Addressing Donald Glover and His ‘Fear’ of Black Women

Let’s end this discussion once and for all…

Although I detest being baited into conversations uniquely designed to elicit adverse reactions from my particular demographic, here we are. And before we go any further, I would like to go on record as someone who has been a fan of Donald Glover’s work. I probably will continue to listen and tune in to his various audio/visual projects in the foreseeable future. In fact, I have been collecting my thoughts on his show, Atlanta, and plan to do a series detailing my scattered thoughts on the latest season. Overall, since we have so few thought-provoking Black shows on television, I somewhat enjoy the show and feel it is worthy of regular social commentary.

All that aside, the Redbone crooner has been going down the wrong road for quite some time. I mean, he has been very vocal about his preferences for White and Asian women since the very beginning and even cracked a highly controversial joke about race play that didn’t seem to fare well with most audiences. And, by and large, Black women have continued to support his art.

Let’s switch this around. Is it possible that a Black woman could denounce the entire Black male population, make jokes about race play, make songs with controversial titles and subjects, and still receive support from Black men? If so, let’s just say I personally have never seen such a thing. Quite the contrary, in fact, anytime a Black woman has dared to even date outside her race, let alone crack jokes about it, she was met with swift, unwavering criticism from Black men and women alike. But I digress…

Let’s Discuss Atlanta

Let’s get one thing clear: the lack of female, unambiguously Black main characters in this hit series has not gone unnoticed. I mean, how is it possible to have one of the top Black shows on television with no phenotypically Black women on the cast?

This blatant erasure of Black women is most definitely lame and one of the top reasons I have become so critical of Glover’s art over the years. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out how this Afro-surrealism-themed season did cast several unambiguous Black women to play the unsavory, loud, abrasive, dysfunctional characters.