I like Pelham and the actor, but I'm disappointed that Fire decided to add another straight white male character (I will note that I'm just assuming he's straight, so you never know) after they had already added Hawkins.
I don't understand why they wouldn't have gotten a POC, WOC or anyone from an underrepresented community. It would have been nice to see a woman leading 51 in Stella's absence. And now it seems they have put Pelham and Hawkins at the forefront whilst neglecting their minority characters like Cruz (honestly, where has he gone; where has the PTSD storyline gone), Ritter and even Gallo with his lack of growth.
Out of all the OC shows and even some Dick Wolf shows in general, Fire does a decent job at diversity, but they need to realise that having one or two characters from each underrepresented community isn't enough.
First, I thank you for your patience about me getting around to this! I've put a lot of it under a cut because it got a lil long (which is like sxghjkkl bc I have so much more that I could say!) and I hope it makes you feel less alone in your disappointment ❤️
I agree with all of this, it's exactly the kind of things I've been thinking about myself. Like I adore Brett Dalton and I mean adore. When I heard he was gonna be playing Pelham I'm not ashamed to admit I immediately hoped SO much that he'd be sticking around-- and as a good character-- because I love him that much.
So while them choosing to cast *this* white actor takes the edge off my annoyance a little bit because at least it's a talented actor, but honestly it still pisses me off that jfc they didn't even appear to think about hiring a POC/WOC???!! I think especially on the heels of adding Hawkins.
Like Hawkins himself-- why is he white? Like okay I love him and adore his storyline with Violet-- especially bc it's giving Violet a much better love interest!-- so I'm not exactly annoyed by *his* presence but I am so, so disappointed that fire didn't chose to hire a poc.
And honestly I'm disappointed in fire in general; there's now three new characters that are getting introduced this season (the third being the paramedic rumoured to be stepping in for Sylvie) and they've *ALL* been fucking white??? Because apparently there's no way there's gonna be any poc who will be in those jobs right? 🙄 I could excuse one, but three? That's dropping the ball.
I agree that Fire (especially in the past) has done a decent job at diversity. Honestly it's while that technically pd is my favourite, because burzek are my otp, objectively fire was too. Because their diversity, the way they care about the community, their family interactions... It was so good. I mean obviously not perfect and it had Issues but depending it's created and ran largely by white men, it was good.
But, as a post in my drafts say but I'll make the point here instead, Fire is going the same way pd has already years ago. Objectively, pd is so shitty and literally so fucking terrible at diversity and racial issues (not to mention queer issues 🙄) but fire's always had that edge of being good. Except they've really gone downhill.
A big issue is-- and this actually goes for pd, too-- that they lost their poc and non American characters. So already when you look at the cast all lined up, it no longer looks like an incredibly diverse firehouse. I mean yes, it's not all white, but they lost Mills, Gabby, Emily and Otis. And what's more, they didn't exactly aim to replace them with more minorities. (To a degree, I know, I'm not going to get into a debate about the technicality of who replaced who!)
So they start with a nice diverse main cast (even if their secondary characters were all white), and what's more is they had that mix of cultures threaded in throughout the house-- even down to who's the best cooks and what they cook. This, even if there was only a handful of minorities, helped to bring that atmosphere of Diversity and togetherness.
The best places I've ever been in are ones where there is a lovely mix of cultures. I mean obviously I'm not white so I just feel more comfortable around other minorities, and I'm from a very diverse city. Which is why I like Chicago, and one Chicago, because a lot of the things can be similar to home (just with the caveat that I don't have a big latino population). And I liked that feel that early CF had.
A mix of cultures in one pot, it's truly one of the best things ever, especially bc us minorities are so much more likely to be accepting of one another. And while this wasn't really ever as at the forefront of the show like I'd say do, it was so good depending the white creators and white leads.
But when they lost their actors, they not only physically, from how the cast looks, lost a lot of their diversity, but they lost that vibe. And that's a big factor in how this feels even more disappointing, because they already only have a few poc and just keeps adding white characters, but they've rid us of that feeling. And because they're not really making sure to keep that vibe, they're not thinking about it in the casting room-- which means they don't remember that hey, we should hire people who aren't, y'know, white.
It's the opportunities they could take and ignores that creates this disappointment. As you've said, why couldn't we have a woc to lead the 51, especially after last season with them talking about how incredible it is to have woc in charge. And I mean, okay, I get it to a degree-- they want the first black woman lieutenant in charge to be Stella. (And by get it I mean I get that white men feel that it's more special that way bc they see two black women as two black women first, not two individuals whereas we don't). So... Make the lieutenant latina. Chicago has such a big latino as well as black so if they don't want to use a black actor bc of Stella... There's still a non white option!!! But instead they choose... A white man, who's presumed straight.
