Stereotypes In The Dan Schneider-verse

Okay so I want to address my comment about Sam. I still stand by my analysis and would like to add more nuance, because I don’t think I explained myself clearly. The last thing that I would want to do as a black person is imply that poverty and absent fathers are exclusive to the black community. We know those stereotypes are harmful because anyone from any race or background can experience those issues. My feelings on Sam are that while those experiences on their own do not necessarily mean she’s a black caricature, the show itself intentionally tried to align both her and Rex with blackness, by relying on stereotypes. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as the show went on and we learned more about her those details would just be randomly thrown in there. For example of course other races love hip hop and rapping, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in the iCarly Victorious crossover, when Robbie destroyed the speaker system his attempt at rapping was seen as inauthentic, but the “urban” puppet was seen as a good rapper. And throughout the party when he was having rap battles his only opponents were black and the ONLY person who could beat him was Sam? It just felt so clear to me that that was an intentional effort to align Rex and Sam with blackness. Now of course, loving fried chicken, having an absent father and loving hip hop are not exclusive to black people, but in this Dan Schneider Universe it is. Sam and Rex were aligned with blackness to make them seem more edgy. I understand if people still disagree and reject this idea, but I would hate for anyone’s takeaway to be that I believe black people can only be depicted in this one stereotypical way.

The angry black woman stereotype affects black women in real life. I will never forget when I was working at an insurance office back in 2019. I was the only black woman there and it was a very small office. I remember my manager and coworker called me to say that they will be late so I was alone there for a couple of hours. I noticed that there were no customers and I had to use the bathroom really bad. I went to the bathroom and came back and I saw a customer outside. I greeted her and she asked where my manager was. I told her that my manager stepped away but will be back. ( That’s what my manager said to tell customers when they ask .) The customer who was a white lady asked if I even worked here. I said yes. She responded back that she did not recognize me. I said I was new but she accused me of lying. She told me that I was probably a thief trying to steal the computers. I was literally sitting at my desk in my work uniform. I defended myself of course and said I’m not a thief. I have been working here for a couple of months. The customer told me that she didn’t like “ my tone “ and I’m being “ aggressive “. She kept accusing me of lying and asked to speak to my manager. I called my manager after she asked to speak to my manager but she kept going off about how I’m lying. I really don’t work here. She proceeded to say that she is calling the police. I told my manager what was going on and I handed my phone to her. Fortunately he was only a few minutes away and he showed up and helped the customer. When I tried to talk to him about the way she treated me, he simply said she was crazy. The police really did show up later that day and we had to explain what really happened. I quit shortly after that. That’s how the angry black woman stereotype can negatively affect us in real life. She falsely accused me of being a thief and when I defended myself, I was being “ aggressive “.

It's incredibly disturbing that Sam was obsessed with food, while Jennette was battling an eating disorder in real life.

The irony of Dan making all his black characters “scary” and loud/annoying when that’s exactly how he was in real life and even worse ✍🏽

What's crazy is that if there was a black female character that acted like sam at the time she would be hated

its funny because andrew's gf acts the same way as jade but ofc everyone would hate the black woman

I was always confused about ”Scary Spice”, it would make sense for a goth or something but I didn’t see what was scary about her.

I've always hated how kid's tv was so against interracial couples and any black character might have a singular date or crush on a white character they always ultimately ended up with a black partner

No because tori and andrei shouldve been together honestly

Andre was my favourite as a kid, and I very much noticed they avoided giving him a love interest and was livid. Was so happy when i thought he could have smt w jade 😔

Does anyone else remember that episode of Victorious where they were stuck in "Yerbania" which was an obvious parody of Balkan countries (the name literally sounded like Serbia, Albania, Yugoslavia) and the flag was just a yellow Albanian flag? And the running joke was how poor and weird the country was and that they were at war? There would be bombs going off outside and the cast just looked at each other like "uhhh ... awkward! 😳" I was born over there and escaped with my parents as refugees because of the war and ongoing genocide so it was a touchy subject for me as a kid, plus being bullied for not speaking English well. I remember when that episode aired my face was hot and my heart was pounding the whole time from embarrassment and anger lol

Jocelyn, the bully… I never realized she is just… a grown ass woman? Not only is she 6ft tall, but she looks much older than everyone else. I think that part of casting was intentional, and I don’t like it very much. Also, a lot of these characters only did well because of their actors. Yvette Nicole Brown is a gift to the world! And whoever plays Andre’s grandmother put her ALL into that.

sam has the black women stereotype but it's seen as funny and cute because she non black

Never heard the spice origin story. I hate pop culture

as a Black woman who loved some of these shows growing up, thank you for waking this shit up lol because as an adult it’s beyond obvious

You can pick up on a lot of patterns with various stereotypes across all of these shows: -Black people are portrayed as angry and physically imposing -Asians are portrayed as unpopular nerds -Homeless people (almost exclusively referred to as hobos) are portrayed as scary and almost subhuman -Characters' mental disorders (Sam and Coco's overeating, Cat's bipolarity, Andre’s grandma’s schizophrenia, etc.) are played purely for laughs -Transphobic jokes (Jade calls Robbie "sort of a him," Beck uses air quotes when referring to his "Uncle Barbara," Spencer gets called a "man lady" and chased by security guards simply for crossdressing) -Robbie, who is Jewish, is portrayed as a cheapskate

As a kid, I was confused by why other characters were expected to be scared of Helen. I can’t help but think some of the writers wanted to expand upon her character to make her the Helen we admired, while other writers wanted to keep her boxed into the stereotypes.

The “angry black women” part is so true also note that literally in everything where black woman are the side characters they usually never cry or show vulnerability. only being “strong, sassy, funny (stereotypically) or angry.

so all that tori/andre subtext was in my mind?! i always thought they had a thing going on that just wasnt brought up

Helen’s character could have been portrayed as a powerful authority figure but instead, like you said, the characters’ REACTIONS to her set up the stereotype. What a shame