RIP David Mills aka Undercover Black Man
David Mills in 1995. Photo: Rhonda Birndorf/Associated Press.
All of that means one thing, beyond major news stories, I've not been paying much attention to the world around me. This week, Twitter started blowing up overtime that David Mills had collapsed and died this past Tuesday while working on Treme a new HBO series in New Orleans. I was MIA on Twitter this week, so it didn't catch up to me until today. Thanks to a fellow forum member who reads my blog and his that let me know that he'd passed. She'd noticed that he linked to me in his Background vocals (ladies) section. He linked to me awhile back a couple of years ago. I'm sure as a result of some of my more spirited posts on race. The company he put me in is great and is humbling.
David was great too. I knew he was the writer of the popular Undercover Black Man blog, but what I didn't know was that he was a powerhouse writer in many other respects too. David, who grew up and made Washington, DC home, was a journalist, and he created, collaborated and wrote on some great TV shows like The Corner, Kingpin, and the Wire. In fact, he died while on location working on an HBO series called Treme. Considering spent almost nine years abroad, I only heard about these shows. I didn't know all this about him, and it's even more humbling because he found my blog and appreciated what I had to say. I know I definitely related to and appreciated his writing too.
What's interesting about David's blog is there was never a picture of him. I'm someone who is clearly and easily identified as black. I figured because of the name of his blog he was probably a black man with a light complexion because my mother and both of my grandmothers were light. That's something that non-blacks tend not to get the nuances of. That you don't have to have obvious sub-Saharan African features to be or identify as black. Especially in the USA, there are other results of racial discrimination: mostly that relationships both consensual and those that aren't produce off-spring. My family has a huge range of hues and colors. Now that interracial relationships are legal, now people can freely date and marry who they want. That history of legitimate and illegitimate shows a lot in black families and almost not at all in white families because the shunned offspring never was never accepted and probably most didn't know he or she existed. I know from the stories my mom told me of the struggles you have when you're black but you're almost always seen as something else. I'm sure David dealt with this too.
David was a powerful creator and I'm glad that he made a significant impact before he left this world.
RIP David. My condolences to your family, friends and fans.
Two tributes:
- Here is a great goodbye tribute on The Root written by Teresa Wiltz: We Lost Our Undercover Black Man.
- Here is another by Latoya Peterson on Racialicious: Sad Departures: Rest In Peace, David Mills
- Vanity Fair: Remembering David Mills, Who Elevated the Art of TV Writing
- New York Post: 'Treme' creators mourn David Mills
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