African American women are on top

Television portrayals are extremely influential and portray powerful messages about who and what is supposed to be valued in society. Some shows target specific audiences while others keep it broad. Either way, both create stereotypes that end up creating perceptions of specific races and demographics. Showing stereotypical norms makes for unfair representation. However, in the pilot episode of How to Get Away With Murder, the steroytypes are defied when the portrayal of African Americans is high class. The show introduces the idea that African Americans can be successful and wealthy which is usually unheard of in media portrayals. Ultimatly, the show How to Get Away With Murder goes against the sterotypical portraylays of African American women by presenting them as smart, succesful, and devoted to their job.
In the beginning of the show, you notice right away that Annalise Keating, an African American law professor, always knows how to solve her cases and never doubts herself. For example, when each of her law students presented a defense idea for her case she turned them all down by saying “none of you beat my approach”. She stuck by her original defense and this essentially ended up helping her win her case. Seeing an african american women as smart is extremely rare for media to show. In many tv shows African Americans are side characters that support the protagonist. However, in How to Get Away With Murder, Annalise is the leader while everyone else admires, and tries to please her. This essentially. makes her character look intelligent, and confident.
As the show continues, we see that Annalise Keating has made a successful life for herself. Not only is she highly respected at her job but she also has a husband that loves her and students who look up to her. While African Americans are ususaly shown as low class, struggling to pay bills, and ususally ending up in prison, the show how to get away with murder introduces a cultural transmission that they can be educated, wealhy, have good jobs, and even have a family.
With that being said, we see Annalise Keating’s devotion to her job when she goes so far as to betray her lover just to win a case. In the first episode Annalise was shown having an affair with Nate Lahey, a detective. She later called him to the stand in court during one of her cases, completely humiliating him on the stand and putting him in danger. This ended up changing the viewers perception of Annalise, making her seem coldhearted and mean. She did not care about the consequences as long as she won the case even if it meant putting Nate Lahey at risk of losing his job and exposing her affair. On the stand she asks him “where were you two nights ago detective?” She clearly knew that he was sleeping with her that night but Annalise willingly chose to risk her affair being exposed and ruining her relationship with both her husband and Nate just to win the case. As a result, we realize that her job will always be a priority but also how committed she is to being a lawyer.
The first episode of How to Get Away With Murder portrays African American in a positive light rather than just following the stereotype. Stereotypes can create a misleading image of how certain demographic groups behave or act which is not the reality. The show How to Get Away With Murder is the first step in diminishing the degrading representation of African Americans and all other demographic groups with unfair portrayals. The media need to show accurate and equal representations of African Americans with just as many if not more opportunities as other characters. This show gives African Americans the confidence and the impression that they have the potential to be something. Ultimately, this piece of media is allowing us to come out of the cave by making the audience realize that African Americans can be respected and successful rather than just violent and low class.
