Anybody watch "My Name Is Earl" ? let me show you example of how Black is treated

[randys1]

in media.








If you have seen the show, the lead female character has a (hold your breath) BLACK boyfriend.

Played very well and quite funny by Eddie Steeples.

But the character, Darnell, is real nice, benign, sweet guy who never raises his voice, almost kinda backwoods dumb but clearly he isnt, etc.

You see the point is since he is with the white girl, he cant be a bad ass, or a normal person, either.

He has to be this other type of character. He has to be harmless.

I dont know if this is as obvious to others as it is to some, but it is to me.

We are seeing more and more tv with Gay characters and mixed race couples, so that is good.

Let's hope that continues and we see less and less Darnell's.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Darnell bio:

Darnell "Crabman" Turner is the alias given to Harry Monroe, a former government assassin who was in the Witness Protection Program. He is Joy's current husband.

Darnell works at the Crab Shack. He keeps a tortoise called Mr. Turtle. He graduated from college at age 14. He also is a virtuoso cellist and can identify 254 types of cheese by taste alone ("Buried Treasure&quot . He can speak French, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic and three other languages. He has black belts in three Martial Arts that end in "Do&quot "My Name is Alias&quot . He is shown to be very intelligent and calm. He lives in Pimmit Hills Trailer Park.

After being called back to work for the government one last time in a mission with his father, Darnell was able to stop hiding and could embrace his former name of Harry Monroe, although he decided to allow his family and friends to still know him as Darnell ("My Name is Alias&quot ("Chaz Dalton's Space Academy&quot .

[randys1]

3. That all came about in one episode late in the series, as I recall.

Whenever it was, it surely isnt the way most casual watchers would see the character, at all.

Anyone watching the show casually would be shocked to read that.

But the main takeaway is how nice and uncontroversial and certainly not ANGRY he is.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. The bio cites 3 episodes. One was midway through season 2 and the others were in season 4.

[Comrade Grumpy]

2. Nuthin' wrong with Crab Man. He seems like a cool guy.

[frazzled]

4. What's wrong with real nice, benign, sweet guys?

I've never seen the show, but I married a real nice, benign, sweet guy. I like them, white, black, or purple.

[randys1]

6. Not the point, and this is my point only, I have no way of knowing if this was

recognized by others or commented on.

My point was since it was an interracial relationship and the Woman was white, blonde at that, the Black boyfriend had to come off as very friendly and harmless, almost to the point of an extreme, if you ever watch the show you will see what I mean.

It is to me another example of how Black people are treated in our society.

I think the writers either consciously or subconsciously knew that if he was gonna be the boyfriend, he had to seem overly nice and harmless.

[JanMichael]

8. So are you saying he should be an asshole violent loudmouth? That would be "correct" to you?

I did watch the show and found him to be the best human on the show. Everyone else was pretty f-ed up. He was just calm and collected. God forbid anyone gets described as decent and calm.

[randys1]

23. NO not what I said and clearly you are not able to see the perspective I and

many many in the AfAm community see.

Too bad because as soon as others start to do that, we will be able to fix stuff

[JanMichael]

26. With the way you present things nothing with be "fixed" and nothing will ever be 'OK".

I get it now. I suck and so does everyone else that don't "get it". Quislings one and all. Forever the gate-masters and killers.

[d06204]

10. You are right, his character was purposely made non-threatening

and docile, his CIA background notwithstanding. People are purposesly misunderstanding your comments.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

17. They fully understand what the OP is talking about. Why they are resorting to these extremes,

I'm not sure.

[Iggo]

5. I thought the point was he's a mellow dude.

[randys1]

7. That is how I saw it until recently, my grandson is watching it on NEtflix

and it is jumping out at me, but it didnt the first time I watched it when it was on the network.

Maybe it is all me...possible.

But there is a reason you have NOT ONCE seen Obama angry.

[The2ndWheel]

12. Should he have been the angry black guy?

That's not a stereotype?

Could they have done anything to make Darnell right? If there's no black guy, that's bad. If he's a bad ass black guy, that's scary black guy. If he's a normal black guy, well who can say what a normal black guy is. If he's nice harmless black guy, that's an issue. What should Darnell have been? He wasn't the lead character on a half hour sitcom. How much depth could anyone possibly expect?

[gollygee]

41. Maybe he could have been a three-dimensional character and not any stereotype at all.

Not the non-threatening guy and not an angry black man. Just a character.

[Comrade Grumpy]

43. He was a quirky character. With preternatural calm.

Not any stereotype I've ever seen.

[The2ndWheel]

44. He was just a character

It was a network sitcom, not even an hour long drama on cable. Every character on a sitcom is something. The goofy neighbor, the quirky friend, the nerd, the fat husband, the hot wife, etc, etc.

