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Watching Neighbours as a child convinced me that there were hardly any non-white people in Australia (Picture: Maheen Behrana)Every day after school, I used to sit with my mum and little brother and catch up on the latest episode of Neighbours.
\nWe all loved the show, which is why it has saddened me to hear that it is currently embroiled in a scandal about racism. This week, actor Sharon Johal \u2013 who joined the show in 2017 and left last month \u2013 released a statement detailing alleged racist remarks that were made towards her by other cast members.
\nActor Shareena Clanton, who is of indigenous heritage, also came forward to reveal the repeated racist slurs she says she was exposed to while on set. Both actors claim that no effective action was taken in light of these incidents, with Clanton asserting that there was an \u2018unhealthy level of silent complicity\u2019 among the cast and management.\u00a0
\nBut while the alleged treatment of these actors may be disgusting, I\u2019m not really surprised by it. For a show that is supposed to be about everyday life and ordinary people, it has failed to represent the diversity of the country it depicts.\u00a0
\nWatching Neighbours as a child convinced me that there were hardly any non-white people in Australia. I had no idea about the country\u2019s significant Chinese and Indian communities, and the soap certainly didn\u2019t portray any of the indigenous peoples.\u00a0
\nAt first, I didn\u2019t read too much into this \u2013 I just assumed that Australia was a very white country. But when I flicked through the channels and watched snippets from other soaps, I began to get the nagging feeling that these shows mainly portrayed white characters.\u00a0
\nWhat made this more painful was that I used to harbour a passion to become an actor. But I\u2019m of Pakistani heritage and no one in any of the soaps looked like me.\u00a0
\nThis worried me. Although I dreamed of Hollywood stardom, I knew that a lot of famous actors had started out in soap operas, so I thought it might be something I could aim to do. But I wondered if I\u2019d struggle to get a role in a soap simply because of my race.\u00a0
\nAt 10 years old, I\u2019d internalised something very troubling: that the everyday world our screens claim to represent often pointedly excludes non-white stories
\nAt times, I felt grateful for being somewhat ethnically ambiguous in appearance \u2013 I imagined looking more obviously non-white would count against me. Then I would immediately feel guilty for thinking this.\u00a0
\nAt 10 years old, I\u2019d internalised something very troubling: that the everyday world our screens claim to represent often pointedly excludes non-white stories and lives. I had also grasped that looking more white would make me more palatable for the small screen.
\nNow, at 23, I no longer want to be an actor. Mostly that\u2019s to do with a lack of genuine acting ability, but I know for a fact that it\u2019s hard to be an ethnic minority actor, attempting to break into traditionally white spaces. Not only are these actors underrepresented in leading roles, but they often report being typecast or offered \u2018stereotypical\u2019 or \u2018token\u2019 ethnic minority roles.
\nAnd the problems seem to start early on: just 6% of drama school teachers come from minority ethnic backgrounds, meaning students don\u2019t necessarily see themselves represented by their mentors.
\nOvert racism is not a separate issue from the overwhelming whiteness of soaps; they are both part and parcel of spaces that systematically exclude non-white faces. That very few actors of colour historically appeared in Neighbours suggests their deliberate exclusion from popular narratives about Australian life.\u00a0
\nEven though the Neighbours cast does feature some non-white faces now, the inclusion has been rather belated. And of course, just because they\u2019ve made it to Ramsay Street doesn\u2019t mean that everything is plain sailing for them.\u00a0
\nIt\u2019s no different in the UK. EastEnders has repeatedly been called out for the fact its cast list is far more white than the demographics of the area it claims to represent.
\nWe can\u2019t just accept tokenistic representation. Often, non-white actors find themselves sidelined or crammed into tropes like the \u2018black best friend\u2019, where non-white characters are presented as a foil for a white protagonist.\u00a0
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This is not to completely condemn these programmes. Despite criticisms over its cast, EastEnders has been praised for its handling of storylines centred around racism, and the show did pioneer a soap-first \u2013 an episode featuring an all-Black cast back in 2009.
\nBut when soaps do accurately reflect the demographic make-up of a community, they sadly erase the ordinary lives of ethnic minority individuals and communities they purport to represent. Thus, every non-white character can feel like an afterthought \u2013 a supposedly representative figure thrown in with some vague aims of furthering diversity. Even if this isn\u2019t quite tokenism, it isn\u2019t right.\u00a0
\nAs former EastEnders actor Nitin Ganatra puts it, problems with racial diversity won\u2019t be solved just by deciding \u2018We need an Asian family\u2019. There has to be a conscious effort from casting directors and writers to incorporate non-white characters for both race-centred storylines and for more general ones too.
\nThe existence of cultural communities needs to be factored into soaps, so that they can truly mirror the societies they\u2019re meant to reflect.\u00a0
\nUntil that happens, I think there will be lots more young people like me who feel that whiteness is necessary to make it as an actor.
\nDo you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing\u00a0angela.pearson@metro.co.uk.
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