A Deep Dive Into the History of Black Representation in Movies and Television

Published Jul 19, 2022, 7:01 AM

Let’s take a look at episodes this season that highlight Black representation in movies and television. Host Roy Wood Jr. sits with Daily Show writer, Josh Johnson, and JumpStart Comics creator, Robb Armstrong, to discuss how the first Black Peanuts cartoon character, Franklin, brightened the lives of young Black children. Next, Daily Show writer, Ashton Womack, filmmaker, Tananarive Due, author and screenwriter, Steven Barnes, and author and educator, Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman, join Roy to talk about their favorite Black Horror movies and the evolutionary roles Black actors played within this genre. Roy wraps this recap up with Daily Show producer, Chelsea Williamson, and creator and showrunner of Amazon’s Harlem, Tracy Oliver, as they highlight the importance of portraying vulnerable moments Black women experience to remind the world that a Black woman’s strength does not equal invincibility. 

New episodes of Beyond the Scenes return August 9, wherever podcasts are available.

Hey, it's Roy Wood Jr. Hosted of the Daily Show podcast Beyond the Scenes. We're going through some of our favorite episodes over the past year, and today we're talking about black representation on screen. Our first clip is from Peanuts, Franklin and Representation, where I sat with Daily Show writer Josh Johnson and creator of the comic strip jump Start, Rob Armstrong to talk about the first black Peanuts character. His name was Franklin Armstrong. I did not know Franklin. How the last name. Listen to the clip. So, Josh, when we talk about inclusion and representation, you know that's always a conversation. Today. We need black characters on TV and we need to say my black faces on the TV. As you all were putting this piece together, how difficult was it to try and maintain the balance of sprinkling in this awareness that this character really did change the face of representation for black youth. I'll also find a couple of jokes in there along the way. I feel like anytime something is um insane in a bad way, anytime something is like unacceptable in a bad way, there is something funny about that. Yeah, I mean, so it's like the same way that it's crazy that it took so long for there to be a black character and it just be normal. It's like that is also funny. It's funny because it's wild, you know. And so I think that that's where the jokes come from, because on one hand, you're like, wow, this is this is we're a little late. If if you if you think about how long we all have been around each other and our kids have been playing together everything like that, we're a little late. But then also I think that you you wanna just kind of, like you said, convey that this is a big deal. So I know it's not. I know it's not a big deal. Now we've got like half of HBO is black now, and like you know, all these all the shows are just like so there's there's so black that like you have cousins now who are on the show and you're like you don't even act. It's like yeah, but they needed somebody. So yeah, like there's there's that much, but you have to take it back a few decades to where it's like there was nothing. And even some of the representation we see now, whether it's Asian or black, it's like it's an overwhelming amount happening quickly recently. It's not as if this is just the world we've always lived in. So I think that those are the main mindset you have to keep in mind when you write for pieces like this, where you have to put it in context to the time, and you also have to acknowledge that, yeah, this is this is like a wild thing. It is. It is as messed up as it is. It is funny that the world could be that messed up. So rob to your point earlier about Mr Schultz having complete autonomy over the creative of his comic strip and choosing to put a black character in this comic strip, I would imagine that he didn't have like, there was no diversity and inclusion board to run your black characters by. There was no correct me if I'm wrong, But I don't imagine that comic books have the same focus group type level of detail before something is released to the public, the way your television show, the way a movie is. What do you think Schultz got right and where do you think some places where the representation could have been I don't want to say a little bit better, but it was a step in the right direction. But what what else do you wish that you could have seen from the first black comic strip character. Or was Franklin's presence enough for you to get the ball rolling? Well, Roy, I saw what you guys did to my boy Franklin on his fift he was. Of all the clips of Franklin, we found the one when he's sitting on the on the thanks if the Thanksgiving. So I just don't want him to be the other kid all the time, even if Thanksgiving. Yeah, they invited him, but look what they ain't put him think by himself. Even the dog gets to sit with the kids, watch the