Week 9

Diversity

 “One of the reasons I made [George Washington] is because movies talk down to kids, put them as a cute little kid with a box of cereal and a witty joke… You watch movies like Kindergarten Cop and it's like, 'Oh, a kid said something about sex. Isn't that funny?' It's just annoying and it makes me sad for their parents.”

 Gordon Green

Gordon Green’s first film, George Washington (2000) is a story of a group of young friends during a hot North Carolina summer. After an unexpected tragedy, the kids are forced to decide how they will cope and find their individual stories of redemption.

When we talk about portrayals of diversity in the media, it’s probably something less useful studied through individual examples versus in the media collectively—recognizing trends across years, within genres, or among target audiences. It’s just not realistic to expect a single work to be completely representative of every combination of race, gender, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Still, it’s worth noting when a piece of media makes a conscious attempt to avoid being completely homogenous.

In George Washington, Green is concerned with giving every character a voice. It’s more than just a story about a racially integrated town. It’s about honest and intimate portrayals of how we cope with tragedy and loss. It isn’t a token thing. The film has an almost documentary-feel and a dreamlike, Terrence Malick-esque pace that allows its characters to play out their stories and reach their conclusions on their own time. When diverse characters are allowed to be more than tools, but real people, these stories evolve as much into a study how much people have in common as much as what our differences are.

Exposure to new perspectives is essential during a kid’s formative years, because kids often have such a limited perspective based on where they are born and raised. But children’s media can be  particularly weak  when it comes to these types of portrayals, with minority characters rarely featured, and even less in major roles. There are real problems that come with being raised believing that there is only one way to live. When attempts are made to be more diverse, it can allow for a sense of inclusion for those not normally represented, and offer a new or unfamiliar perspective the audience may not have considered before. It allows children and adults alike to grow as people, gain new insight, and have more charity.

And, in honor of my favorite show that returned today: