S.W.A.T. co-creator on changing "copaganda" shows: Right now, we're hearing "lip service" to preserve business

Vanity Fair

Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, who co-created CBS' S.W.A.T. with The Shield creator Shawn Ryan, is somebody rare in the world of cop TV shows: a black showrunner. Thomas notices that cop shows, even those that are diverse, tend to tell their stories from the white point of view. "While storytellers often hide behind the idea that issues of law and order are a universal concept, like mathematics, I believe the idea of telling a universal story is a myth," he writes in Vanity Fair. "It’s a Hollywood term often used in defense of why issues like race and class should be handled with generic brush strokes. In my experience, the term 'universal' often means 'for the mainstream,' which is another way of saying stories told for white people, by white people." Thomas recalls that NYPD Blue co-creator David Milch once said black writers are unable to write universal stories, due to a burden of anger and an inability to “achieve emotional neutrality.” "I disagree with this idea," writes Thomas. "I also wonder if emotional neutrality should always be the goal of good writing. It’s been my experience that writers of color often have an advantage of needing to keenly observe and analyze mainstream culture as they achieve any level of success. Consequently, their writing voices often have the flexibility to encompass a variety of ways of looking at a topic, necessitated for professional survival." Thomas adds: "When I hear white showrunners, especially those in charge of police procedurals, asked questions about increasing the number of black showrunners in this realm, I rarely hear an answer that addresses the question. I often hear platitudes about hiring more diversity at the lowest levels and tolerating new points of view from 'cooler' white writers, but rarely hear how any writer of color can manage a career to get to a point where their voice drives a show and impacts the worldwide narrative on these stories."

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