And honestly, these things I might be able to get pass if, as you put, they didn't neglect their pre-existing poc over Pelham and Hawkins!! Like Ritter is nothing but a plot device in gallo's immaturity, and Cruz... I'm so mad about them fading out his storyline. Honestly the way before these seasons aired the productions amped up Kim's and Cruz's respective storylines only to drop them has already pissed me off, but to have them choose to ignore a moc's struggles, even more as he approaches fatherhood which can be a trigger to bring up deep repressed issues? It's like why did they even bother!!!
And idek what's up with Gallo. Like why bring in more white characters when you're doing nothing with this one? And that's another thing that annoyed me about the Pelham thing-- so it was shown early on that Stella took a kinda mentoring role to Gallo, and they could've had her leave some notes for who came to fill in (although yes technically he filled in for Matt) and like we could see Pelham doing things recommended-- and getting to see what amazing work Stella does despite her not being on our screen- getting them to keep shining a light on their woc even when the actress was taking a break.
And it just pisses me off even more that they reintroduced seager and she's nothing but a useless flirt. Like way to demonise, writers!
All these points can kinda link into pd, too, and I'm just gonna talk about that for a moment although I will be making a separate post about it. I was going to include these points in the paragraphs talking about it in fire but I thought I'd just add it on here on the end in case people just wanted to focus on CF.
The loosing of poc: honestly this is an even bigger problem in pd then it is in fire. Because one) fire has more than one, and two) they have done somewhat more of loosing a poc and swapping them with another (although there's inherent problems with that too). But pd, we always had basically none, and then whenever they lost characters, they just... Didn't replace them.
Kevin is literally the only poc and his storyline is only ever about being black-- and it's not even done well!!! Yes points are poignant, but overall it's just so exhausting and honestly overdue. And they wrote off Antonio, got rid of Rojas with no mention, and now... The Latino community apparently doesn't exist, and the black community only exists when they remember about Kevin.
And fun fact writers, just because we (poc) disappear from your minds as soon as you think you've done your quota, doesn't mean we actually disappear in real life! We're still here, watching your show, seeing our issues get made a mockery of. Like no, things don't stop just because the focus is on this character today. It's an ongoing thing, and it's a thing that white people-- no matter how hard they try-- will never ever know how it feels. You can't, not unless you have the skin we have, not unless you grow up feeling the way people look at you from day fucking one. The closest white people will ever get is when they're parents to non-white kids, but even that will never quite be the same.
And obviously a lot of this is Eid's fault. I mean pd was still a fucking disaster pre-eid, but it was better. But Eid came in, killed characters and did nothing to hire others after or discuss racial issues until, y'know, George Floyd happened.
And it's not just about poc, and our communities that's been overlooked and ignored. It's the potential about other underrepresented communities. Like Hailey. She's Greek, her grandparents or great grandparents were probably immigrants, or if not, her family grew up around Greek immigrants and in that culture. And when she's introduced, there's literally another Greek character in the show but do they jump on the chance to use that to integrate her and the multi-cultural life in Chicago? Nope! She brings Greek donuts once and then it's like Greek? Me? Oh no way.
And it's even more important because Hailey is "American passing". You look at her, and you look at her name, and the average person won't see the enriching Greek culture. (I'm not saying btw that Greeks have to look a certain way, they don't, but I'm just pointing out that the average white person who's not knowledgeable in cultures will not associate all the uniqueness Hailey could bring, the opinions she'd have).
I'm not even gonna touch upon Makayla in this post, mostly because I've got others I'm gonna dedicate to just her because it's complicated, but the whole fucking way they've handled that is just so so bad and I can't even understand the people who said that the writing from Eid taking over to him stepping down being good.
I'm gonna stop this here now, especially before I go into ranting about Jay and Voight and even more before I start ranting about some areas of this fandom!
Anyway!!! Sorry (again) that this took so long to get around too, and I'm sorry most of what I've answered isn't insights but just me ranting but thank you so much for sending this. It's everything I think, and it makes me feel less alone, especially because it can feel like I'm a little bit crazy in this fandom bc of things like this and getting sent this by another poc makes me feel better (By the way, this whole time I've been assuming you're also a poc but if you're not, I'm guessing you're from an underrepresented community yourself bc your wording just shows that!)
Feel free to come into my inbox whenever, and I can promise I'll try and answer you sooner 🤣