dogs, even at the damn table. It's cool though, Franklin, Franklin. Look, man, Franklin, they did you a favor. You don't want none of that bland dass white people Turkey anyway, ain't putting those sprinkles on it. You know they don't season the food right if y'all have Thanksgiving in Africa. I had him breakdancing. I never even saw that breakdancing. I don't know where. I'm like, where did they like, what kind of research team find they go beyond? It was every time with this kid. Anytime you walk down the street in Peanutsville, you might run into Franklin and when his homeboy pop walking, and even when he's hanging out with his friends, everyone else gets a normal handshake with No, not Franklin. He gotta slap skin, see what I mean. All the other Peanuts are just kids. But Franklin's running around Peanutville like a damn baby shaft. He's a tiny bad the Franklin. Okay, so he's different. We're talking. Just take us back to different. It's very different. Spark. He had very little to do with TV. He actually trusted two men, Bill Melindez and Lee Mendelsohn. Those two men are responsible for his television success, all those those Christmas specials and all that great pumpkins. Great, but the introduction was tenuous because the world was so tense, You guys, it was just a crazy time. I'm a little older than almost everybody I meet nowadays, and nineteen sixty eight in America was just awful. In the same year that Dr King was assassinated, he got murdered in in April. In July July one, my brother Billy, who was a wild boy. My brother was seven years older than I and he he was just a wild kid. My mom had a single mom and she had a hard time with Billy. Anyway, he uh, he went out. It was horsing around with his friends. We lived right near the subway. It was elevated above the street like in Chicago, and we just here rumbling all day and night. My mom hated it. She was kind of forced to live where we lived and didn't have any way of getting out of that situation. And she was haunted by the subway, the sound of it, and she feared Billy would be killed on it one day because him and his friends were so dude. These guys they could jump the turnstyle get through those doors before the guy had a chance. Anyway, she sent them downtown and said, listening, I don't want you horsing around. I know you need to pair sneakers. Here's money for the sneakers. His money for your car fair. We called it the car fare to get on the subway. Don't jump on it. Don't play around serious, he says, okay, Mom, I won't. He was walking through the doors. It's in July, first Maine, the six yate. One of his friends hoped the lugie into the engineer's faces. He booked his head out to check four passengers clearance, put his head out, and one of my friends, my butter, my brother's buddies, hot one, and he realed backwards and shut the door. Wham with that crank bam, and my brother was only halfway in and he got torn in half. Mhm. That was July one, When July thirty one, Franklin was introduced. You guys, there's a very good chance I would not have this career if this dude didn't show up to cheer me up the same month that happened. The same month that happened. I just loved seeing him. If you want to ask me what Shultz did right, He listened to somebody, do you have a perfect landing? Did you stick the landing? I mean, you know, come on, man, he didn't know anything about His whole trepidation was built around do I know about black people and being black? This guy is from Minnesota, and he's like, I'm going to get it wrong going in. He's very nervous man, but he got it right. It's okay, you don't have to get it right. He put so much thought and care into Peanuts it became a global icon. I met this guy who was a collector and I was brand new. I was twenty six, you know, I was the youngest cartoonist the syndication deal in the whole country. And I met this guy who said, I can help you sell your original strips. That's what I do. Mhm. And I would never do this today, but you know I needed money. Sure sounds good to me. So this guy, Mark, nice enough guy, was my broker, and I was talking about shoults influence on me. One day. He says, Oh, Sparky, that's my friend. You want to meet him. I said, wait, who who are you talking about? Sparky shouts that's my buddy, honest, Like, you gotta be kidding me. He says, if you ever come to California, call me, we'll get together. Take you over there to meet the Sparky. Sure, dude, It was like, but there's nothing to compare that to will be. It'll be like it's nine four and somebody's like, I know Eddie Murphy. Yeah, if anything, you're like, should you be telling me where Eddie Murphy lives? Like? I was like, but it was crazy. I walk into this campus. It's not a it's not an office building or anything. It's a it's a Disney like environment. He had his own ice skating rink in his own restaurant cafe. Then he had an office type building that you walk into and as you walk in there's an a trium massive, maybe three stories. This sounds like Edie Murphy. Yeah, I'm not