There are many kinds of behaviors that I can state without equivocation Black women would not exhibit and many statements and mannerisms that would not be made when compared to our white counterparts. Is it a matter of color? No, not really, except that the identification using color has been fixed in the national culture since its inception to differentiate the individuial cultures of people that arose generations ago and specifically to differentiate the enslaved from the free. Because of this, we do behave differently in many situations. For example, we do not dress up in white face and exhibit behavior demeaning or deemed supremacist toward white people, nor do we storm Federal capital buildings and defecate on the walls, and believe we are entitled to have done so. We use different language expressions unique to our own experiences, many of which go all the way back to the Enslavement.
It is ludicrous to suggest Black people are not capable of good or evil in reality or in storytelling. Yet, it is also painfully evident that the Black character in American theatre and film has always been typically portrayed as the "villian" throughout its history. So, to suggest otherwise is as bright as the fire in a gaslight.
Tom Clancy was right in his evaluation of reality and fiction inasmuch as fiction has to be considered credible and be as truthful as possible. That is what I learned in my Masters program in Writing Studies.
This renders your second paragraph a bit telling. I suggest you reread it and begin to think critically about pulling out any unconscious bias you may hold relative to what I am actually conveying in my essay. I believe you were triggered and it was pulled when you read, "no Black woman would do this," which caused you to consider the purpose of intentionally casting the Black woman for the role of the "Rich Bitch" an affront to what you suggest in your third paragraph.
However, just as there are more than enough instances highlighting the "impact of wealth and class on society" in movies, books, television and theatre already, there are practically none where the focus on whiteness is used as the juxtipostion of a realistic poor white and wealthy Black experience.
Among other subliminal suggestions, what it does is play into the age old retributive rationale behind the fear many white people hold about Black people treating them the same way "if the tables were turned."
In essence, you don't need a Black character to highlight the impact of wealth and class on society unless you are trying to send a specific message about the prospect of Black wealth and class on society if in reality, Black people were at the top of the economic class created for white people and they were at the bottom where Black people are on that chain.
Thank you for your comment.
