Race in Television

I think there are two kinds of portrayals of African Americans on TV. There is the ghetto, gang, hip-hop African American; who is normally the bad guy and is into drugs, guns, sex, and crime. Then there is the strong African American (normally only one per show) who is used only for his or her strength and has some dark secret into the past. In the show I talked about early Criminal Minds the only black guy is special agent Morgan who is used only for his strength, agility, and power. He never solves the crimes and is frequently getting in the way by being to emotional about it. The criminals in the show are normally highly intelligent and cunning and they are never portrayed by a African American actor. The only shows that have African Americans in all different sort of roles are shows with all black casts (Different Strokes, The Cosby Show, or The Jefferson's). TV Shows haven't really improved that much over the years. The only Black shows are on Black networks like BET or pop culture stations like MTV, VH1, E.