What could Darnell have been in order to have been nothing on the show? Him being on the show is already him being the black guy on the show. If you give him any sort of characteristic, it's going to be simplified, therefore some kind of stereotype, because it's a 22 minute sitcom where they're trying to tell a short story with some jokes.

Was Earl's brother a 3 dimensional character? He was the goofy overweight brother. Darnell's wife? The hot blond with a white trash attitude. I doubt the show was intended as an in-depth exploration of the human condition.

[deutsey]

51. I haven't seen "Earl" in a while

and even when I did watch it with my son, I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought it was humorous, but I seem to recall all the characters being somewhat cartoonish.

That's not a criticism, though. I had the impression that the show was intentionally cartoonish and was far from striving to be something on the level of a "Frank's Place" (if you know that short-lived comedy from the '80s that had three-dimensional characters all over the place).

Maybe I'm wrong, though. As I said, I didn't watch "Earl" all that regularly or that closely.

[Lurker Deluxe]

16. FFS

You haven't seen Obama angry because he is a good manager. Good managers never lose their cool, it's part of the reason they are successful. .. they Know how to create teams and manage crisis.

[Gormy Cuss]

27. FFS, think about it a bit longer.

The Angry Black Male is still a very strong derogatory stereotype in our culture and while Obama has a lot of reasons to keep his cool in public it's a bit naive to pretend that TABM stereotype isn't one of the factors considered. Women in politics also need to watch they way they express their anger in public too, else they'll be called shrill or hormonal.

[Lurker Deluxe]

29. what?

So our current POTUS is really good at his job, and keeps his cool, so I should consider some stereotype that clearly does not apply.

What sense does that make?

The statement was, "why do you think BO never loses his composure"? And my response is because he kicks ass at his job, and somehow I need to "think about it more".

No. He keeps his cool cause he is cool. He is good at his job, fuck the stereotype.

You think BO thinks to himself that he needs to keep his composure because if he doesn't some twit will think this or that? Pretty sure he keeps his composure ... because he has his shit tight.

[sendero]

15. No one..

... but a mellow dude would be able to deal with the constant shenanigans of his (Jamie Pressley, can't remember her character name) batshit crazy wife.

[JanMichael]

18. That is the truth. She was a really bad woman. Oh snap!? That makes women look bad...

...there is no winning here. Everything sucks and sucks hard.

I think that Darnell is being viewed independently of the rest of the cast. For starters it was a "white trash" is funny premise which should offend for a split second. The men are mostly dim witted and simple and the women are crazy. Darnell was literally a island of calmness in Earls sea of karma crazy waves.

[sendero]

32. I could be mistaken..

.... but my recollection is that Darnell was the only sensible person in the cast.

[DawgHouse]

36. Exactly.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

9. Really?

I mean, the show's been off the air for quite a long time now, but I don't see how Darnell was in any way offensive. He essentially was the smartest guy on the entire show (although apparently his backstory was he was in some sort of witness protection program). The rest of the cast was essentially dumb but likeable yokels. Darnell was the only one who was actually smart.

I think you're grasping for straws here. Especially about a show that's been off the air for years.

[randys1]

21. I did not say he was offensive, just the opposite, he was as non offensive as possible

if you cant even see that part of what I am saying then I guess we are wasting our time you and me

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

13. This is definitely a trend we see on television. Black men are emasculated. Black women are fat,

loud, obnoxious, unattractive and undesirable. When they are not, they are with white men (e.g., Scandal, How to Get Away With Murder). However in those relationships, they are mistreated, neurotic, or engaged in deviant behavior (i.e., an illicit sexual affair; murder). When black men are in interracial relationships, they aren't very masculine; they are docile, sweet, nerdy or slow (Darnell's character).

Yes, there's been plenty of discussions on these issues in the black community re: TV/Media images.

[The2ndWheel]

19. And white guys are fat idiot husbands with hot wives

who are usually also emasculated. Women are prissy and stuffy who look at their husbands as little boys, because they act like little boys.

Television is not real. Real life is hard and boring. Nobody wants to watch that. Throw in a lazy joke, a dragon, a vampire, whatever, make sure everyone looks good, add a wacky concept, and proceed to your millions of dollars.

You've got a few exceptions, but TV is a mass production business. That means most of it is going to be easy and the same. Even Stringer Bell has to be a good looking guy.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

40. You're pretending that racial stereotypes do not exist in the media? Really? Wake up!

[The2ndWheel]

47. I'm saying they're going to exist

because of the limits of the medium. You get a certain amount of time to tell a story, and things have to be simplified. Racial stereotypes, gender, financial, physical, whatever. TV is all about eyeballs, so you have to get people watching. Going back to Stringer Bell again, he's ruthless, smart, but the person playing him is going to have to look like Idris Elba, because it's a TV show, and attractive people have to be on it somewhere.

[randys1]

22. Interesting who is dismissing this and who isnt. Weird how that works eh LOL

I mean could I make my point any better than with some of the responses here?

[melman]

14. WTF?

This is ridiculous.

[B2G]

20. I think I need a break from this place

Some of the discussion is beginning to get surreal.

Later guys.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

24. First world problems

[randys1]

25. If i read a thread about something I knew very little about, which if you are white, for instance

in this thread that would be you, I would want to learn if there is something to learn

Are people from the AfAm community talking about stereotypes on TV?

Yes?

Oh, then I as a white guy might want to listen.

But then that is me, I am sincere and willing to learn and be open to other people's issues and beefs.

What I would not do is go into a thread about an issue I have little experience with and either talk about how UN-important it is or get out my expertise in something I clearly CANT be an expert in.

As a white person I often do bring up race, but NOT for the benefit of lecturing Black people, just the opposite, of course, I am hoping to get other white people to talk about it.

Good news is most here do talk reasonably about it and understand it.

It is why I am still here, as ugly and racist as it can get sometimes.

I am not the expert, I asked a question...I was told in this thread and before by AfAm people that this exists, I just happen to notice it on this show, or thought I did.

[winter is coming]

28. Well, it's obvious you haven't seen the entire series.

[Throd]

30. Why do I think you could come up with a reason why certain types of trees are racist?

I find you to be slightly obsessed with the issue.

[Lurker Deluxe]

31. unrest

There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees

....

[Buns_of_Fire]

33. I've got the whole series on DVD and I love it. That said,

you might be overthinking it a little. Darnell is obviously smarter than the rest of the characters -- but just as quirky in his own way. Played as a Sidney Poitier (Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?) or a Mr. T (The A Team) wouldn't have worked at all within the context. They're all goofy, and they're meant to be goofy.

But heck, ya gotta love a show where the owner of the local strip joint was named "Big Chubby" and his star performer's routine was just jumping up and down... <--- not Catalina, but you get the idea.

[randys1]

34. You might be right, I am more interested in what Black people think than myself or other

white folks.

But you are right, parts of that show was funny as hell


Wasnt Burt Reynolds the owner of the strip club?

[Buns_of_Fire]

35. Yep, Big Chubby himself. nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

37. And Norm McDonald doing his great Burt Reynolds impression played his son, Little Chubby.

[Buns_of_Fire]

38. He had it down to a T. Even that little half-laugh of Reynolds'. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

39. Darnell is by far the most intelligent male character on the show, the only stable and employed male

and is also entirely lacking in criminal history, unlike Earl who is in fact Joy's first husband. Darnell is in fact a vastly better husband than Earl in virtually every way and is intended to be a contrast to Earl and an example of good karma vs Earl's own bad karma. The show is about Earl making penance for being a loud, bullying, petty criminal, he is spending his life attempting to make up for being, in essence, not Darnell.

[Snow Leopard]

42. Thank you

Nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

46. Darnell was a sweet character

[randys1]

53. Exactly, he is completely non combative, never angry, etc. Now you are seeing my point

He has a white, blonde girlfriend, so he has to be all those things.

It is called stereotyping into the non angry Black...instead of stereotyping the usual way, the racist and ugly way.

It isnt up to me to decide if it is an issue, I will leave it up to the community which is effected who so far all (or most) do seem to agree with me.


MAYBE the lesson here is why would any white person reading my post think they have a CLUE whether this is an issue or not.

Please think about that for a minute, why are so many white people so opinionated about shit they know nothing about.

I am talking about it as a white person because most white people WONT...and I could be wrong, but if I am wrong I will only know that if a majority of the impacted group says so...

[Comrade Grumpy]

54. Where, exactly, is Darnell an issue? Other than this thread.

I have yet to hear the black community weigh in on the Darnell problem.

[Sheldon Cooper]

55. That's how I always saw him, too.

Darnell is the rock of stability in the midst of all those other loons.

[TwilightGardener]

45. Darnell's just a mellow, likeable guy--contrast to Joy's loud trashiness.

I liked his character, never thought there was very much of a racial component to his role. The only time I can remember race really coming up was when Joy had her baby and it VERY OBVIOUSLY wasn't Earl's--funny scene in the hospital.

[hunter]

48. A white guy can be anything he chooses.

Anyone else must fit into one of the accepted stereotypes.

[Recursion]

49. Aisha Tylor has complained about that

She feels like Lana isn't allowed to be as dysfunctional as the rest of the crew on Archer because she's black. Terry and Ray on Brooklyn Nine Nine kind of fall into that too.

[Blue_In_AK]

50. All right, I admit it.

I loved this show. It had a good heart, and Crabman rocked.

[quickesst]

52. my opinion is.....

... My Name is Earl. Comedy Gold.