How a Cartoon Character Became a Hero for Token Black Girls
Originally published on Change.org, May 19, 2010
Back in the 1990s, if MTV's Daria Morgendorffer was a breath of fresh air in the terminally predictable world of suburban girl-centered media, then Jodie Landon — one of Lawndale High School's only black girls — had the same effect (times ten) for "tokens," people who were the only one of their kind to penetrate the suburban bubble.
When Daria debuted in 1997, the 'burbs were still a place that felt like a prize for American families who had earned it. Spacious homes, safe neighborhoods and good public schools — all the fodder on which the satirical show regularly dined. With her perfect academic record and crazy number of extracurricular engagements, Jodie was the product of what middle-class black parents had pushed on their kids throughout the preceding decades. (Her coupling with the only other black boy in the school, Mack — a similarly well-rounded jock — only reinforced the image). The pair were the embodiment of the adage that black people had to work twice as hard to achieve half as much, a belief that seemed to fuel the pair's unending drive, which Daria's producers regularly and hilariously invoked.
With her neat braids (weren't those mandatory?), calm demeanor and non-threatening blackness, Jodie was everyone's idea of the perfect black girl. She wasn't the materialistic BAP (Black American Princess), like Saved by the Bell's Lisa Turtle, or impossibly ditzy and underachieving, like Fresh Prince's Hilary Banks. She didn't even seem to have any of that token black girl angst, like The Baby-Sitter's Club's token, Jessi. So girls of the '80s (who became the women of the '90s) rallied around Jodie — the one positive reflection of our identities.
The love for Jodie hasn't stopped, either. On the Web, for example, her distinctively weary smile is now a popular avatar for bloggers and tweeters. And now that Daria, Jodie and the gang are available in DVD form, this black girl can't wait to re-visit her favorite TV token.