‘Black Love’ Keeps It Simple: Honesty, not Antics

“I want to believe that the subjects are indeed telling it as it is,” she added, “but here I find I don’t care if I’m being snookered.”

Every groundbreaking effort, however, comes with its own challenges. In her 2018 book, “Technicolored: Reflections on Race in the Time of TV,” duCille wrote about the “burden of representation,” referring to early Black television stars who were not allowed to simply act. They were expected to “carry the whole history of the race on their backs,” she said.

The “Black Love” creators are familiar with that pressure. Some viewers have taken to social media to criticize the show’s relatively low number of interracial and same-sex couples. Others have criticized their inclusion at all.

Last month, many Twitter and YouTube users condemned a minute-long Season 4 teaser that featured mostly fair-skinned Black women paired with darker men. Critics said the video reinforced a painful, centuries-old prejudice that treats darker-skinned women as less desirable. (Tommy acknowledged that they had “screwed up” with the teaser, explaining that a wider range of skin tones would be evident throughout the season, apparent in a longer trailer released several days later.)

The Olivers said they would continue to find and feature Black stories using their many platforms, which, aside from the docu-series, include editorial and video content on their companion website.

But they won’t feel compelled to do it just because their affirmation of Black love dovetails with the current Hollywood trend, in which expressions of support for Black lives can often ring hollow. They’ll continue, Tommy said, because it’s what he and Codie have always done as filmmakers.

“I think the world has become a bit more aligned with where we’ve always been trying to go,” he said. “Now that more people are paying attention to it? Cool. We’ve always known it’s important. The world is just now catching up.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/arts/television/black-love-season-4-own.html