The New York Times used the race-based Girls backlash (opposed to the class and nepotism based backlash) to look at how race is represented on television, or, more appropriately, it isn’t. The author writes:
“Television is nowhere near diverse enough — not in its actors, its writers or its show runners. The problems identified by critics of Girls are systemic, traceable to network executives who greenlight shows and shoot down plenty of others. It’s at that level that diversity stands or falls.”
He points to vastly more popular shows like Two and a Half Men and How I Met Your Mother that are equally as monochromatic, if not more so, but don’t get as much scrutiny because they tend to exist outside the critical spotlight. And boy is Girls in the critical spotlight – it seems like nearly 80% of its viewers are spotlight-wielding critics. As a result, it becomes the centerpiece of larger pieces about media and race and gender. It’s not its fault but it’s not not its fault.
