90210

Plenty of us were fans of the original show. I was an adult when the original was on TV and I watched maybe the last year or so. This new cast has a black character. Dixon, who was adopted into the family that 'moved to Beverly Hills'. It is one of those eye rolling moments. Nope, can't have black FAMILY move to Beverly Hills, just have a white family adopt one and move him there. But the funny thing is that even though he lives in the BEV with all the other rich kids, he's the only one who feels the need to hold a job. He works at Jason Priestly's old spot the Peach Pit. None of the other characters on the show work or even want to. But somehow they just step into careers in fashion and high end party planning right out of high school. (no that's not corrupting our already overly lazy youth or anything) We wonder why kids have no grasp of how the world works. Anyway back to Dixon. Of all the kids in Beverly Hills, he's the one that has to get a drug problem. There is an ex child star Adriana who had one too but now she's clean after giving up her child for adoption. But guess just GUESS who Dixon picks as his girlfriend? That's right! The ex junkie! WOO HOO. But aside from that, there are blurs of black girls at his school but does he interact with any of them? Nope. The one time they put a black girl that TALKS onto the show (played by Weezy baby mama Lauren London) she turns out to be a lesbian. Yep black women can't be desirable in the BEV they have to be gay or dragon ladies. Dixon covets Adriana, and do just about anything for her. But that's just being a good boyfriend right?

One the new years episode one of the first things Dixon says after getting off a plane from Paris with his now wealthy sister, (they have written their parents off of the show) 'I know how to say I want a hamburger' just reinforcing the stereotype that black people can't absorb culture and are gauche outside of their own environment. Yeah, make the BLACK MAN the UGLY AMERICAN. Nice.

Later in the episode Dixon and Adriana get a 'hook up' gig from a friend to play a huge LA venue. Kids in the BEV know who you need to get where you wanna go. Whereas if he was just a black kid in the hood without a white girlfriend and not rich he'd be struggling in obscurity for years even in LA. Well the promoter starts fawning over his girlfriend and he gets jealous. The promoter makes a comment about how lucky he is to have her. Dixon agrees, but then the promoter says 'she might not be yours for much longer.' Dixon slugs him. Adriana is angry at this and leave him there. Yep, that's your white girl for you. Now, had he not been a rich kid, he would have PLAYED THE UNDESERVED ONCE IN A LIFETIME GIG THAT WOULD HAVE GOTTEN HIM CRAZY EXPOSURE, GOTTEN PAID FIRST, THEN SLUGGED THE GUY. Dummy. GET YO MONEY AND YO PROPS FIRST FOOL! Then get personal. If he would have grown up around black people he would have known that.

I'm going to say many times in this blog I'm sick of seeing the black girl being cast as the mean girl on every white show. This time it's Holly (played by Meglyn Echikunwoke) She's bitchy, and underhanded. She has a dragon lady mom Rachel Gray played by the lovely Michelle Hurd. We have seen Ms. Hurd over the years just about everywhere. Even on Law and Order SVU for a while. But now she's the one dimensional whip cracking party planner. I toast Ms. Hurd for not being a one note wonder in the all of Hollywood however. I have seen her play slaptick comedy and straight up drama. She has some damn chops.

The bright spot of the cast is the police woman Kat played by Tiffany Hines. She's gorgeous and may have a crush on the other brown character Navid, but of course he's hung up on his own white girl. Dixon's ex nightmare Silver. She and Navid kissed only to cover the fact they were doing secret police business. Kat is the hottest thing on the show, but I assure you she will never have anyone of her own, and be written out of the story before we are able to see her with anyone. I am sure that we will never see Rachel the dragon lady with anyone either. Her daughter Holly, though gorgeous, can't seem to keep a man either; and is never dating anyone even casually. This fact says no matter how gorgeous, thin or rich you are you are still black therefore undesirable, and the interesting twist with Holly and her mom is that Rachel picked Naomi to do an internship in her company over her own daughter. Doubly unwanted.