gonna lie that much more money. You're like, what, wait, so how did you decide what to spend it? Doll Because I'm I'm actually expecting you to say weirder stuff than what I'm here, because what I'm hearing still seems relatively reasonable. You know, he was. Yeah, he was a reasonable humble man, which I'm gonna get to in a second. He um. He did have this one celebratory space though. As you walked in, he just had the red baron, you know, snoopy on the thing. You could look up and it's flunk. I can't even describe it. Just everywhere you look there was something a lot of commemorate presidents and actors and they I love you, Sparky, and that's not realized. His name is Sparking. Everybody calls him Sparker. Everybody, Frank Sinatra, like every all this stuff. I was so eager to meet my my idol. I sent him an original jump Star from my first month of syndication. His office was spartan, famously spartan. He had a desk to draw on a table to right letters on a bookcase. He was a voracious reader, and the sofa and my my jump Start was the only thing hanging up on the wall of his office. Because I walking, I thought I was seeing things. I said, Um, I said, I get it. Your friend told I thought you was coming, and you framed that. That's very nice. Let's say I get it, man, that's ray very I've very touched it. He said, what do you What do you mean? I said, you knew I was coming, so you put the put the thing people the thing. No, he said, No, your work is great, man, You said, jump Start has with Peanuts, has great characters. You can do this comic strip for the rest of your life, he said, But just just remember one thing. Don't let the syndicate, you know, the people who distribute my word. Don't let the synicate ever tell you what to do. Don't pay any attention to them. The whole office filled filled with nont to people. It's like entertainment. To Josh, Yeah, it's like, the wildest thing about this whole story is just the idea of Charles Schultz talking ship so like in the office and he's like, closed the door behind you, listen, don't let anybody's son you, all right, like just like like you. You always imagine him as like talking the way Charlie Brown talks. He's like, nobody knows what they do when all right, you hold over your I p okay totally, Josh, I'm not kidding. It's extremely important that the creative person have utter trust in the town that they've been given because everybody has not been given town vig. Thank you to the Homie, Josh Johnson and Rob Armstrong for their insight. After the break, we're talking to portrayal of black people in horror movies. Y'all know we'd be done first. It's beyond the scenes. We gotta break that down. Let's shift gears for a bit and talk about horror, black horror. On the episode titled the History of Black Horror Movies, I sat down with Daily Show writer Ashton Womack, filmmaker to not a Reeve Do, author and screenwriter Stephen Barnes, and author and educator Dr Robin Or means Coleman to talk about influential movies from the black horror genre. Give it a clip. Since we're talking about black horror, then we have to first define it, because Ashton and I fumbled all over that in the first segment, because we don't know what technically makes a black horror film. You know what makes that? What? What are the rules for that sub genre? To not a reeve, I'll start with you. Oh shoot, okay, Yes. My opinion about it is black horror can be as many kinds of stories as black creators come up with. Sometimes it's just that there's a black lead. Like you can have a film like The Girl with All the Gifts, which is not a black movie. It was written by a white author, but they cast the lead black like George Romero did and not The Living Dead, And hey, it's not just that the lead is black, but it has a sensibility that is sort of interrogating society and shifts in society and rules of society. So it has kind of a black personality, even if it might have a white director. But yeah, black director, black lead, um and a black sensibility or just filling up an invisible like like addressing invisibility, Like we exist. We don't even have to do anything black, We just exist. Okay, So then for my other two, for for my other two here on the panel, defined for me, when you recognize that this was a genre that you felt drawn to, that you got something out of, Like you know, I know we all have our own favorite film genres. What was it about? What is it about horror that you go, yes, scare me, you're already black? Well, first, I think let's start with a definition of horror. Horror would be a film who the primary emotion they want you to experiences dread horror. So whatever it is that they're doing, you know, it could be supernatural, it could be science fic, you know, supernatural, the Exorcist, science fiction, alien. It could be you know, psychological horror, psycho, but they want you to feel that emotion. So what Tonantorieve said, who is My good Lady wife? Uh um? Is that black horror would then be horror films that have a black perspective. It's