I keep thinking about this idea of forced diversity that I see everywhere. It’s another “concept” in our never-ending outrage about culture. As far as I can tell, the anger is just a repackaged and weaponized version of the decades long complaints about tokenization.
On one side, you have people who criticize the arts and culture with honesty. For so long in our entertainment, we have repeatedly seen the manifestation of stereotypes in characters in ways that are emblematic of the prevailing, and mostly unspoken, thoughts of those in power. A catalog exists, plain as day, and up to date, of all of these examples. The conversations around tokenization have decidedly been one sided, favoring those who aren’t white. Not because white people can’t be tokenized, but because the frequency at which it happens pales so great in comparison to others that it could only be characterized as an accident.
The commentary surrounding the issue has always taken a very simple approach - Characters whose value is predicated on stereotype, or consistently relegated to one overarching quality, are characters who present the audience with a false idea of reality. To be considered simple is to be considered unattractive. We yearn for stories of complexity, filled with twists and turns, where adversity is overcome with wit. No one, especially those who continue to face unequal treatment in every facet imaginable, yearns to see themselves represented in a shallow capacity.
For decades, there hasn’t been any benefit of seeing this one-dimensional caricature. Its use has only caused harm, and to claim with authority that there is a desire for it to return and be even more prominent is where the dishonesty of the other side’s argument begins to reveal itself.
What I’ve observed is that those who wave the “don’t do diversity for the sake of diversity" flag do so at any diversity, regardless of a character’s depth. In HBO’s The Last of Us, Bill is portrayed as a man’s man. A rugged, conspiratorial prepper, who is impressively prepared for the apocalypse. But once the revelation that Bill is gay is revealed, he’s immediately dismissed as “diversity for the sake of diversity.” This shift in the goal post represents the reality of what is truly desired - comfort.
Seeing people who look like you, speak like you, act like you, but then turn out to be something that you’re uncomfortable with can be shocking. But the question becomes - Are they to blame for your discomfort, or are you? At what point do you accept the reality that skin color, gender, sexuality, all play a part in the identities, characteristics, mannerisms, of good characters?
And at what point do you interrogate your own beliefs about a people, rather than interrogate the writers, the designers, the directors, and the actors? At what point do you admit to yourself that you’re depriving yourself of joy by choosing to be such an unnecessary adversary?