"I will no longer defend my choice to write about black women"

[OneGrassRoot]

Tracy Oliver is a 30-year-old screenwriter who has written for the web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl and the Starz show Survivor's Remorse. She co-wrote the upcoming movie Barbershop: The Next Cut with Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, and has several projects, including two movies with Universal and a Misty Copeland series with Fox, in development. She got her BA from Stanford University in 2008 and her MFA from the University of Southern California in 2010.

"Why do you feel the need to write black characters so often?" she asked, leaving the all-too-familiar question, on its surface friendly enough in tone, hanging in the air like a fetid accusation.

"I'm sorry, do you ask white writers that?"

<snip>

She was too flustered to come up with answers. My questions were rhetorical anyway. I already knew that white writers were never asked why they wanted to write about themselves. Of course not, because white characters have historically been considered the default, the universal, and the most relatable. From conversations with my white writer friends, I've learned they don't face the same anxiety writers of color face when we sit down to write. What studio or network will make this? What actors of color have enough clout to get this movie made? How much will my script be watered down in order to be more palatable for the mainstream? How free can I really be to write what I want?

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/movies/a53909/tracy-oliver-essay/

[LiberalArkie]

1. "I'm sorry, do you ask white writers that?" Such a good comeback.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. Yeah, she was on it.

I liked what she said -- something about having her "Angela Davis on" that day.

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Survivor's Remorse is one of my favorite shows and her episodes are excellent.

Love the show for a thousand reasons. Apologize for nothing, Tracy.

[OneGrassRoot]

8. I've never heard of that show...

I need to check out all of her work now.

[Hekate]

3. "I'm sorry, do you ask male writers that?"

The default audience is adolescent male, as well as white. Anything with strong adult female protagonists is the dreaded chick-flick in the eyes of the studios.

This young woman is getting the two-fer of artistic and workplace discrimination, all in one neat package.

[MidwestTech]

4. agreed. it's a BS and a *ist question.

Choose your -ist cuz it's there.
"why do you write so many xyz..." what a stupid f'ing question.
As a writer I'm offended along with her!
People write what they know, what they like, or what they want.
even small children know this.
bad journalism.

[OneGrassRoot]

9. So true...

Is the default audience for TV/movies male? I honestly didn't realize that. I thought it was women. But maybe in the mind of all companies and institutions, regardless of the product, everything is produced with men in mind as far as how much they will like something...which they feel perhaps influences how much the women in their lives will like something.

So FUABS.

[Hekate]

12. It is for movies, and specifically adolescent males. It drives the content of the blockbusters...

It's been an observed phenomenon for years.

I don't know about tv -- tv has shifted to cable and Netflix etc and I don't watch it that way, so I have missed out on an awful lot of good programming. Due to a quirk of geology, ie the curve of our coastline, the only way we can get any tv reception at all is by Cox cable, but we chose years ago to pay for only the most basic. I am rethinking that proposition, because the reviews in the LA Times of what's available are sometimes just stunning. Like this. I'd love to see what this young woman is doing, for instance.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. What a superficial question

It goes to the superficiality of popular American media.

That a young black woman with the talent creating characters and designing plots would choose to write about young black women is a given. Obviously, the interviewer might have started with something like "How do go about creating a character?" and move on to perhaps "To what extent are the young black women in your stories reflections of yourself?" or "Do you draw your plots from things that have happened to you or somebody you know?"

[OneGrassRoot]

10. Exactly.

I would think to most people it was a superficial, even stupid question. Tracy used it as one of those teachable moments to write this piece. Good on her.

[Number23]

6. More power to her and I worship at the altar of Shonda Rhimes as well

That woman is fantastic.

[OneGrassRoot]

11. Absolutely...

She has seemingly single-handedly created a tectonic shift in "the face" of TV programming. Powerful, powerful, powerful force. I love learning about her, personally, too. So inspiring to me in how she's such an introvert and it's been a real process to force herself to say "yes" to appearances and such.