a diasporic performer or writer or director or in some way connects to that. So being black in America is a matter of constantly knowing that you're under a low level of attack. I mean, the the the mortality statistics, just say that for a fact. So if white people in people all over the world like dark story stories that are that that touch the question of death, um, black people I think have even more reason to to to balance their emotions. Screaming and laughing both release tension. Yeah, well black people do that both when they when they laugh, they that makes sense, right, that's right. So so to be able to keep your keep your emotions in a healthy range, we watch comedies to release tension. We watch horror or suspense movies, or somebody's crawling across you know, the some huge monument being shot at by spies increases our tension level, drops our tension level. We're trying to survive. We're trying to stay in the goldilocks zone where it's not too much tension and it's not too much relaxation because both of them will will will take you apart. We're just trying to survive. But we have some very special needs in that sense. For me, black horror is fun, it's funny, it's entertaining, But most importantly, black horror hails my blackness. It speaks to black life and culture certainly, as Steve said, the socio and political, but it is also about my style of my music and my aesthetic. Black Horror is it is life, It's black Elates tells from the Hood. It's candy Man one, not Bernard Roses Candyman. Black Horror is death by Temptation that had James Bond the Third, Samuel L. Jackson, Cadeem Hardison. It is all of the things that says, there's an insider conversation that we're having about black people and blackness and black ideologies, and it may speak to an external audience, but we're not going to do all the definition of work to bring you in. This is about you. It's for you. Yeah, oh, I love it. I can't remember. It was Tony Morrison who was like, I don't have to write my stories for anybody outside of for anybody. I'm writing to the people who understand. It was something that took candid that of writing stories for us to understand for the person, the people who need to understand understand, and white people or any other audience having to try to she didn't have to like write to help explain to the white audience. To other people audists, this is for us, I love that sentiment black horror, scobo. It's for right, right, and and I get how some people don't want to lean into tension and lean into scares like y'all were saying. It's like life is hard enough. Racism, it's hard enough because, like I said in the documentary Horror Noir, black history is black horror, and we could just put a period there. But the person who loved horror first in my life was my late mother, Patricia steven Stu. She was a civil rights activist who had tear gas thrown in her face at the age of twenties, so she wore dark glasses the whole rest of her life, even indoors. She loved horror, and I think for her it was about leaching out the trauma, not bringing it more. She had already lived the trauma. She knew trauma was real, but monsters, zombies, demons, ghosts, which she did not believe in. By the way, ghost imaginary horror was youthing and help put a face to that monstrosity. And wasn't a while The characters can win, They can beat the monster now, even if the characters were all quiet. I remember being on a panel to Science Fiction Convention Ones this Mighty ask me why do I like watching slash slasher movies? And I would say because I enjoy watching white people die. The whole audience cracked up, and I said, you know, it's really funny. You think I'm kidding when when if you're going to exclude us from the movies, it's like, I'm sorry, you know so. But when we started appearing in there more, then it's that, it's it's feeling seen, it's feeling that, Okay, we're part of this continuum too. We you know, do we not feel? Do we not fear? And it is it is it not fun to watch us in those situations. The difference between the original candy Man and the remake is stark. The original candy Man was black trauma for white audiences. The reimagine candy Man was from our perspective. It wasn't the white gaze. White people could come and watch it if they appreciated it, but it wasn't for them, And I think that that that shift is important. So Dr Coleman, I'm curious what was your relationship with horror growing up, because what I'm starting to see if Tanana Reeve's background and my backgrounds are any proof. A lot of it starts early on in what you tend to gravitate towards. Because I had weird real life. What I believe there's a demon is trying to kill me. I don't want to see none about no faith demons. What was your relationship growing up? What do you think it was that drew you to this genre? So I I get to claim horror because I am from Pittsburgh, born and raised, and for true horror fans, that's all I have to say. If you need to buy a bow, Pittsburgh is the land of George Romero. It is the land of Night of the Living Dead. It is where Night of the Living Dead was filmed in and around. So horror for me is in my d n A. