Black Media/Movies

Hello!

I wanted to ask someone about this topic, but I don't have anyone in my life that I'd feel comfortable bringing it up with.

For context, I'm a white woman that works in a direct support professional type of job. In other words, I take care of people with physical and intellectual disabilities. We help them have as much independence as possible while keeping them safe and feeling good.

The folks we care for are always a vastly diverse group, and if you work in this line of work I'm sure it's the same for you as well. It's one of my favorite parts of my job. I've also noticed, and I'm unsure as to why there's a trend, that the vast majority of people whom I work with are black women. I work with one white woman and one woman I believe to be Latina, but the whole of the job is typically staffed by women of color.

With that context in mind, our place of work is a residential home, not a school or a day program. So, we have a TV that's always playing something. Growing up, I never really considered that there's "black tv" or "white tv," however I've heard the term "black tv" used multiple times in different forms of media. Just existing in the home, I see a lot of movies or shows that I've never even heard of, but all the girls have seen them or know of them. I rarely recognize any of the actors and can't recall any advertising depicting the stories. I feel really weird when this happens. It's giving algorithm and I never know how to feel about it.

If you're still reading, I'm finally getting to the point, I promise! I've also noticed that I never see a well rounded selection of genres for movies/shows with all black cast. Maybe it's just what my coworkers watch on Netflix, but it feels like it's always a comedy, a sitcom, or a drama about cheating. Basically, it feels like segregation via the media and that's so uncomfortable. Maybe you're sitting their like, "Wow you're thinking way too much about this," or "Yeah this is old news, dumbass." I hope it makes sense why I don't want to question this to anyone I know. To be honest, the women I work with and I aren't close at all. It's kind of like a clique and I already feel like they don't appreciate my presence. But, I still wonder about things like this. I just can't discuss it with them, you know?

What are your thoughts? I want to emphasize I'm thinking about majority or all of the cast being black. I know media still struggles a lot with giving black actors the lead or how white savior scripts are still tragically abundant. I wish I had an example, but this is just my observations!

Please be kind, I just want to hear the perspectives of others. Tbh I just watched anime for the first two thirds of my life and don't browse channels. One person online that I love did point out once that white people don't know that Tubi is a huge part of black culture, and tbh I didn't know Tubi existed until my late teens, so maybe he was onto something 😂😂

TLDR: I've noticed a lot of movies/shows with all black cast are divided into only a few categories. Comedy, sitcom, or cheating drama. Is this just what the people around me are watching or is this a problem in the film/tv industry? Thoughts?