Netflix’s Luke Cage is full of positive elements that make it one of the best things that Marvel has ever done. However, between the cinematography and the black culture references (we see you Method Man), I have to say the diverse and complex characters are what really make the show.
The key to having a show that has central characters who are both black and villainous is to also have central characters who are black and heroic. Luke Cage keeps the balance between good and evil while also managing to create complex African-American characters. Luke Cage and Misty Knight are the obvious heroes. Stryker is the obvious villain. Cottonmouth is a pretty bad guy, but he’s easy to sympathize with. When it comes to Mariah Dillard, Shades said it best; she’s the woman we all hate to love.
Mariah Dillard is a political shark. She sees an opportunity and she sinks her teeth into it without any hesitation and yet her plans are always perfectly calculated. At first, she seems to be this amazing black woman– and she is. But that’s not all that she is. Mariah is morally ambiguous. From the time we see her sanitize her hands after making a show out of talking to the children, we know that there’s something off about her. Does she love Harlem? Definitely. Does she love the power she has in Harlem more? Absolutely. This character trope isn’t one that’s new to us, real life gives us Hillary Clinton and television gives us Scandal’s Mellie Grant, but so far this is the first time we see a black woman playing the pirate in a black neighborhood. It brings me joy to see us playing powerful roles, even ones that aren’t so nice. That’s the great thing about Mariah Dillard, she isn’t nice. She’s complex and manipulative and intelligent but she is not nice. There is nothing nice about Mariah, and it’s about time we see black women on television who are not nice.
If you’re wondering why I’m making such a big deal out of Mariah not being a very pleasant person then you’ve probably never heard of the ‘Angry Black Woman’ concept. Granted, it’s a trope that more and more writers and producers are trying to avoid but in that avoidance, they’re creating black women who simply exist to serve the needs of others without complaint. Yes, it’s nice to not be seen as angry and malevolent all the time, but it’s even worse to be portrayed as having no depth. What the creator, Cheo Hodari Coker, does with Mariah is give us a black woman whose feelings are never invalidated. She is conniving but she comes from a good place, she is a successful product of the projects but she hasn’t forgotten her roots, and she has suffered trauma in her life but she will hit you over the head with a bottle before she lets you victim-blame her. Despite her flaws and occasional murderous streak; Mariah Dillard is my goals.
One of the highlights of the show is when Cottonmouth calls Mariah “Black Mariah” and she immediately gives him an earful. While some viewers have commented on Luke Cage’s lack of diversity among its black female leads, I don’t think that’s true. True, none of the women have been as dark-skinned as Cage himself, but there is a nice range of color among them. Candace is dark-skinned, Misty is brown-skinned, Inspector Ridley is brown-skinned, and Mariah is dark-skinned. Claire is Hispanic so she shouldn’t be in this comparison (in case you forgot). Mariah is just as dark as Candance, and Candace is obviously a good person. There is so much blackness in this show that it’s unfair to say that Mariah’s bad behavior could be negative to the portrayal of dark-skinned black women. If anything, it shows that dark-skinned black women are worthy of complex narratives in television. The fact that she speaks on Cottonmouth’s color-struck remark is amazing even though I have a feeling “Black Mariah” will become her unwanted nickname on the show, just as it was in the comics. But I have no doubt that she will fight it every step of the way.
Another great thing about Mariah Dillard is that she’s a dark-skinned black woman and she’s portrayed as sexy! Not only that, but she’s seen as sexy by everyone’s favorite Sea Gate release, Shades. Here is a woman who had to be sent to boarding school to be protected from her uncle, was raised by one of the strongest (and baddest) women in Harlem, and who dresses impeccably; she could have anyone in the world but she doesn’t want anyone. And even though she pushes Shades away with her dislike for him, we can see that he respects her just as much as he finds her attractive.
Mariah Dillard is a lot of things, but she is not weak or uninteresting. Marvel might have spent a lot of time making sure that Luke Cage portrayed an accurate account of the life of a black man but it’s obvious that they spent a lot of time on Mariah’s character as well.
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