How Brooklyn Nine-Nine Nailed Diversity and Representation

Trigger Warning: Mentions of sexual assault, homophobia, racism

NBC recently announced that the coming season of the much loved show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, will be its final. It's safe to say that fans such as myself, did not take this news in the best way, to put it lightly. The show means different things to different people and there are plenty of reasons that make this show far more than just a hilarious masterpiece. To me, the show was the first one to prove that humour can be achieved with inclusivity and sensitivity and that there is absolutely no reason to rely on sexist and racist jokes to produce good comedy. The show addresses real-life problems with taste and that which can only be described as ingenious writing. Who doesn’t love a good satirical repartee on some of the world’s most pressing problems? Aside from its writing, the show’s cast and characters are diverse in the truest sense. Not only do the cast represent various ethnic communities, their characters aren’t simply token POC characters that are the sidekicks of the main white characters, as seen in many shows and movies under the garb of performative inclusiveness.

One of the best things about the show is how there are several characters of different races and sexualities, but none of them are limited to the aforementioned. Many a time, shows will include a gay character who’s entire character profile is the fact that they’re gay; a lazily written latino character that talks with an unrealistically exaggerated accent and likes spicy food. Brooklyn Nine-Nine has an extremely diverse cast. Detectives Amy Santiago and Rosa Diaz are played by Melissa Fumero and Stephanie Beatriz respectively, who are both Latin-American actresses. Their characters, however, are much deeper than the stereotypical representation that racially diverse actors receive on most shows. Amy is a super-organised and ambitious teacher’s pet and Rosa is an intimidating and rebellious woman who remains tight-lipped about her experiences.

Captain Raymond Holt played by Andre Braugher is the gay, black captain of the Ninety-ninth precinct. Again, instead of the gay character simply being the best friend of the main character, the writers have written Raymond Holt as a no-nonsense leader with a very strong moral compass, strange sense of humour and very strong work ethic. Sergeant Terry Jeffords, also a black man, is a gentle giant with an unexplainable love of yoghurt and an obese past which he works very hard to leave behind. He is played by Terry Crews and is, in his character’s own words, the “proud mama hen” of the precinct. He is a fiercely protective man with a niche for art.

All of these characters are complex and three-dimensional. Instead of their whole arcs and personalities revolving around their race or sexualities, they’re defined by their quirks, experiences and opinions. Their heritage and choices in love are something that are referred to casually throughout the course of the show, in a totally normal way, as they should be.

However, while not pigeonholing these characters to their race and/or sexuaity, the show does not ignore the struggles that their communities face in America and has on many occasions, addressed and tackled sensitive topics.

In one episode, Sergeant Jeffords gets racially profiled by another cop who was white, simply for walking through his neighbourhood. The situation escalated because Jeffords did not have his police badge on him and was treated like a criminal for no reason. The episode shows the fear, humiliation and helplessness that black people feel every day in America when they are stopped for walking in expensive neighbourhoods even if they lived there and pulled over for driving high-end cars because the cop thought they stole it. Even as a cop, it was a conflicting and hard decision for Terry to make regarding whether or not to report the officer who racially profiled him. It showed us Holt’s opinion of suffering in silence till you rise to a rank where you can take action yourself, which he himself later refutes, saying that older black officers like him struggled so that younger officers like Jeffords didn’t have to. The whole ordeal was not sugar-coated and it forced Jake and Amy to have the difficult conversation of the racial reality of America with Terry’s young twins. Keep in mind, the show is still a comedic one and they manage to include this arc with sensitivity while still maintaining humour in a different arc.

When Detective Diaz comes out as Bisexual, the show handles the storyline in a very realistic way. Instead of long, cheesy speeches of support from her colleagues that would’ve put her on the spot, they made Rosa give the rest of the squad exactly one minute for questions. None of them patronised her or tried to relate to her experience. The questions were normal and appropriate, like how long she had known that she was bisexual. Another very realistic story arc was Rosa’s mom not accepting her after she came out. For many episodes, we see that she is in touch only with her father as her mother hadn’t come around yet. Instead of showing her mother’s journey to acceptance within the span of a single episode, the story arc continued for quite a while, as acceptance takes people a lot of time, and the show made sure not to trivialise it. During this time, we see Rosa, someone who is not very emotional, feel hurt over the fact that her own mother doesn’t talk to her because of who she loves. This is something that members of the LGBTQIA+ community face when they come out. They often lose family and friends forever simply because of their personal truths and it's a deeply hurtful ordeal.

Another prevalent and extremely sensitive topic that most shows haven’t dealt with but Brooklyn Nine-Nine did is sexual assault. Jake and Amy are assigned to a case in which a woman, named Kerri Brenan, who was being sexually harassed by a man, attacks him in self defense. The man, who is her boss, then fires her from the company due to her “violent behaviour”. Amy and Jake both immediately jump on the case and try their best to convict the assaulter, but soon the victim drops the case because the company offers her hush money. At this point, Amy urges her not to drop charges or else this man would go free and could assault some other woman. On the other hand, Rosa takes a realistic stance and says that in cases with as little proof as this one, it is very difficult to get the accused convicted. In that case, this woman would not only lose her job, but would go through the difficult and taxing trial in vain. Both these sides of the argument are very real conflicts that victims of sexual assault face. It is never easy to go forth with sharing your story, especially since we live in a culture of victim-blaming and shaming. Its a very realistic aspect that many stories ignore when dealing with sexual harassment. Jake and Amy eventually find proof to convict the accused, and seeing Keri come forth and report the assault, another woman from her office is inspired to speak up and report the sexual assault that she also faced.

Later we find out that Amy herself faced sexual harassment earlier in her career. A man who helped her with certain opportunities, felt that she owed him physically for his contribution to her career and tried to take advantage of her. This is something that many women in the workforce face. Many times, men try to take credit for a woman’s career and use this as an excuse to exploit them. The show dealt with this issue head-on and did not shy away from a conversation that needed to be had.

Raymond Holt is the NYPD’s first openly gay Captain. The start of his career was during the 70s, a time that was much more intolerant towards both black people as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Throughout the show, we see various flashback snippets of Holt when he started out as a police officer and the harsh discrimination that he overcame to rise through the ranks.

Apart from these characters, the white characters of the shows are true allies. Jake constantly corrects sexist comments made by minor characters in the show, and during the MeToo episode, he remains a part of the conversation, listens intently and doesn’t make it about himself.

The show brings attention to injustice and hardship and fosters an inclusive environment in which different perspectives are heard and diverse experiences are shared. This results in a richness in both the meaningful range of characters and the complexity of the storytelling.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine shines as a strong reference point for how to employ diversity in comic television by using three-dimensional characters and discussing vital themes that have been ignored in less aware sitcoms. It is truly one of the most influential shows of the past decade.