by VMartinWrites Spectrum Council for Diversity in Media

The CW’s online streaming platform CW Seed is will be streaming Vixen, an animated show based around the adventures of Vixen, an African-American superheroine with the power to mimic animals.

An African-American woman is getting her own show. I don’t think people are fully registering how big of a deal this is. Let me help you by asking this question: when was the last time a black character—a female black character—was the focus on their own TV show?

Elisa is biracial–being African-American and Hispanic–but Gargoyles went off the air in 1996.

Out of all the main characters, on Teen Tians we knew the least about Cyborg. Also the show was cancelled in 2006. Also a dude.

Wow, you remembered this show? Also another ensemble cast character but Diana had a lot more development than most of the characters on Dungeons and Dragons. Also ended in 1985.

Hmm…this is a fantasy setting so it’s harder to match our concept of race with theirs. Also another one featuring an ensemble cast but it was a diverse one so….let’s just come back to this at a later date.

Like Cyborg, Aqualad was part of an ensemble cast but he had a lot more backstory, development, and was the leader instead of a support character. Still a guy and also cancelled 2011.

African-American, main character, but still a man and Static Shock ended in 2004.

So, it’s been roughly eleven years since there was a animated show with an African-American main character and nineteen years since there was a show based around a African-American and female character. We desperately need Vixen and we need to promote black media more, so for the next week, this blog is going to be posting about the various eras of black animated shows–from the dark ages of the 1940s to the modern progressive age of the 2010s.

I hope everyone looks forward to reading it as I do to writing it!