Finally, a Black Person on Friends
by Roxy Haji
I’m an avid watcher of Friends. In fact, I own every season. Due to the fact that I have no Internet or television, I thought it best (and most convenient) to profile a minority character that guest starred on the sitcom.
Her name is Charlie and she is African-American. She is a love interest of Ross, but Joey gets her first, until she dumps him and goes for Ross (sorry if I gave anything away). She appears in more than one episode, but maintains the same characteristics throughout her multiple appearances.
Charlie is the first African-American love interest of any of the six friends. One of the big critiques of the show Friends was how there were no main African-American characters. Finally, in its ninth season, the second to last season, they introduced Charlie.
Charlie’s character is not at all stereotyped. There were no references to her race or ethnicity. She is simply the hot girl Ross and Joey like. Charlie is very tall, very slim and very attractive. She dresses professionally, plays a paleontologist who dated Nobel Prize winners and is portrayed as an intelligent woman. Her character is an example of an individual assimilating into a very well-respected, high-status class of American society.
While observing the episodes Charlie appeared in, it occurred to me that it is very rare in American television to see an African-American person on the TV and not be blatantly reminded of his or her race. Charlie didn’t talk a certain way or look a certain way or act a certain way that would adhere to any of society’s preconceived notions of how black people are. She was an attractive paleontologist more than she was an African-American.
Friends has had African-Americans on its show before. But they played super-tiny roles and were extremely stereotyped and, in my opinion, negatively so. Charlie was a refreshing change.
Now, I have one last comment, and I hope this comes off as politically correct as possible. My last observation about Charlie is that she is very “white.” She has straight hair, a not-so-curvy frame, and talks very “proper.” Certain words are in quotations because in no way am I trying to associate white with proper. The bottom line is: if someone asked me if I thought Charlie matched America’s stereotype of a white woman or a black woman, I would say a white woman.
I really liked the fact that Charlie did not portray classic African American stereotypes and that race was not an issue with her. I am wondering if you had an issue with the fact that Charlie is "very white" as you put it. Do you think that Friends should have made her more stereotypical and what do you think this would have accomplished? I think the fact that they did not make her stereotypical is a sign of the progression of the American Media.
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems of racial criticism of television shows – especially situation comedies – is that it cuts both ways. Where one critic (e.g., B. Lee Artz, the author of our class reading) may decry the caricature of certain cultural traits, another may bristle at the “whitening” of an ethnic character – that is, the conscious reduction of a character’s distinct ethnic qualities in favor of qualities reflecting the social norm. Is there really a decent compromise in a medium in which caricature is the rule?
ReplyDeleteAs for Charlie on friends, she does not represent progress to me. A cynical view of Charlie runs like this: she is the “Friends” producers’ Friendly response to a call for color on the show. A less cynical view runs like this: if we are being true to the comfy-cozy latte-sipping fictional world of the Friends on “Friends,” only a “Charlie” is a realistic inclusion.
Charlie exists, but Charlie is certainly an African-American as idealized by white America. She does not speak in any recognizable African-American dialect; she is a professional (a paleontologist???); her attractiveness reflects white standards of beauty (e.g., straight hair). This woman is real and she belongs in the Friends’ world. But her benign portrait creates the same problems as do the caricatures lamented in the Artz essay. Namely, her role in the show removes her from the black community (and shelters the Friends from it) and does not address the problems of race that actually exist. She is simply a black face in an otherwise white world. A classic token.
So I’m not sure how we do better.
I think it only runs into a problem when the producers try to hard to make an african american person seem white, it is the same if the producers made a white person ghetto. Most people would look twice and be upset. There is a good example of this when beyonce did a print ad for Loreal, and the ad made her skin whiter and her hair super straight, there was a lot of talk on this, and people were upset because they said Loreal was trying to make her more white instead of embracing her being an African American. http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/06/loreal-beyonce-whitewash/
ReplyDeletevery true.
ReplyDeleteas a big fan of FRIENDS too, and who owns all seasons as well, i couldnt agree more with you regarding Charlie's character in the sitcom. as i mentioned in my post, the media does stereotype often portray African-Americans in unfair misrepresentation unlike other minorities.
I think you guys are getting to the complexity of this issue -- with such a harsh history of stereotyping and a (colonial) traditional of idealized "whitened" ethnic characters in America, how can a non white character be portrayed in an non-essentialized way?
ReplyDeleteOne problem here is that there is no neutral culture and we have trouble seeing people as culturally neutral (though often dominant white culture is naturalized, think Sotomayor debates). Can you imagine a Charlie who would not be a stereotype AND not be "white-washed"?
We all live in the borders between amorphous cultures and what I'd personally like to see on television is more representation of that negotiation, though I'm not sure it would necessarily solve any problems.
What if they would have made her "less white", then you all would be saying they were racist, why can't she be smart and educated , because she is black? That doesn't makes sense to me.
ReplyDeleteEvery comment I just read is ridiculously racist. I reread them all, and yea, still racist. Just cause you throw around some sociological high school regurgitation doesn't make it less so. Think for yourselves and try not to view the world as black and white. We're all a part of the same race. Douches. Just enjoy the show.
ReplyDelete