The Walking Minorities: Bitten, but not Dead

I like The Walking Dead. While I only paid attention to the Telltale video game, I still keep tabs on the comic and tv show. The original comic and the video game are in the same universe, albeit with some characters being adapted for the video game. The tv show, arguably the most recognizable to the public, is in its own world. So when the tv show is constantly under fire for how racist and sexist it is (C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!), I feel obligated to address the problem and defend the franchise.




Let's start with the main issue. According to TV Rage's article, the show starts "in Atlanta, the population of which was 54% African American, but of the rather large initial group of survivors, there were two African American characters" and one dies rather quickly. The remaining black man, T-Dog, remains a background character until season three. Then, he finally reveals himself to be a devout Christian, gets bitten, and sacrifices himself to save Carol, a white woman. All in the same episode. But don't worry; he is soon replaced by Oscar, a prison inmate who doesn't even make it to half a season, and Michonne, an angry black woman who does nothing but hate everyone, alive or undead. The one black man slot is then filled by Tyreese when Oscar dies. Why do all of our black characters die? Why can't there be multiple black men for more than three episodes in a row? It's as if the writers of the TV show add black characters only when they have to and really are racist against black people.




If the TV show is racist for constantly placing its black characters into red-shirt sidekick roles, then why does the video game have two black main characters? Is it because the video game demographic is appealed by diversity?