From Lucas Costello:
Link: Kim’s Convenience and Canadian television’s diversity problem
What makes Kim’s Convenience unprecedented is largely who is telling these stories. The show centres on a convenience store run by a Korean-Canadian family in Toronto’s Regent Park — a neighbourhood that, due to its many intersections of race, class and faith, gives Kim’s Convenience opportunities to engage in broad conversations about identity, place and belonging. Continue reading.
I’m kind of leaning to disagree with this article. I think there have been several shows with diversity on “mainstream” TV. The title of this article was obviously meant to exclude Blood & Water, an Omni show, and APTN shows like Blackstone, Rabbit Fall, Mixed Blessings, Renegadepress, Mohawk Girls, etc. So if we exclude shows as non-mainstream because of the channels they’re on (here’s me shaking my head and rolling my eyes) let’s address the writer’s comment that shows like North of 60 (a long-running show that spanned several seasons and tv movies) and Strange Empire were rare glimpses. What about the diversity of shows like Degrassi, Da Kink in My Hair, Drop the Beat, Rookie Blue, Arctic Air, Book of Negroes, Edgmont, Four in the Morning, etcetera? Honestly, am my wrong thinking there’s not a lack of diversity in Canadian tv? I will say that certain populations, certainly people of Asian descent, are lacking in representation on Canadian TV but its a good sign that shows like Blood & Water, Kim’s Convenience and Second Jen are being made currently. I do think the South Asian population , which makes up 4.8% of Canada’s population and one-quarter of Canada’s visible minorities, is underrepresented. However, if you look at Canada’s population, 80% of the country is Caucasian so we shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed that so many of the people we see on Canadian TV reflect that. I think in terms of diversity, Canada has done a good job in TV.