Sex Education is a Netflix Original, British-teen dramedy created by Laurie Nunn following the lives of the students, parents and staff revolving within and around the fictitious Moordale secondary school, specifically main protagonist Otis Milburn, his best friend Eric Effiong and his love interest Maeve Wiley. The show explores their various dilemmas, often surrounding themes of connections, sexuality and identity.
The cast of included characters does not shy away from the subversion of stereotypes and sheds light on various degrees of misconceived social discourse – sexually, racially and in general representation of the adolescent experience. Among the diverse range of Moordale attendees the show focuses on, the utilisation of Eric Effiong and Jackson Marchetti when tackling the topic of race stand as some of the most prevalent to me.
Eric Effiong is a gay, black man and one of the show’s protagonists. He is widely regarded as enthusiastic, intuitive, outgoing and considerate, especially when Otis needs him to be. His orientation and race are two of the most discussed parts of his character arc and are cleverly incorporated to dodge and perhaps even mock the overused portrayals of the flamboyant gay black man and coloured best friend within media. Eric comes from a strong African-Christian household, though had developed torn and complex feelings towards religion after tackling the discovery of his sexuality. However, this later changes after he suffers a hate crime which inspires him to re-confide within his faith and reconnect with his African roots. This is beautifully expressed through the scene in which he wore a gele and Ghanaian kente suit to prom.
Laurie Nunn takes a vastly different approach with Jackson but he is no less relevant in terms of coloured representation. Jackson Marchetti takes on the roles of head boy and the popular jock, a very mainstream archetype within coming-of-age media products. This role is typically taken on by the socially deemed, conventionally attractive white guy so it unfortunately comes as a shock to have anybody else take it on. Whereas the portrayal of Eric’s ethnicity is very bold, unavoidable and generously mentioned, Jackson’s becomes one of the lesser attributes to his storyline – in fact, the show doesn’t seem to acknowledge it at all. It simply accepts it as the norm, which is then naturally enforced onto the viewers, subtly deconstructing our conditioned views.
Sex Education is not only one of the most widely-received shows in recent times but is also a statement. I believe Laurie’s incredible writing both effectively and entertainingly tackles topics of identity while also creating loveable and nuanced characters outside of their minority experiences.
Detroit: Become Human is a 2018 adventure video game developed by Quantum Dream and written and directed by David Cage. The plot explores the lives of three androids: Connor, an advanced prototype specifically designed to assist human law enforcement; Kara, who devotes herself to protecting a young girl after escaping their abusive home; and Markus, who brings about an android revolution.
The game itself is a racial allegory, and what is widely deemed a tragic misrepresentation of the Civil Rights Movement and all that it entailed. From Connor’s relationship with Hank, his human police partner, being borrowed from the interracial buddy cop films attempting to mend the racial divide in America to domestic and industrial behaviour being normalised within that universe, Detroit attempts to tackle sensitive topics with little to no consideration.
Putting aside the parallels between people of colour and the androids, the actual human representation we get of black people is minced down to the likes of a stereotypical angry police chief and the scary, hulking man with a heart of gold. In the instance of Rose, a black human woman, she compares the situation of android prejudice to the real world events of racial discrimination yet speaks of it in the past tense as though it is no longer a social issue. The androids themselves are programmed to emulate pleasant human interaction to put them at ease and their human-like glitch in which they gain touch with their emotional response system arouses the desire to murder.
The blatant historical references - android storage compartments on public transit, explicit use of iconography and slogans from past movements and legitimate android concentration camps are all compact to shine a light on such a crucial topic yet fail to do so by watering down the experiences of the human beings that had endured the actual events - by creating a sense of isolation within their struggles and spreading the pseudoscientific ideology of slave owners that servitude goes against a black person’s creator-intended nature.
It’s not certain that David Cage did this with the intention of negatively displaying people of colour - but pulling inspiration from real, historical events without the contextual information required and using it in a piece of art during a time where these movements are more momentous than ever is extremely harmful without being handled with the care and precision needed.