By: Gabriella Jardines
The main picture of the series Bridgerton, captures a love story between the Duke of Hastings and Lady Bridgerton. But with the main focus on the two love birds, there’s something missing that the audience sees as well. In no way would have the relationship between Lady Daphne Bridgerton and The Duke of Hastings realistic whatsoever. Simply put, it is a romantic fantasy that should have been discussed further with such a diverse cast. Especially during the period of time where immediate execution would have been taken into action if an interacial relationship would have occurred. The story is written well throughout the entire show, but it leaves mixed reviews in some kind of skepticism.
As most individuals, not all, notice a surprising change that's being told differently from a specific period of time in this series, it becomes questionable. Minorities are minorities for several reasons. History dates way back to why minorities are even considered minorities in the first place. Rewriting a point in time, especially history, can cause a mix of emotions in many ways including why something may be told differently. I can say that as a minority myself, there are a lot of questions about the show's intentions. Between the mix of races during the Regency Era in England, Bridgerton shows a lack of history that is rewritten which is the biggest concern for viewers of different races. The way the show deals with race might seem progressive, but it is only that way to a White audience, however, the historical accuracy of the show should have stayed White.
Firstly, if I would have had the opportunity to create an aspiring television show like Bridgerton, the one part I would change is the historical accuracy. Now, it is understandable how the director and creator wanted to have the setting in England around the 19th century, during the Regency era. Race could have been considered when looking at the point in time, especially in the 19th century. First, it is very unrealistic so we can conclude that the creators wanted to make this story a fantasy. But how do the viewers feel when watching the series? Confused? Offended? Relieved? There’s so many mixed emotions about the point in time in which the show is all occurring. It’s almost as if everything is all happening at once. Between the royal family being of Black descent, interracial relationships, constant sexual activities, and always a back and forth altercations between the characters. McKenzie Jean-Philippe, editorial assistant at OprahMag.com, understands why Shonda Rhimes wanted to create such diversity as a possible reflection of today’s society. She claims , “with the history of Black people being a painful story, seeing my own people on a hit television series was well earned.” Completely agreed.
However, it is a hit television series that deserved many roles to be casted by minorities. Nonetheless, not everyone feels that way because of how the history was rewritten. Maybe we could have seen some slavery, then work its way up to royal status. However, we will never know the true story behind it all. Erum Salam, a freelance journalist and digital producer at The Guardian, writes how well she was pleased with the demographics of England overall, but it doesn’t change the fact that racism still isn’t a thing. She states, “although the flaws of racism were being portrayed, racism doesn’t have to always be critiqued with how diverse a show is.” There is always going to be racism. Rewriting its history of race doesn’t make it all of a sudden go away either. As a matter of fact, White people could have felt offended since they were always held as the upper class and now they’re shown as equal to the Black people. Today, we still face these differences and issues, but there’s always a select number of individuals who view differently.
Clearly, the media doesn’t want us to know what happens behind the scenes. It’s blatantly obvious how the media industry will hide how they cast or treat these characters for a role. This show was made to be casted for White and Black characters only. It was obvious they needed a handsome, eye-catching Black man to represent The Duke of Hastings as the lover of Lady Bridgerton. What we don’t get to see is the behind the scenes of television shows and what happens before the show even gets to be released. Do we really know how minorities get treated behind the scenes? Do we think it’s realistic to say that we are really treated equally in real life? The answer to that is obviously a big “no.” There’s a huge lack of diversity in the media industry, specifically in the United Kingdom and United States, as we still deal with racism today. Madhu Manivannan, a writer for Gal-Dem, discusses the issues of the British actors and their color beyond the royal status. He mentions, “how racialized shows could just be covering up what happens in modern day racism.” Modern day racism isn’t as bad as what happened in the 19th century when there was actually slavery but there is still so many cases we deal with today, such as protests and deaths still ocurring. There was a part in the show where many viewers noticed Lady Danbury mention a part about race but it was nothing more than two sentences long. It should have either been mentioned more within the show or not mentioned at all because now we’re waiting to see if there’s more of an explanation to the race portion of the story. There has to be something more there that we’re not seeing. Salamishah Tillet, a feminist activist, scholar, and writer, discusses in her New York Times article, her thoughts and views on the aspect of racial identity, even the blind spots within the show. She states, “Shonda Rhimes, the producer of Bridgerton, had other shows with the same multicultural cast in a British period drama.” Shonda Rhimes could have had a great impact and there could have been some bias parts to it as well. Herself being Black, she could have had different views when picking the cast members and creating this twisting love story.
Furthermore, race has a major part of history. What the show ignores when it parades Black characters into a Regency Period piece is the history of race. It’s unacceptable to disregard the meanings behind the racial aspect of history. Even within a story it’s so important to include a part of its background information. One aspect is racial segregation which has been a part of history since the beginning fo time, starting from when people started immigrating to different areas around the world. Laws were enforced that made individuals rebel between the higher and lower classes. White people were taught to keep their distance from the Blacks. Reynolds Farley, a research scientist and Professor in Sociology, and William H. Frey an American demographer and has a Ph.D in sociology at Brown University, discuss the racial segregation between different neighborhoods and how laws were simply implemented and why. They mention how “Blacks, Asians, or Hispanics couldn’t buy a certain property, to avoid integration.” This proves that the show completely outputs the laws of segregation during the Regency Period.
Additionally, a lot of the history behind racism isn’t taught or told to many people. Being racist, however, can be taught. We see in the show there is no racism that we can see. We do see everyone getting along and not caring about the color of another’s skin color. However, we know there were undoubtedly many people who judged someone off their skin color within that period. The show didn’t want to depict that part in time to the Black community. It can make some people feel uncomfortable to even begin on the topic because it can be an uncomfortable conversation to even begin. There’s different viewpoints on racism, different discussions about racism, and personal experiences. Melencia M. Johnson and Philip B. Mason, both professors in the Sociology department at the University of South Carolina, conducted an assessment with their students to see how openly they could openly begin a conversation about race. They mentioned, “as a result, it was learned that some students had no clue on how to even engage on the topic of race.” It’s hard to approach the topic, nor even talking about it with another race. This proves another point in how the show was scared to begin the discussion of race or have that conversation. There could have been a trigger warning to the topic. They didn’t want the audience to have an unexpected reaction to the topic on race.
Moreover, there’s plenty of evidence that proves my arguments. It’s clear how different communities of race will view the show's intentions. The White people see the rewriting of history as offensive because they were always the higher class as well as the only royals. The Black community felt a relief in such diversity but did they really want their history to be rewritten as well? We want the history of our ancestors to be told accurately. The royal status was never questioned on their color but look how that makes England’s royal reputation look now. It’s all very mind boggling to the point where we see all the intimacy being portrayed and then these interracial relationships are involved in the scenes.
After all, Bridgerton rewrote its history in this romantic fantasized show. It showcased what could have been if segregation and slavery was never put into action. Interracial relationships could have been more common back then, like how it is today in modern times. Although racism isn’t gone forever, Generation Z has bettered interracial relationships but not in the United Kingdom or United States overall. However, it still leaves a damp in how viewers still may view the show because of how much it lacked a simple conversation on the topic. Society is very concerned with how we may approach certain media or certain cultures, etc. It’s hard to decipher what exactly the show’s intentions were from the beginning. Maybe its focus was really just on romance and intimacy. Although, the only way to find out its true intentions in the show is by assuming its purpose of having such a diverse cast in the Regency Era.
Gabriella is originally from Union City, NJ, who currently attends Bloomfield College.
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