One-Dimensional Sidekicks

Over the long weekend, I have been watching a plethora of tv shows and movies. Now, I will say some of them I start for two minutes and then switch to another one that sounded more interesting, but the ones that I have watched all the way through have reminded me of The Indebted.

The three films I watched were, Moxie-a feminist high schooler who stands up to injustice, Zero Chill- a bad acting ice skating show where every small discussion is a gigantic plot to ruin the others lives, and Tall Girl 2- I survived the first movie, so I might as well have finished the second one.

In all of the films, the main characters were white, but every single one of them had a best friend who was either Black or Asian. The best friend never got an in-depth backstory, except the pressures from their parents about succeeding. In Zero Chill, the Asian side character has a serious illness causing her to not be able to skate anymore, making her parents are rightfully worried. On the other hand, in Tall Girl 2, the black side character’s parents pepper her at her birthday dinner with questions about how she will become successful in the fashion industry (of which she obviously has a passion for) and pushing for her to become a doctor or a lawyer. As for Moxie, the Asian side character had a similar experience because she was not allowed to protest due to her mom’s fear of expulsion from school, thus ruining her future career of becoming a doctor or lawyer. 

The directors of Moxie and Zero Chill are white. The director of Tall Girl 2, was born in Taipei and later moved to America to pursue film. In Crazy Rich Asians, as discussed in The Indebted, was also directed by an Asian American, but instead of being a first generation immigrant, he was born in Palo Alto, California. In both movies they seem to have lost the Asian American struggle to capitalism. For Crazy Rich Asians, it was becoming super successful and not speaking out against injustice, and for Tall Girl 2, there was no representation whatsoever of any Asian in that movie. 

As these side characters all have parents who want them to succeed in one way or another, I wonder if this is the best way of representing Blacks or Asians in cinema. I have seen movies upon movies about minorities overcoming adversity because of prejudice, racism, and sexism, but I don’t recall seeing any Asians or Blacks starring in such high-school cliches as these. Are they not being pushed out on my Netflix recommendations? Do they not exist? Am I not hovering over shows as closely and skipping past them? Next time you find a cheesy high-school film starring a minority, let me know!