Girls, Racism and Tokenism

The controversy started a month ago, when HBO released “Girls,” a comedy series created and written by Lena Dunham, a talented 26-year-old screenwriter.

“Girls” is everything that comedies on the main networks (ABC, FOX, CBS, NBS, CW) aren’t: irreverent, funny, awkward, strange, eccentric and addictive. The premise isn’t any more original than any other series. We follow the life of Hannah Horvath (played by Lena Dunham) who tries to make it financially in New York after her parents cut her means so that she can “fly on her own.” Hannah isn’t alone in her situation. She has three friends who all aspire to succeed professionally as well as personally.

“Girls” doesn’t lack the ability to charm the public, in spite of its lack of originality. The cable channel HBO is known for the quality of its productions, an aesthetic that’s only very rarely displayed – and which doesn’t forcibly emphasize the actors – characters which often find themselves in improbable but hilarious situations, and a very raw, if not sometimes embarrassing, manner of handling dating and sex.

There’s only one thing: In “Girls,” all the actors are white.

This is neither a shortcut nor an exaggeration. In the first three episodes, only one person of color is shown, and it’s a homeless man who gets ten seconds of screen time. Critics from the site “The Take Away” were amazed that Lena Dunham only created white characters, even though the story takes place in Brooklyn, where two-thirds of the inhabitants are not Caucasian.

Jenna Wortham, a New York Times journalist, took up her pen – or rather, her keyboard – to share her dismay. She wrote, “They are us but they are not us. They are me but they are not me,” before adding that the worst part of the story is that she loved the first episodes of the series. She also asked the question on everybody’s lips: How can a production that addresses so many different subjects so well, fail in respect to this theme? At a time when charges still blast against “Seinfeld,” “Friends” and “Sex and the City” for their lack of diversity, it’s about asking how an intelligent series, created in 2012 by a film auteur who spent her childhood surrounded by friends who didn’t all have the same skin color, did not know how to learn from others’ mistakes.

Molly Lampert wrote in “Gawker” that the answer isn’t in questioning Lena Dunham, who responded to critics in a respectful and concerned manner and explained that she would address the problem, but that she hadn’t wished to add people of color just to fill quotas – the definition of tokenism, to which a number of series have, unfortunately, resorted to.

The root of the problem is more profound: The bulk of movies and television have still not found a way of handling questions of race. Given this is the case, productions must be made up of a white majority, with only one or two token characters (“How I Met your Mother,” “Gossip Girl,” “Lost” or “Dexter”) or must focus on a non-Caucasian community in which white characters are, for their part, quasi non-existent (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Cosby Show,” “The Jeffersons,” or “In Living Color”).

Boston Globe critic Wesley Morris, winner of the 2012 Pulitizer Prize, has discussed the importance of the “Fast and Furious” saga, mocked for its light scenarios and senseless action scenes, but having the honor of being one of the only film productions that represents actors of all backgrounds without having this make a difference to how the characters are treated.

Some people assert that it’s not surprising to see Hannah and her friends evolve in entirely white tableaux because “Girls” is just representing reality. The fact is that television, like the United States, remains very segregated. Others attempt to explain that, in order to resolve the problem, it’s not about adding black, Latino or Asian characters who have stories linked to their backgrounds, but to simply consider the fact that a large portion of New York City’s inhabitants are not white, yet see themselves in the problems faced by the four young girls. Others still explain that it’s possible that the fact there are only white actors simply shows how much the characters are trapped in their own world, incapable of leaving their little routines or making contact with other people.

In conclusion, what’s important to take from this controversy is that it actually exists, and to solve the problems that can’t be resolved simply by quotas. Nevertheless, if the controversy is growing, it’s also because everyone agrees that “Girls” has immense potential to embody “the voice of a generation” and it is disappointing that it misses out on this title by a simple lack of reflection.

It must be remembered that Lena Dunham is a screenwriter, producer and director who is only 26 years old, and whose series came to be selected and, for now, renewed by one of the most respected channels in the United States. Dunham repeats to whoever wants to listen that she had not realized there were only white characters in the series before somebody made this remark, and that she had created a setting resembling her own, because she writes only what she knows. Immature, neglectful, egotistical, thoughtless: It is possible to affix many adjectives to her. However, we should also add, with all the caution and discernment necessary to point it out, that Dunham created a series, not a documentary. Of course, the screenwriters of “Girls” must surely hope that many young people see themselves in the series’ characters and nod their heads in front of their screens saying, “it’s definitely true!” but should the responsibility of being the voice of all generations fall on the show? The critique is serious because the series is good, but also, and especially, because it gives an opportunity to re-open the debate on representation and recognition of all viewers, no matter their origins.

Is it surprising that a majority of series still haven’t integrated the importance of the “diversity” factor present in society? It is sufficient to look at photos of television station executives to gain a response. As long as the power of life and death over productions rests in the hands of a few white men – often in their fifties, always wealthy – the series broadcasted will conform to the same model. Above all, as long as diversity isn’t gaining ground in spheres of influence, the controversy must remain open and be discussed regularly, until it no longer exists.