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| We hoped to see more black lives on our screens. Our hopes were dashed We hoped to see more black lives on our screens. Our hopes were dashed | |
| (30 days later) | |
| There is no shortage of programmes depicting the black experience. The BBC has its Black and British season, surveying our past and present from a variety of angles. Eagerly awaited is Steve McQueen’s planned epic chronicling the lives of an intergenerational black British family. But it isn’t always so. | There is no shortage of programmes depicting the black experience. The BBC has its Black and British season, surveying our past and present from a variety of angles. Eagerly awaited is Steve McQueen’s planned epic chronicling the lives of an intergenerational black British family. But it isn’t always so. |
| The British Film Institute this week hosted a 10th anniversary showing of Shoot the Messenger, the groundbreaking drama made by the BBC in 2006. In it, the lead character, Joseph Pascale, portrayed by the then up-and-coming David Oyelowo, gives up a well-paid job to do his bit for the community as a schoolteacher, trying to raise the aspirations of black pupils from a life of gangs, crime and under-achievement. But after being accused of hitting a pupil and being called a “sell-out” by the pupil’s parents, black councillors and a community radio station, his life goes downhill. He loses his job and suffers depression, leading him to being sectioned and then becoming homeless. He is only saved when a religious do-gooder takes him home for love and a sort of salvation. | The British Film Institute this week hosted a 10th anniversary showing of Shoot the Messenger, the groundbreaking drama made by the BBC in 2006. In it, the lead character, Joseph Pascale, portrayed by the then up-and-coming David Oyelowo, gives up a well-paid job to do his bit for the community as a schoolteacher, trying to raise the aspirations of black pupils from a life of gangs, crime and under-achievement. But after being accused of hitting a pupil and being called a “sell-out” by the pupil’s parents, black councillors and a community radio station, his life goes downhill. He loses his job and suffers depression, leading him to being sectioned and then becoming homeless. He is only saved when a religious do-gooder takes him home for love and a sort of salvation. |
| Many won’t recall it now, but when it was first transmitted the show provoked controversy within the black community. Opinions were divided on whether the drama was racist – depicting black stereotypes (single parents, over-medicated black men, angry political activists and workshy violent youths, black women reliant on hair weaves) – or a wakeup call, liberating black experiences from political correctness. | Many won’t recall it now, but when it was first transmitted the show provoked controversy within the black community. Opinions were divided on whether the drama was racist – depicting black stereotypes (single parents, over-medicated black men, angry political activists and workshy violent youths, black women reliant on hair weaves) – or a wakeup call, liberating black experiences from political correctness. |
| That debate, how we are portrayed and whether issues that might be regarded as “dirty linen” should ever be washed in public, is still an ongoing discussion. Shoot the Messenger, with the bleakness of its dialogue, gave that debate a visceral urgency. “Almost every bad thing that has ever happened to me has been because of a black person,” said one line of dialogue. “Bring back slavery – we were good at that,” said another. “Black people are crabs in a barrel; they won’t escape because they will keep pulling each other down,” said a third. | That debate, how we are portrayed and whether issues that might be regarded as “dirty linen” should ever be washed in public, is still an ongoing discussion. Shoot the Messenger, with the bleakness of its dialogue, gave that debate a visceral urgency. “Almost every bad thing that has ever happened to me has been because of a black person,” said one line of dialogue. “Bring back slavery – we were good at that,” said another. “Black people are crabs in a barrel; they won’t escape because they will keep pulling each other down,” said a third. |
| I had mixed feelings at the time about the show – about its timing as much as content – but looking at it now, it’s worth asking whether the representation of black Britons’ lives is any better, and whether our lives themselves have improved. On both questions I have severe doubts. | I had mixed feelings at the time about the show – about its timing as much as content – but looking at it now, it’s worth asking whether the representation of black Britons’ lives is any better, and whether our lives themselves have improved. On both questions I have severe doubts. |
| In terms of representation, the picture – special seasons excepted – is patchy. Only Lenny Henry’s intervention last year created sufficient pressure to force the BBC to kickstart its work on diversity again. And still we lack anything like the legacy plan we need to ensure more dramas building on the experience of Shoot the Messenger, which boasted one of the first and one of the few black-led casts and production teams in British TV history. | In terms of representation, the picture – special seasons excepted – is patchy. Only Lenny Henry’s intervention last year created sufficient pressure to force the BBC to kickstart its work on diversity again. And still we lack anything like the legacy plan we need to ensure more dramas building on the experience of Shoot the Messenger, which boasted one of the first and one of the few black-led casts and production teams in British TV history. |
| As for the lives such dramas might depict, on one hand we see individual successes and achievements as reflected in the recently published Powerlist of black achievers. At the same time there is a growing racial inequality gap in housing employment, stop and search, mental health and unemployment, as demonstrated in a recent report from the equalities and human rights commission. Then there was the recent intervention by the United Nations, imploring Theresa May to recognise the UN International Decade for People of African Descent initiative and establish a national action plan with special measures targeting the welfare of black Britons. To add further insult to injury, the interim David Lammy report on the black experience of the criminal system painted a picture of systematic racism in the courts, policy and prison system. | As for the lives such dramas might depict, on one hand we see individual successes and achievements as reflected in the recently published Powerlist of black achievers. At the same time there is a growing racial inequality gap in housing employment, stop and search, mental health and unemployment, as demonstrated in a recent report from the equalities and human rights commission. Then there was the recent intervention by the United Nations, imploring Theresa May to recognise the UN International Decade for People of African Descent initiative and establish a national action plan with special measures targeting the welfare of black Britons. To add further insult to injury, the interim David Lammy report on the black experience of the criminal system painted a picture of systematic racism in the courts, policy and prison system. |
| The point of provocative drama must always be to force us to think about ourselves. Shoot the Messenger performed that task admirably. | The point of provocative drama must always be to force us to think about ourselves. Shoot the Messenger performed that task admirably. |
| But ultimately, hopes of a sea change in representation and in the reality of our lives were dashed. The key is not the drama, it is how people respond and what actions they take thereafter. There is only so much that even pioneering drama can do. | But ultimately, hopes of a sea change in representation and in the reality of our lives were dashed. The key is not the drama, it is how people respond and what actions they take thereafter. There is only so much that even pioneering drama can do. |