Can I See More of Me?!- Selena Gambrell

 For my blog today, I'm bringing awareness to the fact that I'm an African American girl, and my favorite thing to do is watch older television. And I know that most of the shows I've watched at the time they came out, DEI hiring was the bare minimum, for example, my favorite shows I've watched were big and broke major barriers, such as: 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)(starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, who is a white woman), but Buffy was big because of how the lead was a woman fighting a "big bad," and it showed a strong girl empowered. But the downfall of Buffy was that where was the DEI? oh actually, I'm wrong. Willow (played by Alyson Hannigan, another white woman) later started a big uproar because she came out as a lesbian after the prior seasons. She dated Oz (male), and it was super big in 2001. But did we have a black recurring character? Yup, for a little while, she was the second slayer awoken after Buffy had been dead for a couple of minutes. But her name was Kendra Scott (played by Bianca Lawson, who was very popular at the time). She appeared in the 9th episode of season 2 and died in the 23rd episode of the same season. killing off her and her terrible Jamaican accent.

Charmed, (1998-2006)(my absolute favorite SHOW), a show that focuses on three sisters who are the most powerful witches in the world and have to navigate womanhood, life, and not getting killed by the lot of demons and sorts trying to kill them. Prue, the oldest sister (played by Shannon Doherty, R.I.P., but white), middle sister Piper (played by Holly Marie Combs, white), the first youngest Phoebe (played by  Alyssa Milano, white), and last but not least Paige Mathews (played by Rose McGowan, and white). This show was huge during its time and still holds a cult following as does Buffy but the same problem occurred in this show as well except we had a black man who played a cop as a supporting role (Dorian Gregory) who played Darryl Morris from seasons 1-7 but got cut because of budget cuts (which wasnt okay giving that he was the first to go). Throughout the season, African American people appeared but never stayed around. There was a black seer who was Cole (who was half demon, half human and Phoebe's love interest until he died), but she died as well, and most of the time, the colored people in the show had something to do with voodoo. 

This blog could go on and on, but it's just a reminder that colored or minority people werent consider star worthy enough to give our best and get the people to laugh and either disappear or kill us off and think people wouldn't notice.