This Is Why People Who Are Not Black Are Enjoying Black Television

If we learned anything from Jordan Peele's box office hit Get Out, it's that white people have always admired the black community...even if they haven't always been that open about it. SMH. 

Hip hop alone has been one of the most influential aspects of society since the 60s, even more so than The Beatles. Now it seems like people who are far from being black are leaning more towards shows featuring predominantly black casts more than ever. 

So why have these non-white people been enjoying black television? Perhaps because these shows offer something completely new and real to the television experience.

Nielsen recently revealed an interesting study that basically non-white people were loving the hell out of black TV shows during the 2016-2017 season. 79 percent of the people tuning in weekly to Black-ish aren't black. Almost 70 percent of fans who are addicted to Shonda Rhimes' Scandal and How To Get Away with Murder aren't black either. 

The list went on and on, and we love those shows and others like Atlanta and Insecure, and we're sure the perspective and storytelling has a lot to do with their bump in non-white viewership.

In the case of Shonda Rhimes' shows, that woman could pen a program about a lint factory and make it work. So we're going to look at Black-ish, Atlanta and Insecure.

On the surface Black-ish is a basic family sitcom. There's a husband and wife, three kids and a cast of colorful characters who round them out. Really though, not since The Cosby Show have we seen an affluent black family on television. Unlike that show though, Black-ish works hard as hell to push the idea of what it means to not only be black in a modern day America, but what it means to mixed, a well-off black man, and more. 

While shows like Modern Family can showcase a kooky family where the gay uncle's steal the show, they rarely give you a real world view of what it's like in reality. An episode this season alone had Tracee Ellis-Ross' character facing being mixed in America and it was summed up beautifully in one line pertaining to applications asking for race, "How come there’s not a box for both?" Non-black audiences not only get laughs, but they get a new outlook on life when watching this ABC mainstay.

Then there's Atlanta and Insecure. Which if you haven't watched—please make a mental note to do that as soon as you finish this read up. Anyways, when it comes to these shows they are very unlike anything else on TV. 

Yes, Atlanta focuses a bit on the music industry which can draw comparisons to Empire and Star, but stripping it down the non-black people watching are likely drawn to the realism in the show's overall storyline; a man down on his luck who is trying to balance a makeshift career with being a dad and a kind of there boyfriend. 

Then there's Insecure which tosses you into a whirlwind of emotions when it comes to relationships. Like Atlanta, there is a realism to it all. Both shows are void of that overly dramatic soap opera, comedic will-they-won't-they stuff we've gotten used to thanks to years of well daytime soaps and shows like Friends.

When it comes to black television–Shonda Rhimes’ excluded because again she could make lint seem interesting—it seems to be attracting more non-black audiences because they are approaching storytelling with a sense of reality more so than the rest of the TV lineup that’s flooded with sort of the same troupes, plot lines and ideas. 

Shows like Black-ish, Atlanta and Insecure showcase not only what it’s like to be black in America, but basically what it’s like to be a real human. The sugarcoating is off and the stories are real and that's why these non-black people are enjoying black television.