The Root: 'Harlem' Star Jerrie Johnson Redesigns What It Looks Like to Be Black and Queer on Camera

In a world where Black lesbian characters are both limited and limiting, Jerrie Johnson and her portrayal of tech–star Tye in Amazon Prime’s ‘Harlem’, is a welcome reset in how we categorize queerness through our television screens.

“For Tye, I had a lot of those conversations with the costume designer, Deidra [Elizabeth Govan], who is amazing, who didn’t want Tye to be any stereotypical butch lesbian that you see, because we want to push the conversation forward,” she explained. “Not only do we want to show real reflections of nuanced Black women, but also to elevate the conversation. There is no such thing as a Black queer woman who owns a tech company in America right now, so that is a new thing that we’re seeing,” she said about the show.