It really annoys me how people are reacting to Jalen. Like he's great in both the Pitt and Off Campus. There is no reason to be the way they are. Yes people are allowed to not like someone. But to throw in racial commentary towards them? Yeah no. They can keep their mouth shut. I adore Jalen in both shows. I'm watching Off Campus because I knew about Jalen. I'm slowly but surely reading the books (when my adhd allows me to stay focus). I get that the producers didn't follow John Tucker's racial profile. It's okay. They have done it before. Hell, they did it for Zeeko Zaki for FBI. His character was originally supposed to be Latino. He managed to convince them to change his character to be like him. And I love that for him.
This is coming from a POC myself. I hate it that we experience all of this. It's absolute bullshit.
I think it's purely a result of different audiences. Off Campus is a very white, young adult/teen show & it's not surprising that it becomes aimed at that audience or people that grew up reading/centering that narrow view of romantic desirability. I think whatever fandom you enter, you're going to encounter racism/homophobia/or any other bigotries, but from my understanding the books have all white/mainly white characters and the object of affection for it's reader-base is white men. The pre-existing audience as a result is going to be attracted to white guys. (There's people saying it's the lack of the beard too..but I'm sorry, the white guy who's the lead, too, looks better with facial hair and he's not getting nearly as many comments on how he gives "cute" over "hot").
The Pitt vs Off Campus have similar sectors of audiences in terms of priortizing whiteness, but the difference with The Pitt is there seems to be a larger pool within the demographic who'll call that out and aren't the white, cis prospective viewer. I see this happens a lot with med and procedual dramas; the shows end up attracting people of many demographics and diverse backgrounds, and along with that the place you engage with content often mis-reflects or makes people forget that at the end of the day, a lot of the audience is white, middle America (thinking 911 on abc as a prime example). I'm just an outsider with no predictors of the future, but because of the majority audience that ends up watching and really becoming invested in Off Campus, I presume this racial preference to remain really noticeable for the entirety of the show, and if they get to Tucker's season, that is probably where the tide will change to when he starts getting massive amounts of attention, despite these ignorances still being apparent in fan behavior/content. It's all up to if people decide to start putting effort into giving him equal treatment whether the fandom experience becomes more immediately bearable or not. I get your frustration. I imagine it was jarring going from The Pitt into the fandom that is Off Campus; it's the difference between watching a series and knowing there's gonna be racism vs watching another with an almost entirely white demographic and feeling like a fish out of water with no life boat to be a support system.
I think on a larger scale, it's also why it's important for creators/adaptors to be mindful/not throw their actors into the depths of audiences with a clear racial preference, without proper adjustments of characterizations and accommodations of their characters.
