HBO's 'Girls' is Getting a Black Girl

After some pretty consistent criticism for lacking diversity and a very short-lived attempt to bring some in (thank you Donald Glover), Girls is getting a black girl. Actress Danielle Brooks, known for her role on Orange is the New Black, will be the first black female character on the show. The 23 year-old, who is fresh out of Juilliard, said that she was excited to the show's first black female character in addition to returning to Orange is the New Black. Maybe this is the answer that so many critics of the show's racial make up have been looking for. I, for one, am curious, but skeptical.

In an NPR interview earlier this year, Dunham clarified her reasons for the show's lack of diversity. She said,

"This show isn’t supposed to feel exclusionary. It’s supposed to feel honest, and it’s supposed to feel true to many aspects of my experience. But for me to ignore that criticism and not to take it in would really go against my beliefs and my education in so many things.

Something I wanted to avoid was tokenism in casting. If I had one of the four girls, if, for example, she was African-American, I feel like — not that the experience of an African-American girl and a white girl are drastically different, but there has to be specificity to that experience [that] I wasn’t able to speak to. I really wrote the show from a gut-level place, and each character was a piece of me or based on someone close to me. And only later did I realize that it was four white girls."

If those were her reasons for not writing in black characters, then what is so different now? If a lack of experience as an African-American woman was the reason for not writing one into the show, I can't imagine that over the past couple of months Dunham managed to pack in 25 years worth of it.

Maybe there are some new writers and directors of color in the mix, which would be great news. However, please note that I'm not implying that people cannot create characters or write for ones that are not the same race, gender or class as them in any way shape or form. I think that it is very possible and can be (and has been) done quite well. I'm just highlighting the reasons that Dunham herself presented.

I am happy to hear about Brooks' role. I'm just skeptical and apprehensive about what it's going to look like. Heck, I'm wondering what Hannah is going to look like at this point. We will have to wait until next year to see, but for now let's hope for the best.