What’s Wrong With Our Black Communities?

A few weeks ago BBC3 aired the powerful docu-drama “My Murder”. The drama retold the true story of the murder of Shakilus Townsend, a victim of a “honey-trap” who was lured to his killers by his ex-girlfriend.

I remember when the crime was initially reported in the newspapers and was shocked and fascinated by the story in equal measure. All the major characters in this horrific crime were of African and / or Caribbean decent; Shakilus, the girlfriend and the leader of the murdering gang. The drama (like the reality I am sure) was firmly set within a black community.  

Now I am not going to join the usual chorus of complaints that follow these kinds of programmes of “why are black people always shown in a negative light?”. This was a true story and I'm sure the ethnicity of all the people portrayed in the drama was accurate. Shakilus Townsend, his sister and family were also, in fact, all portrayed in a sympathetic light. Yes, there were bad criminal black people but the drama in no way portrayed all black people as criminals or potential murderers.

However the programme still left me feeling uneasy. It left me worried about how black communities are portrayed on TV.

Over the last twenty years there has been real progress, with most British drama writers now recognising that there should be "positive" black characters. Casting directors are now more willing to cast black actors in non-stereotypical “positive” roles. Things are far from perfect, but there is no denying that progression.  We see “positive” black characters on our screen relatively often – from actors in Dr Who to The Hustle and of course Luther. However, there’s something special about these “positive” characters..

They are often the only black character, inhabiting functioning white communities, or at the very least majority white communities. Black communities on TV on the other hand are portrayed almost exclusively as “dysfunctional”. While many of the people portrayed in the “My Murder” drama may have been likable, the community they were set in was anything but.  

The message that came across loud and clear from the docu-drama and more generally on our screens is that while there might be good black individuals, black communities are a problem. It suggests that if you are a “good” or “positive” black person you should want to leave the dysfunctional black communities as quickly as possible. While some might downplay these unspoken messages, the reality is one comes across these implicit negative views about black communities all the time.  There are often similar messages about Asians on TV: while there might be “positive” individual Asians, the community is invariably problematic, populated with forced marriages and potential terrorists.

Yet the reality is that while dysfunctional black communities certainly do exist, there are also very good positive functional communities. Recent analysis by Dr Nicola Rollock into the black middleclass offers strong examples of functional positive black communities that rarely see our TV screens. I for one am very proud to be part of a black community that includes lawyers, film makers, policemen, civil servants, charity workers – but also unemployed people.  It’s mixed, but positively so.

So why aren’t these positive, broader messages about our diverse communities coming out?

I believe that the reason we now have an increase in the portrayal of positive black individual characters on TV is less to do with political correctness than the fact that many white script writers, producers and directors  increasingly live multi-cultural lives and regularly come into contact with “good” non-white individuals in their real lives. The positive individuals trend on our screens is itself a by-product of a broader trend, rather than an intentional outcome.  But if we are going to get a similar sea change in how the black community is portrayed as a whole we need to ensure that people from these functioning communities are employed in positions of editorial responsibility, like the “positive” individuals trend, positive communities will hopefully appear on our screens just by people writing, casting and directing about what they know, rather than any intentional effort.

With an increase in the portrayal of all different diverse communities  maybe then I will be able to see "My Murder" for what it was; an horrific crime in a dysfunctional community that happened to be black, rather than yet another crime in our dysfunctional black community.