Sunday, January 11, 2015

The 'Authority Minority'

As I sat in my American Studies class listening to my teacher's presentation on how television shows cast minorities to make the show more diverse he brought up the concept of an 'Authority Minority' and I immediately started thinking about all the shows I watch and wether or not they have that 'Authority Minority' figure. The 'Authority Minority' is always the best dressed man or woman and reigns in the main character because they are often not following the rules or they are getting ahead of themselves. Having a minority in head position makes them seem more important, but in reality they get very little screen time. One show came to mind: Castle.
Roy Montgomery
Castle is a network TV crime drama series on ABC. The main character, Richard Castle, is an author who shadows a New York City detective, Kate Beckett.

In the first three seasons the captain of the twelfth precinct is Roy Montgomery who happens to be an African-American man. Captain Montgomery is Kate Beckett's boss, like the 'Authority Minority' is supposed to do. As you can see in the picture of Captain Montgomery he is standing in a very closed off position with his his arms crossed. This position indicates that he is very strict. During his final season he had an interaction with Detective Kate Beckett that shows how he would reign in his detectives.
Captain Roy Montgomery: The hell am I gonna do with you?  
Kate Beckett: You're gonna let me work this case.  
We can see how Montgomery is exasberated with Kate and tries to bring her down a couple of notches as he sees that this case is too personal for her. At the end of this season Captain Montgomery passes away he is then replaced by Captain Victoria Gates.

Victoria Gates
Captain Victoria Gates is a female character who is very serious and also happens to be African-American. She, even more than Captain Montgomery, reigns in her detectives. It seems as though the TV series was doing the "token trade", after getting rid of one minority character they will be replaced by another. Captain Gates tries to keep Castle in check the most. She is constantly reminding him that he is only there for research for his books, he is not a police officer or detective. As she is seen in the picture she is very stern and is wearing a suit. By pointing her finger the way she is it shows how she is reigning in her detectives. I find it very interesting that they replaced Captain Montgomery with a female african-american. He could have easily been replaced by Kate Beckett, she is more then qualified. It seems as though they were trying to fill some sort of quota for minorities on the show.

Have you seen this happen in any other shows? Do you think that the producers made this trade on purpose?

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