America, white people, and just about everything associated with them are virulently racist, are still condemned by the woke media.
Them creator Little Marvin defended the fictional brutal violence as “designed to convey the savagery of racism” and others argued that "the pain of racism should not be sugarcoated." Unfortunately, they all still seem to share one idea: that a white supremacist America essentially tortures black people regularly.
Marvin and the other showrunners claim the objectionable violence in their shows represents how common barbaric, racist attacks against black people are and Braxton maintained that this brutality is appalling precisely because it’s so common. He even quoted another “expert” about how the material is, in fact, “triggering” due to referencing real-life racism.
Chair of the African and African American studies department at Duke University Mark Anthony Neal stated:
“For white audiences, these projects offer an opportunity to see things they may not see on a regular basis, while for Black folks, it’s the same old, same old. People are really sensitive and raw about the graphicness of the violence because, for them, it’s not entertainment…These directors and screenwriters are working in a world of fantasy. But the irony for Black folks is that it’s not a far cry from that fantastic world to the reality of how we live our lives. I can understand why they might want to push that away.”
While we could all live with less brutality and violence in our fantasy, it’s also important to remember reality. White people brutalizing black people for fun is most certainly a “far cry” from how most black people live their lives, and statistics can prove that. These shows, especially the ones that take place decades in the past, do not represent anything that’s really happening in the year of our Lord 2021.
If people really want to call out these shows for their violence, I won’t stop them. After all, fewer shows with gratuitous violence would only make television better. However, TV won’t really improve until we get rid of this racial nonsense once and for all. Just don’t expect the Los Angeles Times to support it.
