Kenya Barris defends Rashida Jones' casting on #blackAF

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Since premiering two weeks ago, Barris' Netflix comedy has sparked a social media debate over a lack of dark-skinned black actors. In particular, some black viewers have debated over whether Jones is black enough to be on the show, even though her dad Quincy Jones is African-American. "Jones is what some white casting directors might describe as 'ethnically ambiguous,'" Zeba Blay explains of the controversy. "Her hair doesn’t really curl, her skin is light, her eyes are hazel. The 44-year-old actor has often played characters who were explicitly white or whose ethnicity was sort of left up to the audience to figure out. On The Office, she played Karen Filippelli, an Italian American woman. On Parks and Recreation she played Ann Perkins, a character described only as 'ambiguously brown.'" When #blackAF premiered, some black viewers were shocked to learn Jones was black. But Barris says Jones is playing a version of his real-life wife, who is also biracial -- just like Black-ish star Tracee Ellis Ross, who also plays a character inspired by his wife. "This is based on my family, so there's a version of, you know, she's playing a version of my wife, who's biracial," Barris said on T.I.s podcast expediTIously. "She is playing a version of that character. My kids, what (Jones) and I could produce, looks like those kids, who are amazing. ... I think everyone's experience and everyone's opinion in terms of colorism are real and I understand that...I was trying to duplicate a version of what my family was."