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, Romero used real life Pittsburghers in Night of the Living Dead. Those were people that we saw, We recognized they were our neighbors. They were cast as militia, and we knew that that was the black experience in Pittsburgh to have to do battle with those police. So for me, again, it's in my d n A. So since you all are historians on this genre and I'm sure you saw the segment that I did with the terrible mustache glued to my face. Of the films that we were able to fit into it, you know, Ash and already talked about that in the first second that we didn't really we weren't able to get to everything, but we did. You know, mentioned Son of Angagi. We did talk about Rachel True's role in the craft. What were some of the bigger ones that you all think we missed? Blackla, Yeah, we did a segment on it, Like during it we mentioned it slightly because Black he was so interesting, It's so funny. The only issue was it was during the it was black black. We wanted we summed it up in a black spotation era where it was Blackular, Blackenstein, Dr Black, and Mr where they would just add black to any horror movie. And then I was like, that's so I wish we would have went in deeper because Black is so funny and like how it was like received at the time. It's a cult classic now, but at the time people were like, this is some shucking in job and what the hell is it? I'd say Dawn of the Dead because Ken Foray was one of the very first black leads in a horror film who got to survive? And a black priest delivered one of the most chilling lines I've ever heard, which is, when the dead walked the earth, we must stop the killing or lose the war. And so that made that a black horror movie for me, you know, is the idea of the thematics of it being expressed by a black man and a black man surviving the damn movie. You think. So I'm gonna put an other shout out in for black Ela. I don't know. I thought it'd sort of shed the black exploitation era. I mean, this is a movie that's about a delayed move through the middle passage and here we are, you know, in Watt's in l A saying there's a connection between slavery and what we're experiencing in America today. Well, because of the actor involved with it was William Marshall, Yes, William Marshall, William Crane. He brought fantastic gravitas to that role. Think about that, that movie with a bad actor in it, and it would have been trash, but he elevated everything. He treated that as if it was Shakespeare. I mean, I just I love that movie. It was important. That's why I have to forever give a shout out to two black creators who get opportunities like how did William Crane like in his twenties, How did he even get that opportunity to direct a movie? But so often when we do get those opportunities, we want to do more. I'm sure that the producers would have been happy just for him to slap something together, but he brought in you know, the very beginning of the movie. People who haven't seen it, it's been a minute. Uh, William Marshall's character is arguing with Count Dracula about the trans Atlantic slave trade holding court, you know, and and it's like, whoa, when it was the last time you saw yourself in the seventeen Hundred's right, it's just so and and all the Swahili and the history, some of it a little misguided and but but just really trying to do more. And I also mentioned, uh, what was supposed to be a knockoff of Blackula, but which became a great film in its own right, which was gnjen Hess with Bill Gunn. They were like, hey, why don't you do a black vampire movie like Blackula? And he's like um okay, I will do a movie, but it is not gonna be like Blacula. And he did his own meditation on immortality and love and death and history. And I just love seeing artists trying to work within a system that isn't really interested in our stories, but it's just often interested in profiting off of our stories. Owner of films can have an advantage and breaking through to an audience because genre films have fans that love that genre, just love it and will go see almost anything within it. So a black horror film is not only going to get black audiences, but it's gonna get genre audiences. People want good horror, and that actually helps to make the world more porous, where it's it's possible. It's maybe difficult to get through that barrier, but it's not impossible, it's less impossible. So these movies actually made a difference. They got people behind the camera, not just standing as actors. One of the best examples of that is get Out, you know, which is one of the reasons we're all here right now. When Jordan Peele made Get Out and release it in ten you know, as he said in Horr and wir, he he made that film to work for the black audiences. If it doesn't work for the black audiences, it's a fail. But it may two d and fifty million dollars. So clearly it