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Diversity On 'The Walking Dead' Wasn't Always Handled Well (NPR)
NPR ^ | November 28, 2014 | Eric Deggans

Posted on 11/28/2014 7:04:59 PM PST by Drango

For The Walking Dead, it was less like a conversation between two characters and more like a mini manifesto.

The moment came during an episode called "Four Walls and Roof," as Bob Stookey spoke to hero Rick Grimes about a central theme this season: keeping your humanity in midst of a zombie apocalypse.

"We push ourselves to let things go, and then we let some more go and some more ... and pretty soon there's things we can't get back," he tells Rick. "And if you let too much go along the way, that's not gonna work."

"This is the real world," Rick insists.

"Nah," Bob answers. "This is a nightmare. And nightmares end."

It was a short, sweet statement on what the whole series is about. But I noticed something else: There were five characters involved in this scene.

And Rick Grimes was the only white person among them.

In fact, The Walking Dead has quietly assembled one of the most ethnically diverse casts on a top-rated TV show. When it airs its midseason finale Sunday, the show will have at least seven major non-white characters, including Michonne, a sword-swinging African American heroine who is also one of the program's most popular characters.

"She's the person who will step in, at those moments when someone really needs to step in," says Danai Gurira, the actress who plays Michonne, explaining her character on AMC's Walking Dead aftershow, Talking Dead. "She steps in and goes and helps to get the medicine, she steps in and stabs The Governor when he goes and tries to kill Rick. That's more her purpose, I think."

But the characters of color on The Walking Dead weren't always so plentiful or well-crafted.

When the show first started, it had a great character of color in Korean American Glenn Rhee. But critics like me argued its two African American characters weren't enough to reflect the diversity of its setting around Atlanta, where the population is more than 50 percent black.

And the racial conflicts on the show were often cartoonish, as shown by a fight between racist white Southerner Merle Dixon and a black man, Theodore "T-Dog" Douglas, kicked off with Dixon declared "that'll be the day ... the day I take orders from a n - - - - -." Fierce, sword-swinging Michonne is one of the show's most popular characters. i

For a while, T-Dog was the show's only black character, given little backstory and few lines. He even complained about his situation, but only when he was delirious from an infection.

"I'm the one black guy ... you realize how precarious that makes my situation?" he says to a fellow survivor, describing how he felt threatened by three other characters in their group. "I'm talking about two good ol' boy cowboy sheriffs and a redneck whose brother cut off his own hand because I dropped a key. Who in that scenario do you think is going to be the first to get lynched?"

The situation changed when The Walking Dead TV show began adding popular characters of color from the graphic novel that inspired it. That includes Michonne and Tyreese, who often acts as the show's moral center.

At first, even Michonne seemed underwritten. Tight-lipped and shut down by PTSD, she took a while to warm up to her fellow survivors and reveal more of herself in ways that showcased the character.

Now, there are even more actors of color on the show, including former Everybody Hates Chris star Tyler James Williams and The Wire alum Seth Gilliam, playing a priest named Gabriel who is wracked with guilt after locking his congregation out of the church in order to ensure his own survival.

The show doesn't talk overtly about race anymore. But it does look a lot more like America, in ways that allow everyone to see themselves as the hero — or antihero.

These aren't just tokens. They are fully fleshed-out characters with their own histories, storylines and goals. And they have come along as the Walking Dead has become the most popular series on TV with the young demographic advertisers crave.

It's another example of how creating a cast that looks like America is good for TV stories and the TV business. Even in a zombie apocalypse.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: hollywood; npr; thewalkingdead; walkingdead
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The liberal moonbats have now turned their eyes on a FICTIONAL show about zombies, and in their current outrage, are tisk, tisking the diversity in the past. After all Atlanta is 50% black, why wasn't the cast 50% black.

Must be torture to think about diversity 24/7.

1 posted on 11/28/2014 7:04:59 PM PST by Drango
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To: Drango

NPR is soooo yesterday.


2 posted on 11/28/2014 7:06:41 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: Drango

Who the frick cares about diversity on The Walking Dead??? IT’S A TV SHOW!!!!

