Girls live chat: season one, episode two

Did you miss today's Girls live chat on race and diversity? Not to worry. Here are the hightlights featuring Lauren Williams and Teresa Wiltz. For a replay of the chat in full, scroll down.

On Girls' representation of people of color:

Girls is supposed to be REAL. It's supposed to be this honest look at what it's like to be broke and privileged and educated in a big city. And so many of the sorts of people who are writing this commentary are black journalists -- meaning they're probably broke and educated and live in a big city. They understand this life and it is so frustrating to never see your own experience reflected on TV.[...]If you bill your show as reflective of a whole generation of women, then people will expect it to live up to that. - Lauren Williams

I read an interview where Lena Dunham says that she'd like to see people of color represented on the show and maybe if they get a second season, it'll happen then. And that attitude is the problem for me with the industry: people of color are seen as an addition, an extra, not part of an integral whole. - Teresa Wiltz

I think we need to remember that the characters are not the writers. I think that the writers are showing us characters with flaws. and that's ok too.- Jessica (reader)

For me, the issue isn't about this one show, but about a long-standing, disturbing trend in the television (and film) industry, where there is a really poor representation of people of color. Television and film shape our perceptions of where we are as a society. Who we are. - Wiltz

The Cosby Show was incredibly successful because it was very natural to relate to. It's diversity was not forced it was true. It had a myriad of characters coming through that were nothing like the Cosby's racially & socio-economically. Diversity can be a standard in shows without being a quota. - Courtney Gilbert (reader)

Fairly or unfairly, this show has been sort of the last straw for so many frustrated TV viewers. - Williams

On the Lesley Arfin tweet:

I'm also tired of the whole say-something-offensive-and-then-make-an-insincere-apology meme.- Wiltz

The tweet has been deleted, but people will always remember that one of the writers from the show has this general attitude about the criticism. - Williams

On the sex scenes:

I think as a young woman, there's a lot of bravado about asserting your sexuality, a bravado that you might not really feel. And it also seems to me that today, there's even more pressure to be a sex goddess. - Wiltz

Those scenes were so awkward to watch. And I do think they tell a sad tale about young, sexually active women and sex. There's this excitement to have it and then there is absolutely no enjoyment in it. - Williams

Last Monday, Anna Holmes and Julieanne Smolinski joined us for a live chat following the premiere of HBO's Girls. It didn't take long for one issue, race, to dominate the conversation.

In the days that followed, cultural critics sounded off in droves about the triumphs and failures of HBO's newest show – producing a mountain of commentary – and again race emerged as Girls' most contentious issue.

Jenna Wortham at The Hairpin; Kendra James at Racialicious; Dodai Stewart at Jezebel; Alyssa Rosenberg at Think Progress – are among the writers who produced insightful pieces about the consequences of the lack of diversity in the cast. At Gawker, Max Read wondered if "there was ever a chance that Girls would get race right? (Or even get it at all?)?". On Friday, the issue gained even more momentum when Girls writer Lesley Arfin responded to complaints that there were no black characters, save for a single homeless guy, in the first episode of the HBO show, with the following tweet: "What really bothered me most about Precious was that there was no representation of ME."

Earlier in the week, New York Magazine's Vulture blog talked to Girls co-creator Judd Apatow about the show's backlash. Here's what he said:

When we made it, we always knew that it was a show you should fight about [...] It was built to be a show that you'd have to defend or argue about — for some people, it would make them angry — and we go over that terrain for the course of the ten episodes. So hopefully people will fight about it every week! Not just one week.

This week, our Girls: season one, episode two live chat will focus specifically on the portrayal of race in the show. The chat's hosts are Lauren Williams, Deputy Editor of TheRoot.com and longtime television and cultural critic Teresa Wiltz. They'll be taking your questions about Girls from 2pm - 3pm ET on Monday, April 23. Bring your questions and comments. We hope to see you there.