Don't fall for that shit. Gregory was in three episodes of the series, which has been running for years. Babineaux is basically the crabby partner with the heart of gold. The other man of color, Ravi, is the comedy relief. And the love interest in iZombie? The stud? Take a guess.

And if you are one of the mob on that senseless James Olsen hate train I think its more about your latent racism.

Bullshit.

"So it has to be a character who is neither older than anybody (father like Joe) nor younger than anybody (younger brother like Wally). Not a friend, not comedic. Not sure how many white characters meet those criteria either."

Peed the bed this morning and still mad about it?

Ultimate father figure. Open the encyclopedia under father figure and you'll see a picture of Joe.

Father figure/mentor.

Lol! Ok, I'll stop trashing Diggle.

Yeah, I'm looking for people to stop repackaging the same old tropes as groundbreaking representation. The CW shows love to highlight how progressive they are but they really aren't.

You would be correct.

Mantis, the 90s superhero show? I didn't like it back then but now I understand where they were coming from. The truth is you have to represent yourself. male competition is a helluva thing. It's a very powerful social force that really gets too little attention.

He's acting independently because they don't know what to do with him. He was brought on to be the love interest for the lead, but as I said, that's a no-no for mainstream TV. The Guardian plot line is terrible. It's reached the point where he isn't even in episodes anymore.

The black guy on Agents of Shield is a supporting character. Colson is the boss. He's with a Latino woman. Chemistry is one thing but I can tell you that Barry has got more than Chemistry with Iris. Steel has more than Chemistry with Vixen. And so on and so on. Jessica Jones is the ONE example. And it stands out…

Ok, let me distill my argument. My problem is that mainstream TV will not allow any kind of man, other than a white man, to be a strong, competent, sexual, masculine, leading man. This Black Lightening show is another example of that. He's teh star of the show but he is going to be the mentor/father figure.

He's going to be Super Cosby, father figure/mentor. I'll bet you cash money that there is a mid-20s typical white young hero with bad boy tendencies that he will have to mentor. In other words, the person with the testosterone.

Yes he is. Why do you think he doesn't work as a love interest? He has no bad boy in him. The Mon-el came into the show banging women, getting drunk, etc. James is timid about his feelings, and couldn't stand up to the editor of CatCo (Snapper Carr). He's constantly uncertain and unsure of himself. In the history of…

Yes I do. Because I'm not into faux representation for liberals to pat themselves on the back as though they are doing something when they really aren't.

They gave him the Guardian story line because audiences couldn't take him as the love interest for the heroine of the show. Now she has the standard white love interest. Audiences now hate him as Guardian and he is getting less and less screen time. I predict he's a goner by the third season.

As I said above, I have no problem with what is. I have a problem with what is not allowed to be. There's a reason the CW is making their black superhero a middle-aged man who is retired.

See my response to 1derer. I'm going to let you folks in on a little secret. The real revolutionary act isn't to make a woman the lead of an action show. Linda Carter was playing Wonder Woman on TV over 40 years ago while they were putting David Carradine in yellow face to play a Shaolin monk.