Sheesh.


3 posted on 11/28/2014 7:09:34 PM PST by DJ Frisat (Proudly providing the NSA with provocative textual content since 1995!)
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To: Drango

“...keeping your humanity in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.”

Well, for starters, don’t tune in to NPR! (Apocalypse or NOT!)

*SNORT*


4 posted on 11/28/2014 7:11:17 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: Drango

>> Must be torture to think about diversity 24/7.

Would they be happy if the dead were, say, 80% to 90% black? I think that’s MORE than fair.


5 posted on 11/28/2014 7:11:24 PM PST by Nervous Tick (There is no "allah" but satan, and mohammed is his demon)
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To: Drango

It’s a zombie apocalypse. PC died along with the civilization.


6 posted on 11/28/2014 7:11:39 PM PST by OpusatFR (I did make that. No one else did the work.)
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To: Drango

You want a good laugh? There was an article at HuffPo which said the Walking Dead is a white patriarchy. It was baying-at-the-moon crazy.


7 posted on 11/28/2014 7:12:33 PM PST by CatherineofAragon ((Support Christian white males---the architects of the jewel known as Western Civilization.))
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To: Drango

One of the minorities on TWD is about to get beaten to death, by a little baseball bat named Lucy. Oh the whining that will occur afterward is gonna be epic.


8 posted on 11/28/2014 7:13:58 PM PST by FreedomStar3028 (Somebody has to step forward and do what is right because it is right, otherwise no one will follow.)
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To: Drango
What a balance act it is to write a show nowadays.
Too little ethnicity among the main characters = racism.
Too much ethnicity among the zombies = racism.

9 posted on 11/28/2014 7:14:49 PM PST by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: Drango

It’s a teachable moment.


10 posted on 11/28/2014 7:17:21 PM PST by MUDDOG
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To: BitWielder1

I’m watching Z Nation now. Starting to like this show on Syfy.


11 posted on 11/28/2014 7:18:20 PM PST by cripplecreek (You can't half ass conservatism.)
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To: Drango

You know...I haven’t see too much diversity on BET either...not many shows where whites are the stars....just sayin.


12 posted on 11/28/2014 7:18:47 PM PST by ealgeone
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To: Drango

There aren’t enough black zombies.


13 posted on 11/28/2014 7:19:32 PM PST by Argus
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To: Drango

Unlike the race-baiters on NPR, I just watch the show and see people. I’m not sitting there counting up the blacks or Koreans or lesbians. Okay, well, the lesbian does kind of bother me. The funny thing is, she seems to kind of be making eyes at Glenn. If she declares her interest in a man, NPR will go ballistic.


14 posted on 11/28/2014 7:21:41 PM PST by Rastus
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To: Drango
Actually, NPR, The Walking Dead is a metaphor for the collapse of the welfare state and what's going to happen to the parasites whose only skill is swiping EBT cards.

Do you feel better now?

15 posted on 11/28/2014 7:27:25 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: Rastus

Nothing is any worse than trying to watch PC applied to an historical period movie or tv show. It makes the entire thing laughable and fake — to the non-liberals.


16 posted on 11/28/2014 7:35:04 PM PST by TomGuy ( n)
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To: cripplecreek

“Kid, it’s official: You have now seen it all.”

ZNation zombies on Viagra.

LOL


17 posted on 11/28/2014 7:38:31 PM PST by TomGuy ( n)
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To: TomGuy

LOL There’s a lot more humor in Z Nation than Walking Dead.


18 posted on 11/28/2014 7:43:34 PM PST by cripplecreek (You can't half ass conservatism.)
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To: Drango

How soon before they start bitching about not enough gays? That will ensure the continuation of humanity.


19 posted on 11/28/2014 7:46:19 PM PST by klgator
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To: Drango

I think they have a point... there are waaay too many English actors portraying Americans from the South.


20 posted on 11/28/2014 7:47:59 PM PST by Flag_This (You can't spell "treason" without the "O".)
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