worked for way more than the black audiences. It gave so much attention to this subgenre of black horror and has created so many opportunities. Even our documentary got the green light the day he got his oscar. Big thank you to all of our guests right there to take it home. We're going to revisit a conversation we had about the stereotype of the strong black woman beyond the scenes to be right back. Hey, let's wrap it up with the clip from Dissecting the Strong Black Woman Stereotype, where I talked with Daily Show producer Chelsea Williamson and creator and showrunner of Amazon's Harlem Tracy Oliver. Tracy's depiction of the stereotype on her show adds multiple layers to the conversation, and it reminds us that a black woman's strength does not make her invincible. Give me a clip. Let's talk about Harley. Now, this is a television show that you know, we look at some shows that you know, really get into the trauma and heartache of what black women go through. This show is just straight up breath of fresh air. You got full black women and friends and Harlem living a lives, going about their business. Talk first about the importance of that, but also you know, I'm like, this is now be getting in side baseball, right. You create a show that's black and it's speaking to the black experience, But sometimes these shows are viewed and given notes by producers that may not have lived that experience and may not completely understand everything that you're speaking to or pushing back against. What are some of the ways that negative stereotypes about black women traditionally seep into media, and that you find yourself pushing back against those types of creative notes, if not with Harlem, just at any point from Awkward Black Girl with Rate until now, have you ever had to push back against that type of stuff to make sure that you create the type of content that is like what Harlem is. Oh boy, yes, I had to let out the black girls side on that, but yeah, that's that's happened I think my entire career. It's um It's something that I think most black creators unfortunately struggle with because again, you are dealing with mostly non black executives who don't know your experiences and also have an idea of blackness that they that they're interested in that may not be what you're interested in. The weird thing that I will say is that there's kind of a fascination with black pain and poverty that I feel like that's what they get really excited about. So yeah, and so you come in and you're like, yeah, these black girls, you know, they like sex and they like cocktails, and they're like, oh okay, but get to the the part where they're shot by cops, and I'm like, she's ridiculously successful. It's making good, she's making she has a good career. Yeah, but you know, is there a gun? Right? Yeah, they're wondering when the gun will appear, or you know, it is Megan's mom a crack mom. Like it's like always just something that you're like, No, I thought they could just be normal at some level, Like it doesn't have to be this like hyper like traumatized, painful situation. Like I think that we can have shows that just show people like having fun and falling in love and and I think within that show, and that's why we want to do the Strong Black Woman episode. You can do something that highlights a part of blackness that may not be all fun, but it was important to me, and it's always important to me to show that we are a happy, joyful group of people and that we we love and we live life and have a lot of amazing positive moments. So I don't want to just focus on um painful stuff. Strown Black Woman episode. Break that one down for people who haven't seen the series. Ship. So the Strong Back on My episode kind of focuses on just are four main characters, and they're, you know, four black women, and so they're all kind of dealing with their version of a painful thing. And what's kind of funny about it is that they're not really opening up to each other even about some of the stuff that's happening, until they're all kind of forced to in this like hospital room together. I'm so sorry I was in therapy. I just got your message, no worries. It's good, you're in a hospital bed. It is not all good. I cannot believe that she needed surgery when that asshole doctor wouldn't even give her a fucking pain pill yesterday. Yesterday, Oh you know, what's bad When Ty is crying, I thought i'd see the day. Sorry, I'm trying to be strong, scary you trying to be strong in a hospital. Bit being strong is so overrated. Oh no, I'm sorry. It's just there's a lot going on. Everybody stopped apologizing. We always have to be the who apologize sick. You're the only one of us. It's not a mess, it's not true. I am a man. I'm just not allowed to talk about it. You know, with the queer character Tie, we decided to give her um, you know, the fibroids issue, and that's something that disproportionately affects black women. And I didn't even know that. That came up through a writer in my writer's room, and you know, she