Netflix Gave Rachel Dolezal A Documentary Instead Of Renewing These Diverse Shows
8 March 2018, 16:54 | Updated: 7 July 2021, 14:24
Netflix have officially lost it.
Rachel Dolezal, a white lady who managed to scam her way to the top of the NAACP (that's the National Association for the Advancement of COLOURED PEOPLE) using nothing more than a bottle of St. Tropez and a menagerie of wigs, has just been given her own documentary on Netflix.
Due for release in April this year, The Rachel Divide will follow the former professor of African American (yes, really) studies as she explores what it means to be "trans-racial," which is absolutely not a thing. And while the prospect of watching Rachel, or Nkechi Amare Diallo as she likes to be called (yes, really), getting read for filth by her actually black adoptive son does have a certain appeal, you can't help but think about all the truly deserving shows Netflix has prematurely canned in the lead-up to this minstrel show mess.
The Rachel Divide | Clip [HD] | Netflix
So out of respect for the great content that was cancelled before it's time, here's four shows that Netflix could have funded instead of The Rachel Divide.
1. The Get Down
What's that? A genre-busting musical TV-series about genuine black and latino people trying to use their talent and hustle to build better lives for themselves and their loved ones against the backdrop of a racist and impoverished inner-city New York? Created by Oscar-winning Baz Luhrmann, you say? Giving a platform to new, diverse acting talent too? Nah screw that, let's give a woman in blackface a documentary. Makes sense.
2. Haters Back Off
Okay, so maybe "Haters Back Off" didn't quite manage to achieve the same success that the show's main character, Miranda Sings, achieves on YouTube. But FFS they could have given the show another season to grow. There's no money to nurture crossover talent from the digital world but y'all have money for The Rachel Divide? GOODBYE.
3. Sense8
How could anyone think about funding a diverse and queer as hell series with a committed fanbase, during a moment in history when themes of unity and acceptance are so desperately needed in TV, when someone we all cancelled three years ago needs to air her objectively incorrect opinions and embarrass her children in the process? Not on my watch.
4. Lady Dynamite
97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Critical acclaim. Maria Bamford, Pam Brady and Mitch Hurwitz creating a space to talk about mental illness that's not anxiety and/or depression. Lady Dynamite was thematically and stylistically groundbreaking, but who needs that when you have the Meryl Streep of blackface knocking on your door asking to be given yet another platform that nobody wants or needs her to have?
5. ANY NUMBER OF FUTURE SHOWS BY AND STARRING BLACK WOMEN
Commission black women as directors, producers and writers. Green-light black shows. DO MORE BLACK THINGS. THERE AREN'T ENOUGH BLACK THINGS.
