Kenya Barris is finally setting the record straight on whether he has a “fetish” for featuring mixed-race characters in his projects after he was blasted for being biased. Earlier this month, film critics attacked Barris after the trailer of his Netflix rom-com, You People hit the internet.
After news of the movie made headlines, some angry Twitter users attacked Barris, noting how interracial relationships and bi-racial characters are always centered in his storylines.
A few people accused the film writer of having an unhealthy “obsession” with bi-racial people.
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This week, during an interview on Sway In The Morning, Barris finally addressed the criticism. When asked if he had a “fixation” with mixed-raced stories, the Black-ish and Grown-ish creator answered, “I do, I really do.”
He continued:
“It’s crazy, it happened because I did a show about my family that I’m super proud of in Black-ish. My wife’s biracial, the kids look like my actual kids. Then there’s a spin-off with Yara [Shahidi] who’s amazing, which I’m super proud of that spin-off, there’s a spin-off about the mum character’s life, which was based around my kids’ mum’s life and the things she went through.”
Barris argued that he has created other projects that feature unique storylines outside of popular shows like Black-ish and Grown-ish.
“If you go outside of that, people don’t think or remember it’s Entergalactic, Shaft, Coming 2 America, The Game, Girlfriends, Girls Trip,” he said, before challenging his haters.
“I’ll go head-to-head, I’ll do a Verzuz. I’ll go against anybody for who’s Black, in terms of who’s put out Black s**t,” he added.
