Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, March 4, 2013

Keaton Davis H1, Midterm Post (2/4)

PHILOSOPHY, THEN AND NOW


Keaton Davis

H1 Group 4
Midterm 

PREVIOUSLY, ON AS SEEN ON TV:

"[In old TV shows] you basically had white people, with the occasional black person thrown in."

"... shows like The Cosby Show added to the already growing belief that nothing more really needed to be done to provide greater equality to the black population."

"TV back in the day definitely showed a picture of the racial inequality that plagued the nation.  However, it depicted a cleaned-up, watered-down version."



SEASON 1, EPISODE 2: "OH! THOSE MINORITIES..."

As promised, I am going to talk about another show that featured a one-race cast, and that is Family Matters, which aired in the 90s.  Like The Cosby Show, the main cast was all black, and some believe that when white characters did make appearances, they were mean or stupid or racist.  Whether this was the aim of the show is not clear, but it brings up an interesting point: do we sometimes try so hard to protect a particular minority group that we end up discriminating against the majority, or even another minority?  I think we see this sometimes when we look at affirmative action and even gender issues such as Title IX, which made any government-funded educational activity equally available to males and females.  Some people's rights are infringed upon just to make other people feel more accepted.  While I'm not saying we should get rid of affirmative action or Title IX or the like, I do think we should strive to keep things as balanced as possible in our fight for equality.  Isn't that the point of equality?

Unlike The Cosby Show, which was reticent to bring up racial issues, Family Matters addressed it in some of its episodes, one of which (apparently) Nick at Nite refused to air probably due to its use of a derogatory word.  I think they should have showed it — racism is not pretty, and it should be dealt with.  Here's the video clip.  If you're offended by the n-word, don't watch it. 



Moving on to more recent TV shows, let's take a look at how far we have come in representing people of all different races and classifications (we will not touch on religion; that is next season's focus!).  An extremely popular show today is Glee, which has many different types of characters on it.  However, some people think their use of characters of different races, abilities, and orientations is actually making things worse for minorities.  It appears that Glee has just about every minority one can ask for: black people, Asian people, gay people, physically and mentally disabled people, and many others that have distinguishing characteristics.  Of course, they still make room for all the white people, who constitute the majority of the cast.  Shwoo!  That's a lot of people to write in!  

Within these minority groups (and white people), they develop the usual high school stereotypes: geeks (I think in this context, they actually call them "gleeks"), jocks (mostly football players), cheerleaders, sluts, goodie-too-shoes, and many others.  Some critics of the show feel like Glee puts these characters in there just so they can say they're being mindful of the different cultures and beliefs that are out there.  In other words, they want to show that they have a multiculturalist and cosmopolitan viewpoint of the world.  Characters that are used like this are called token characters.  Their function is to teach the main cast how to tolerate people who are different from them.

This brings up a point that Wendy Brown made in Philosophy Bites.  She says that we should not "tolerate" people, because that has a negative connotation to it.  She thinks it means we are "dealing" with them, as if they are a problem, or people who are lower than the "normal" people.  I see where some people get that idea from Glee.  It seems like they are trying way too hard to be multiculturalists, and are making themselves look foolish in the process.  We will also touch on Glee in other seasons of this series, so prepare yourselves! 


Clockwise from top left: white guy, cheerleader, 

white guy with mohawk, paraplegic, white girl,
gay guy, Asian girl, black girl
Center: psychotic cheerleading coach
and Glee Club director


Some other popular shows that implement some racial integration are Scrubs, with a black man and a Latino woman playing in primary roles; Psych (my personal favorite TV show) with a black guy as the co-main character; and Big Bang Theory, with an Indian guy as one of the main characters.  Other shows that have even more ethnically varied cast members are Lost, which has black, Asian, and Hispanic characters amongst the white people; and Grey's Anatomy, which has black and Asian characters.  And we can't forget about a popular show that helped get past the racial boundary by having black kids in a white family: Diff'rent Strokes.  Airing in the late 70s and through the 80s, this show is notable in that it addressed many issues such a racism, drug abuse, and other social ills.  Overall, I think these shows do a better job than Glee at displaying multiculturalism because they do not make a huge deal out of the minorities' presence.  They are part of the show because they are humans just like everybody else.
Diff'rent Strokes

Grey's Anatomy

















Lost 


CONCLUSION:

While I do think we have come a long way in integrating minorities, we still have work to do.  In a country where, according to the Washington Post, there are more minority babies than there are white babies, we are not too far from reaching an era where whites will no longer be the majority.  This is not really reflected in TV like it could be.  While I understand that TV does not have to be a completely accurate representation of the real world (that's part of the reason why we have TV in the first place: to escape the real world) I do think we could have much more depth in the shows if we include all the different ethnic groups that make up this nation.  Having minorities onscreen could also help battle the racism that still clings to our society.  Could bringing in these different groups to TV help put a stop to racism?  There's only one way to find out... Put'em in there!


STAY TUNED FOR SEASON 2, EPISODE 1: 
"GOD OR NO GOD? THAT IS THE QUESTION."

Join me as I explore religion in TV and how it has changed over time as different beliefs flood the world of television!  Will religion reign?  Find out soon on AS SEEN ON TV

3 comments:

  1. Yet another wonderful post Keaton! This was a brilliant idea for a midterm! Can't wait for the next one!

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  2. Brittany2:29 PM CST

    Great topic. This was enjoyable and something people talk about occasionally but don't really look into.

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  3. I find all of this very interesting. I watch Glee, and that’s something that I’ve thought of before. They always put certain types of characters in the show to talk about different issues. It isn’t even necessarily just about race either: they talk about eating disorders, money issues, etc. Over the summer they have a show called The Glee Project. It’s on Oxygen. Basically, it’s a competition where the winner gets to play a role on the actual TV show. Some of the people from The Glee Project that are in Glee now are Unique (played by Alex), Joe (played by Samuel), and Ryder (played by Blake). When you watch the auditions for The Glee Project, or even throughout the show, they all mention how Glee is so inspiring because it talks about different issues. However, I do agree that the show’s approach to the issues isn’t very subtle. It sometimes seems a little half-hearted. I also happen to watch Lost and Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve never really thought about the different races and ethnicities integrated into the shows until you mentioned it.

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