Opinion | The Black Characters I Wish I Saw More Of

On Freeform’s “Grown-ish,” a spinoff of ABC’s “Black-ish,” Zoey is the face of Generation Z college students. She is surrounded by students of different socioeconomic classes, ethnicities and sexualities. The show is a multicultural utopia, but she still gets to keep her blackness.

And “Grown-ish” focuses on issues important to black women, like colorism, black male sexism and athleticism. For example, the twins Jaz and Skylar Forester are on athletic scholarships, and it’s clear how important their success is to their family and friends back home. Aaron is a woke “blacktivist” who is criticized for his male privilege and affinity for lighter-skinned women.

On Showtime’s “The Chi,” Lena Waithe’s ode to the very black South Side of Chicago, the black characters create a collage of diversity even within the same racial demographic, as the show focuses on the implications of violence and near constant police surveillance. Ms. Waithe is successful at this because the ensemble cast is so enormous.

We’re seeing similar progress in films. “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins’s adaptation of the James Baldwin novel, gives viewers an unflinching look at the impact of the racist criminal justice system on black families. It does that through the love story of the two main characters — not violence or vilification.

Donald Glover’s “Guava Island,” filmed in Cuba, imagines a black island community uniting against corporate greed. The movie isn’t based in America, but it introduces viewers to Afro-Caribbean communities that thrive here.

Over the history of our big and small screens, audiences have been treated to thousands of variations of whiteness. White people have stood in as the face of humanity’s fullness and complexity. We’ve watched white people traverse the boundaries of class, history, sexuality, gender, disease, fame and technology.

We deserve an era of equally unapologetic blackness. We’re not there yet. But the finish line is in sight.

Sesali Bowen (@BadFatBlackGirl) is the senior entertainment editor at Nylon.

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