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From ‘Bridgerton’ to ‘The Real Housewives’: The Black Elite Has Been Around for a While
‘Bridgerton’ isn’t the first series to show us the existence of the Black wealth and royalty
When we think of castles, big dresses, gentlemen in powdered wigs, kings, queens, and courts, we don’t usually see our skinfolk on the scene as anything but slaves. But Black folks were there, too, in gowns and crowns despite what’s normally represented in the media.
“The stereotype of Black underclass urban life maps so perfectly onto racist beliefs about Black people, that few white people ever bother to grasp the concept of different Black social classes,” Tressie McMillan Cottom writes for Medium. She continues, noting, “The Black elite, no matter how elite, do not look like the white elite. They do not have or control as much wealth. … And, Black elite social networks and white elite social networks do not significantly overlap.”
“But, social class is not merely about economics. It is also about status. Nowhere is that more clearly illustrated than in the social world of Regency England.”
Enter Shonda Rhimes and her new hit Netflix series, Bridgerton. The show follows the lives of regency, but this examination of race and society is more than a work of fiction…
