Is 'The Walking Dead' racist?

Fans of the hit AMC show "The Walking Dead" responded to the death of a beloved character with accusations that the show too frequently kills off its minority characters.

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The show has long been applauded for its diversity. A majority of the characters on the show are non-white, and of the 15 remaining group members, there are only five white characters left. After the untimely death of Tyreese in the recent midseason premiere, fans took to Twitter to express their outrage. Many claimed that the show kills off minority characters too frequently - something that is directly related to its ratio of white and nonwhite characters.

“Look, this is something in this world that we should be cognizant about, so my feeling is: Sure let’s get it out there, let’s talk about it,” executive producer Gale Ann Hurd told E! News. "We’ve killed a lot more white characters than African-American characters. And not only that, I think it’s important to point out that we did cast two African-American actors in roles that were not African-American. In the comic books, Bob was white. And the character of Noah was not an African-American. We just cast the best actor.

"[Executive producer] Scott Gimple basically said to [Chad Coleman], ‘Is there anything we haven’t really touched on in Tyreese’s journey?’ And the truth was, it went from A to Z. They are at a point of total and ultimate despair," Hurd continued. "And if this really would happen, you can’t just spread it out and say, ‘OK, we’ve lost a significant character in the last episode. Let’s wait.’ Tyreese had embraced forgiveness and he’d embraced all of the positive qualities as opposed to despair and rage, and in a moment of pondering that, he was vulnerable. And in this world you can’t let your guard down even a split second."

~opposingviews.com