Luther has been criticised for not being an authentic Black character

[hewontgo]

Luther has been criticised for not being an authentic Black character https://t.co/fVL1cqQDBT
- Yahoo Entertainment UK (@YahooEntsUK) April 14, 2021
Luther's creator has defended the Idris Elba show after the BBC's diversity manager said a lack of Black culture in the character's life meant it doesn't "feel authentic". Writer Neil Cross said Elba

Comments

[musicnkisses]

It be like that for a lot of black people tho. I don’t like the policing of how black people express themselves, especially when the argument is “this black person ain’t black enough!” That said, I understand Luther was written by white ppl. The criticism should then be about how white people struggle with writing authentic black people and not about how he’s not black because he doesn’t do x, y, and z. What are you saying about black people who don’t eat “black” foods or have black friends lmao. Like if that’s something that’s gonna bother you then make sure you’re hiring more black creatives to tell our stories (and inevitably be torn down for not being black enough lmao).

[friarsfire]

This is an excellent comment - glad it was first.

[mabiche11]

Bless you for being the first comment. I came in here hot.

[sandstorm]

I was prepared to be annoyed, but I read the article - You're right. Sometimes our experiences are divorced from our heritage and cultures, especially those of us in the US who moved a lot.

[cbluechicken]

echoing. I grew up in majority-white schools and my blackness was always questioned by family members (aunts, cousins) and I always pushed back. It's dumb and feeds this notion that all black people have to know how to dance, season their food, clap back, be funny, be sassy, etc. No, they really don't and I hope this conversation continues to come to light in the context of BLM.

[sassandthecity]

I had a lot of that growing up in a prominently white area and it's like, "My parents teach Minority Studies and Multicultural Children's Literature, my life is completely filled with Black culture."

[__planitbremix]

I saw this same criticism in another show of a certain charavter[Invincible's Amber Bennett) and I'm just like..."so whats acting Black, exactly"?
Granted they did change the race of said character in question from White to Black, and yes..lots of white folks in the writing room, but lets tackle that instead of questioning Amber's blackness please thats only been in 5 episodes and we hardly have a background story of her!

[m_pendulum]

A+

[dadeepish]

I’ve never seen so many likes on here! Way to go!

[gillenvillain]

This is a perfect first comment.

This was my first thought. Why don't you hire black writers to incorporate what white writers can't or don't feel comfortable (that they might fuck it up, etc) doing???

Again white producers/writers/directors trying to apologize for something that could have been easily fixed.

To me, they are capitalizing that they have a popular, hot black actor and throwing him into a role that was most likely written for a white character.