was dealing with the fibroids issue and I was fascinated by it. And then of course um went just like the character went to the hospital, was told to take some pain medicine and kind of dismissed and then ended up passing out. And then you know, later found out it was a ruptured or varian system. It could have been you know, very very like catastrophic for had she not gone to the hospital at that point. That conversation kind of led me to just this idea of like black pain and how people look at us and think that, you know, we're stronger than everybody else, and that we have a high pain tolerance, and for some reason there's just a lack of empathy when we go to you know, doctors or to medical centers. It's like, for whatever reason, you can look at a white woman in pain and somehow relate to it and empathize with it, but with a black person, they kind of more often than not, um send you home with just regular pain medicines, and we use the toughest you know character as far as you know, how she presents on the outside to be the most vulnerable in this one, because we wanted to kind of make a point with that. But yeah, we just we're exploring mental health, we're exploring issues in the workplace that that go awry. And then on the other end, with one of our characters, were just kind of exploring like when you are going through something at work and it's driving you crazy and it's like taking its toll on you on the inside, but you can't do anything about it because you might lose your job. So it's just a lot of stuff that we were like that there are different versions of pain. What was what was interesting about that episode to me? Also with that character ties that you know, she's a member of the l g B t Q plus community, and so you have this queer woman that is still dealing with issues that affect all women. And I think that sometimes when we look at we look at that community, it's easy sometimes, especially as a straight man, head er, old man, to disassociate queerness and l g B t Q issues from feminine or a woman like somehow it's just it's you what you are also a woman too. You have fibroid I had the surgery, so I'm all good, right, I mean, I know this recovery time. Unfortunately, not quite. That cyst was just the tip of the iceberg. You have several medium and large fibroids and a polyp on your uterine lining. The good news is that we can take care of everything at once with a hysterector. Whoa, whoa, damn. That's a bit juristic, don't you think? Of course it is? Well, I got the feeling you're not interested in giving birth, and it really is the easiest and most effective treatment. Easiest for who just because a mask doesn't mean I'm not a woman, and nobody asked you for your feelings. That would be the rest of your labs hang off, I am so sorry, Tie. So it's so many boxes that are beautifully checked and layered. And to that point, Chelsea, what what what did y'all leave out of this segment? Because Tracy just broke down in one episode about eight different boxes that women be going through in one episode, one character, Well, what like when it's time to edit the script before you even go out and shoot, what they'll say? How did you all start going? Okay? Well, which things can we not educate folks about? Yeah? I feel like that's always the hardest thing, isn't it's just editing down? Um. I feel like with this one, we probably didn't get as much into the real life effects as we could have, because again, we only have so much time. But to what Tracy and I were speaking about earlier is this really does have tangible um effects on black women and it's not solely just like a trope that it's just kind of there in media but doesn't actually exist in real life. So I feel like we didn't get as much into that. But you know, like the strong Black woman trope or the superwoman men. I feel like they're about the same thing. Really does negatively affect a lot of Black women, and I would say to a degree the negatives almost outweigh the positives in my opinion um of it, just because you know, we are more likely to have higher blood pressure and just you know, be stressed out to my earlier point, and you know, just all of these things were just not as cared for, and the empathy is not there to Tracy's point, which we could have gotten into that a little bit more into the mental health aspect of it and how that's such a big part as well, whether it's cartoons, horror movies, or your favorite shows. We're shifting to a space where we're seeing more dynamics of the black experience on screen. We've also given you great content to bench. Thank you to our wonderful guests from these episodes, and I hope you all enjoy going further beyond the scenes. Be sure to listen to The Daily Show Beyond the Scenes on Apple podcast, the I Heart Radio app, or wherever or you get your podcast. M

Beyond the Scenes from The Daily Show

Imagine The Daily Show, but deeper. Host Roy Wood Jr. dives further into segments and topics covered 
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