# Should every TV/movie/book cast be as diverse as possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 9, 2009, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822 "2009-08-09T08:19:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/21 "2009-08-09T23:04:49Z")
Hell, no. Diversity for the sake of diversity is stupid. It also causes mistakes, like the inclusion of Spearchucker Jones in the first season of MASH. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/22 "2009-08-09T23:36:06Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > TV tropes offers what I think is the most likely explanation: “This is usually a very obvious ploy to increase demographic appeal.” Rightly or wrongly, producers of TV and movies think people are more likely to tune into a show that has a representative of their demographic. Well, another big part of it, IMO, is found in TV Tropes’ Unfortunate Implications section: the idea that producers and casting directors are racist (unconsciously or otherwise) if they either don’t put certain demographics in, and/or use tokenism. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/23 "2009-08-09T23:57:35Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I know. Almost as if it was taking place in a state where 90% of the populace is white and the blacks live mainly in the cities. Heh. That’s what I was thinking about as I read the OP: if a show/movie is supposed to be set [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_hampshire#Demographics) or [Maine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine#Demographics) (where whites make up 97.5% & 98% of the populations), it’d be strange for there to be much more than one black, Hispanic, or Asian cast member unless the production was _about_ minorities living in a mostly white state. Diversity is fine for most casts, but it can be distracting if there’s no attempt to match it to the demographics of the setting. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/24 "2009-08-10T00:12:23Z")
I find it especially jarring in commercials with children playing. Never a group of all white kids playing, never a group of all black kids playing, you’ve always gotta have at least one of each, then also you gotta usually throw in either an asian or a hispanic kid. Oh, and at least one kid’s gotta be a girl. I’ve got no problem with kids playing with kids of other races, or boys playing with girls, but it just doesn’t jibe with groups of kids I see playing and smacks of tokenism. _crosses fingers that the board doesn’t eat the post this time_ ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/25 "2009-08-10T00:13:13Z")
The reason a lot of movies and television shows do it is to attract as wide a demographic as possible, not necessarily for any philosophical reason. They think they’re going to draw in every ethnicity/gender/sexual orientation they cast. One trope that I always find annoying about this tendency is that every fictional rock band has to have at least one chick in it. That’s not really an accurate reflection of reality. Rock band culture is a sausage fest. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/26 "2009-08-10T08:29:15Z")
_raises hand_ Well if you don’t have a lot of diversity every show is gonna be like the qunitensencial Middle class midwestern Average Generic show. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/27 "2009-08-10T10:00:59Z")
The movie **Mississippi Burning** was pretty diverse with lots of whites and blacks. The same is true with **The Color Purple** and **Gone with the Wind**. That is admirable IMHO. I read that gay characters are greatly overrated in mainstream prime-time shows. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/28 "2009-08-10T10:29:27Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Hell, no. Diversity for the sake of diversity is stupid. It also causes mistakes, like the inclusion of Spearchucker Jones in the first season of MASH. Spearchucker Jones was in the original book … he was a ringer brought in for a football game between 2 MASH units/ ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/29 "2009-08-10T13:58:25Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Spearchucker Jones was in the original book … he was a ringer brought in for a football game between 2 MASH units/ After Spearchucker left the show MASH was notable for the lack of blacks. They had some shows which made a point of having blacks, like the one with the Iowa football star, but there didn’t seem to be any blacks in the background as extras. In the first season there was a black nurse and she vanished in the later seasons too. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/30 "2009-08-10T14:27:50Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Spearchucker Jones was in the original book … he was a ringer brought in for a football game between 2 MASH units/ Be that as it may (I own every MASH book, even the awful ones, which is most of them), there were no black neurosurgeons serving in MASH units during the Korean War. This was pointed out to the producers early on, which is why Spearchucker disappears after about 6 episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/31 "2009-08-10T14:50:10Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Be that as it may (I own every MASH book, even the awful ones, which is most of them), there were no black neurosurgeons serving in MASH units during the Korean War. This was pointed out to the producers early on, which is why Spearchucker disappears after about 6 episodes. Yea, but I don’t think the desire for diversity led to the mistake. Spearchucker was a black doctor because the author of M_A_S\*H wrote him that way. Indeed, given the lack of enlisted African Americans in the rest of the show, I think it’s safe to say they weren’t on any particular mission to make the show more diverse. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/32 "2009-08-10T15:10:01Z")
Probably not. They also started concentrating on Hawkeye and Trapper, so everybody else got short shrift. ---
**Author:** ![Tanbarkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a698b9/32.png) [@Tanbarkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanbarkie)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/33 "2009-08-10T15:24:40Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > I like it when you have a member of a minority group just playing a character without being a cardboard cut out stereotype member of said group. > A good example of this is Tim Kangs character in the Mentalist. > > He;s cocky,shrewd and on occassions amusing or narcissistic,buts he’s NEVER that chinese bloke on the team and does.'t get constantly asked about buddhism or FengShui. > And on the odd occasion when he is asked a question on that sort of topic he’s as clueless as everyone else. But that also depends on the setting and “point” of the show. It makes perfect sense for the non-white characters on _Battlestar Galactica_ to have their race all-but ignored, since these are supposed to be an essentially-alien society anyway. The fact that Boomer “looks” Asian to us is irrelevant - the BSG timeline doesn’t _have_ an Asia for her to come from. Same goes for Admiral Adama (played by a Hispanic actor), Dualla (played by a black actor), or Felix Gaeta (whose actor is half-Italian, half-Chinese). On the other hand, shows like _Veronica Mars_ and _The Wire_ are explicitly about exploring racial and cultural tensions. The character of Eli “Weevil” Navarro _has_ to be Hispanic, because that’s a major part his role on the show. Which isn’t to say that he’s a token or a political device - Weevil is as much a three-dimensional character as anyone else on the show. But his being the son of an immigrant, whose grandmother works as a housekeeper for a rich white kid’s family, is crucial to his character, and the writers use him to intelligently explore class divides and the motivations behind gangbangers. Ultimately, as with most things, there is no single metric that we can use to decide when “diversity” is being used well. The fact of the matter is that, in today’s culture, the presence or absence of diversity _will_ send a message whether one is intended or not. A smart showrunner will take advantage of this fact to deliver a particular message of his choosing, rather than let the commentariat make up an explanation on their own. Ron Moore’s characters on BSG make no mention of race, and in doing so, he presents a unique culture that doesn’t segregate or discriminate based on physical appearance - a nice idealization that leavens the darkness elsewhere in the show. In contrast, Rob Thomas’s characters on VM often comment on each other’s race, and thus reveal the underlying racism (on both sides) still present in even the most multicultural societies in America. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/34 "2009-08-10T15:30:40Z")
Nope. The real problem with a writer trying to be diverse is if the writer doesn’t really know any people of a particular ethnic group, they do a very bad job of writing for them and frequently fall back on stereotypes. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822/35 "2009-08-10T15:32:28Z")
> [@scifisam2009](#): > > And very often the non-white person is a woman. I suspect the the majority race tends to have a more favorable view of “exotic” minority women than of minority men. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-every-tv-movie-book-cast-be-as-diverse-as-possible/505822.md?page=1)