Diversity in television and film has a few layers. Although it is imperative that we see more Black characters on screen, what those characters are doing on screen is just as important as their appearance—with the release of the most recent season of The Bear, seeing Black characters on screen as chefs or cooks is refreshing.
Ayo Edebiri plays sous-chef, Lionel Boyce plays a pastry chef, and Edwin Lee Gibson plays a line cook. Normally in media, Black characters are relegated to a limited set of roles. More often than not these roles don't give other angles of the Black experience. Unlike how media treats other groups, it's common not to see us in media as regular people dealing with regular things. Even when it comes to job functions portrayed on screen, the list of careers is predictably narrow.
This is the show that's popular right now, but in the last few years, we've seen a few popular shows deploy Black characters in ways that didn't put them in too much of a box. Issa Rae in Insecure worked at a non-profit before becoming an entrepreneur. Condola Rashad and Jade Eshete had recurring roles in Billions. Juliana Canfield played an executive assistant in Succession. Myha'la is one of the leads in Industry, which is a BBC show about an investment bank.
As the media catches up to what the real world is like, it will be exciting to see how Black characters are written and portrayed.