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Netflix Crime Series Have More Negative Depictions of People of Color Than 5 Other Top Networks

by Margeaux Sippell | January 22, 2020 @ 10:02 AM

Color of Change study takes a hard look at how the crime genre portrays racial injustice

Netflix’s crime series have been found to show more negative depictions of people of color than five other top television networks examined in a study aimed at exposing racial injustice in the crime genre of television.

Conducted by the nonprofit organization Color of Change and USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center for public policy and research, the study examines crime shows from the 2017-17 season to determine “how television’s most popular genre excludes writers of color, miseducates people about the criminal justice system and makes racial injustice acceptable.”

Along with diversity of writers’ rooms on the show, the study also looks specifically at how often people of color are shown doing “wrongful actions,” which it defines in 23 specific terms, grouped into categories like coercion and intimidation, violence and abuse, lying and tampering, corruption, and overt racism.

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The study examined 26 crime series overall, taking a randomized selection of 70-80% of the episodes from those series, with 353 episodes in total examined from Netflix, ABC, CBS, NBC, Amazon Prime Video, and Fox.

Netflix was the worst offender, with its crime series “Seven Seconds” averaging at 12.25 negative depictions of people of color per episode. “Narcos” was found to have an average of 11.5 negative depictions of people of color per episode, while the show’s writers’ room consisted of 80% white writers.

NBC’s “The Blacklist” had an average of 3.53 negative depictions per episode, while CBS’ “Blue Bloods” had an average of 2.18, Fox’s “Lethal Weapon” had 2.12, and ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder” had 1.5, and CBS’s “Elementary” had 1.19.

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The study also noted that Amazon’s “Goliath” had the highest level of depictions of victims who were people of color victims, but the lowest level of depictions of victims who were women.

Reps for the Netflix, ABC, NBC, CBS and Amazon Prime Video did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Fox declined to comment.

It’s worth noting that Netflix’s “Seven Seconds” was one of only two series out of the 26 that had 50% or more writers of color. Color of Change also noted in the study that they regularly have conversations about portrayals of race with writers and showrunners, including consulting on certain series including “Seven Seconds.” It is also important to note that some series in the study had lower negative depiction rates due to a lesser number of people of color on screen in the first place.

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81% of all showrunners on the 26 series were white men, with “Criminal Minds,” “Shades of Blue,” “Orange is the New Black,” “Seven Seconds” and “Luke Cage” being the exception. At least 78% of all writers were white, while only 9% were black. The report also states that across the genre, 20 out of 26 series each had no more than one black writer.

The study also acknowledges that systemic change is not easy to carry out, and praises shows like CBS limited series “The Red Line” and Netflix’s “Unbelievable” for continuing to “challenge crime genre conventions, push the genre forward and bring new stories to light.”

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“When viewers see people of color committing or supporting wrongful actions, it may have a stronger normalization effect
with respect to those actions,” the study says. “For instance, the effect may be very different when an all-white group of police officers assaults or disparages a black person, compared to a group of officers in which there is even just 1 black officer participating in doing so. The mere presence of the black officer may leave the impression–especially with white viewers–that the incident could not be an instance of racial bias, discrimination or injustice,” the study states. “When we take into account that 46% of the depictions of police captains, chiefs, commissioners and other high-ranking members of the police force in the series examined featured people of color, the endorsement and normalization effect could be even stronger.”

The Grammys and Black Music: A Timeline of Snubs and Embarrassments (Photos)

The 2018 Grammy nominations were a triumph for diversity, with far more hip-hop and R&B nominees in the top categories than ever before.

In a way, it shouldn't come as a surprise that an organization devoted to supporting and honoring music would recognize the current ascendance of hip-hop as the dominant popular music form. But it is something of a delicious shock, because since they began in the 1950s, the Grammys have not exactly been inclusive.

No hip-hop song, for instance, has ever won Record of the Year or Song of the Year. You could argue that they’ve been shortsighted when it comes to rock music and Latin music and jazz and other genres, too, that there’s an inevitable conservatism that comes from having a huge body of voters considering such a vast musical landscape.

