A test proposed by television critic Eric Deggans asks whether or not a story can meet the following criteria:
At least two human characters in the main cast are racial minorities in the country where the work of fiction is set.
The work of fiction is not about race.
Go ahead and explain how one of your favorite bits of entertainment is compliant with this rule. (Note that letting the minority characters actually talk to each other without mentioning their race is optional, as is letting the minority characters actually talk about anything other than the non-minority leads.) I’ll choose Codename: Kids Next Door. While three of the operatives of Sector V - who all live in the same city somewhere in the United States - were Caucasians (Nigel was British, Wally was Australian, and Hoagie seemed to have been born and raised in the US), the two POC members, Kuki and Abby, were Japanese and black, respectively. A good number of episodes revolved around age issues and gender issues, but issues regarding ethnicity were never mentioned.
21 Jun 2017, 5:05 am
