Study: Netflix, NBC and ABC lead in showing people of color committing wrongful actions in crime dramas

Variety

A new report from the nonprofit Color of Change found that during the 2017-2018 season, people of color were more likely to commit "wrongful actions" such as lying, tampering, coercion and intimidation on TV crime dramas. The report also found that in the shows behind these depictions, about 81% of showrunners were white men, and at least 78% of writers were white, with only 9% black. “What this report really roots us in is, how do you get Trumpism? You get that by miseducating a public and normalizing injustice — making things that are untrue seem true,” says Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change. “For the last 20 years in this country, violent crime has steadily gone down and, at the same time, people think violent crime has gone up. And that distance between perception and reality is not just about getting a wrong answer on Jeopardy! It has real-world impact on people’s lives. When we miseducate people about how systems work and when we normalize injustice on our TVs, we make it OK for certain people to be treated only as heroes and certain people to be treated only as villains, and that does not move us forward.”