Culture

This Important Anti-Racism PSA From Steven Universe Features LGBTQ+ Representation


 

Steven Universe ended its run earlier this year, but Cartoon Network has brought the beloved animated show back for a series of anti-racist PSAs.

The first of four shorts, titled “Don’t Deny It, Defy It,” rolled out Tuesday and features Crystal Gems leader Garnet, who is voiced by British-American singer Estelle. It begins with two school-aged boys, one black and one white, playing on a playground while holding hands. Staying true to form for the queer fave, the Steven Universe short centers LGBTQ+ representation with one boy telling the other that they should get married when they’re older.

A third boy interrupts the two kids and tells them they can’t get married because “Black people can’t marry white people,” which prompts Garnet to intervene with a message: “Don’t be racist.”

A director then yells “cut,” and in a meta twist, it turns out that Garnet and the three kids are actually paid actors on a set. But the PSA doesn’t end there: As everyone takes a break from filming, one of the boys calls the advertisement “the cheesiest job” he has ever done and suggests that “stuff like this doesn’t actually happen in real life.”

The two other kids interject, with the Black boy saying that racism does, in fact, happen in reality. Garnet steps in to say that “just because it’s never happened to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen,” causing the skeptical young person to realize his mistake.

“Everyone messes up sometimes, but you gotta realize it hurts to deal with racism, and when people act like it’s not real, it makes it even worse,” one of the boys concludes.

The PSA ends with Garnet looking directly at the audience. “You have to acknowledge racism to work against it,” she says, telling two of the boys that they better “work on this before their wedding,” a wink to the earlier exchange about their future queer relationship.

According to Cartoon Network, the short was written by Rebecca Sugar with their husband, Ian Jones-Quartey. The pair collaborated on the video with Dr. Kira Hudson Banks, Dr. Allen E. Lipscomb, and Debora J. Johnson, Ph.D. It was directed by Sugar and her husband in collaboration with Chromosphere.

The other three PSAs in the series will be broadcast on air bi-monthly, according to Entertainment Weekly. They are currently available to view at the newly created website crystalgemsspeakup.com.

On the PSA’s site, a statement from Cartoon Network says the company “stands behind anti-racism as part of our commitment to fostering inclusion and equity.” At the bottom of the page are links to the National Black Justice Coalition, the National Bail Out Collective, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Steven Universe is no stranger to LGBTQ+ representation. Following the show’s finale in 2019, the series was nominated for a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy for the episode “Reunited,” which features the wedding of Ruby and Sapphire, the queer lovebirds who fuse together to create Garnet. The episode received critical acclaim, with one review praising Ruby and Sapphire’s relationship as “an important instantiation of visible queer representation on television.”

Following last year’s Steven Universe: The Movie, an epilogue series ran earlier this year and depicts a slightly older Steven maturing and growing into himself.

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