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Home • Entertainment

Kenya Barris Responds to Critics Who Slammed 'Black Excellence' Casting: 'These Kids Look Like My Kids'

"Black Excellence" is the writer's first series in his three-year, eight-figure deal with Netflix.
Kid Cudi, Kenya Barris Team Up For New Animated Netflix Series
Photo by Christian Alminana/Getty Images For Cannes Lions
By Essence · Updated December 6, 2020

Kenya Barris, creator of hit shows, including Black-ish and Mixed-ish, is getting criticized over the casting of his new Netflix series, Black Excellence.

The series, which is again semi-autobiographical, follows an upper middle class Black family as they navigate their world and friendships after the parents become rich.

It’s Barris’ first series in his wider three-year, eight-figure deal with Netflix after leaving ABC in headline-making news.

When a photo of the cast, which features Rashida Jones, Genneya Walton, Scarlet Spencer,  Iman Benson, Justin Claiborne, and Ravi Cabot-Conyers, went viral last week, many online noticed that the cast is decidedly lighter skinned.

Kenya Barris' first @Netflix comedy, #blackexcellence, has found its family.

Introducing: Genneya Walton, Iman Benson, Scarlet Spencer, Justin Clairborne, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, and Richard Gardenhire Jr.

Coming 2020 🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/m4nGPCRQDh

— Strong Black Lead (@strongblacklead) December 20, 2019

It didn’t take long for others to also take a magnifying look at the casts for his other shows, noting that they also feature fair Black actors.

https://twitter.com/rieleheart/status/1208596980206899200

Can I be honest?#Blackish, #Grownish, #Mixedish & etc is NOT for us-ish… I like Kenya Barris & his work, but those shows cater to light skin Blacks & play into society’s standards of beauty..

His new show #BlackExcellence (below) falls right in that box. Sorry, I said it! pic.twitter.com/RtJstuXG5F

— Jerome Trammel, M.B.A (@MrJeromeTrammel) December 21, 2019

Barris, presumably having heard the critiques, responded on Saturday, writing in now-deleted tweets that he’s only writing what he knows.

“I’m…not gonna make up a fake family that genetically makes no sense just for the sake of trying to fill quotas. I LOVE MY PEOPLE,” he wrote. “[And] everything I does [sic] reflects that love. But to cast people like some kinda skin color Allstar game would actually do more harm than good.”

The executive producer wrote that he “hardly ever react[s] to social media but this cut me a little.”

Regarding the casting of his Black Excellence actors, “These kids look like my kids. My very Black REAL kids & they face discrimination every day from others outside our culture and I don’t want them to also see it from US.”

No word yet on when Black Excellence premieres on Netflix.

TOPICS:  blackish crown glory crown yourself kenya barris mixedish october issue Tracee Ellis Ross