But the decades worth of snubs and oversights are not pretty. Scroll through TheWrap's timeline:
1959

At the first Grammys, the Best Rhythm & Blues Performance category was won by a white group, the Champs, with “Tequila.” Ella Fitzgerald was the only African American nominated in the Record of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year categories, which were won by Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)” (record and song) and Henry Mancini’s “The Music From Peter Gunn” (album).
William P. Gottlieb/Creative Commons
1968

At the 10th Grammy show, one of the top three awards is finally won by black performers: The Fifth Dimension, who win Record of the Year for “Up, Up and Away,” written by white songwriter Jimmy Webb.
CMA-Marc Gordon Productions-management
1976

After 18 years, Natalie Cole becomes the first black performer to win Best New Artist.
Lawren/Flickr
1981

It's the year of Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls,” Michael Jackson’s “Off the Wall,” Prince’s “Dirty Mind,” Smokey Robinson’s “Crusin’” and the debuts of the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow. But the Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist awards all go to a wimpy white guy named Christopher Cross.
Getty Images
1986

Prince is nominated for Album of the Year for the second and last time for “Sign o’ the Times.” That album, “Purple Rain” and “1999” will eventually enter the Grammy Hall of Fame, but he will never win the award
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1988

Public Enemy’s “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” the highest ranked hip-hop album in Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, is not nominated for any Grammys. But the Record of the Year and Song of the Year awards do go to a black artist: Bobby McFerrin, for “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
Steve Jurvetson/Creative Commons
1989

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (aka Will Smith) win the first-ever rap Grammy for "Parents Just Don't Understand." The award was not presented during the televised portion of the ceremony, and in protest Smith led a boycott of the show. (But DJ Jazzy Jeff did show up to accept the Grammy.)
1991

More than a decade after rap music began to revolutionize popular music, MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” becomes the first hip-hop song to receive a Record of the Year nomination. It loses to Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise.”
Philippe Rous from Strasbourg
2006

Kayne West’s “Late Registration” beats Eminem’s “Encore” in the Best Rap Album category. This remains the only one of the seven years in which a white artist was nominated in the category that the white artist did not win.
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2008

Jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock becomes the most recent black artist to win Album of the Year. He does so for an album of Joni Mitchell songs.
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2010

Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” beats Beyonce’s “I Am … Sasha Fierce” for Album of the Year. This comes four months after she beats Beyonce at the MTV Video Music Awards, where her acceptance speech is interrupted by Kanye West’s infamous “imma let you finish” moment.
Christopher Polk/Getty Images
2014

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis win the Best Rap Album award over Drake, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, the sixth time in the 19-year history of the award that a white performer had won it. Macklemore also beats Lamar for Best New Artist, and sends Lamar an apologetic text.
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2015

This time, it’s Beck’s turn to beat Beyonce in the Album of the Year category, with his “Morning Phase” scoring a surprise victory over her self-titled album.
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2016

Grammy voters’ love for Taylor Swift proves embarrassing once more, as her “1989” album beats Kendrick Lamar’s landmark “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Her floppy-haired bestie Ed Sheeran, meanwhile, beats Kendrick in the Song of the Year category.
Getty Images
2017

And finally, Adele wins Album of the Year for “25,” and immediately uses her speech to say what everybody was thinking: that Beyonce deserved it for “Lemonade,” which she said was “so monumental, and so well thought-out and soul-bearing.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
2018

Jay-Z was the most nominated artist, with eight, but didn't win a single Grammy. On his joint album with Beyonce, "Everything Is Love," the song "APESH-T" included the lyric: "Tell the Grammys f--- that zero for eight s---." And while Kendrick Lamar swept the hip-hop awards for "DAMN." he lost Record and Album of the Year to Bruno Mars.
2019

Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Childish Gambino all declined invitations to perform on the show, according to producer Ken Ehrlich. And then Kendrick Lamar's "Black Panther" soundtrack lost in the Album of the Year category to Kacey Musgraves' "Golden Hour" (one of the two non-hip-hop albums among the eight nominees).

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This year’s diverse nominations are a far cry from the Recording Academy’s history of missing the best in soul, R&B and hip-hop

The 2018 Grammy nominations were a triumph for diversity, with far more hip-hop and R&B nominees in the top categories than ever before.

In a way, it shouldn't come as a surprise that an organization devoted to supporting and honoring music would recognize the current ascendance of hip-hop as the dominant popular music form. But it is something of a delicious shock, because since they began in the 1950s, the Grammys have not exactly been inclusive.

No hip-hop song, for instance, has ever won Record of the Year or Song of the Year. You could argue that they’ve been shortsighted when it comes to rock music and Latin music and jazz and other genres, too, that there’s an inevitable conservatism that comes from having a huge body of voters considering such a vast musical landscape.

But the decades worth of snubs and oversights are not pretty. Scroll through TheWrap's timeline:

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