Backstage: "Some might consider dividing people by race or ethnicity on a television show distasteful, but such an act fits assumptions made about race by many people, not just in Hollywood. How much of what people accept about race is fact -- and how much is fiction? "
3 comments:
This is an article that hits very close to home with me. I have been mistaken for every kind of ethnicity I can think of, except for what I actually am. What I don't understand though, is why being of mixed races has this bad connotation to it. Why do I have to be one or the other and not both? Why do people assume that my father's family is the Spanish one and my mother's is the Puerto Rican one just because she is a little bit darker than he is? Why does nobody believe that my cousin is a natural blond?!?! These things just get aggravating. I'm glad that Grey's Anatomy has biracial relationships. Hopefully now people with mixed backgrounds can just be seen as people. The transformation will undoubtedly be slow, but at least the problem has been realised.
-Natasha Alejandro
According to Chau’s idea about Grey’s Anatomy and America’s readiness to deal with interracial relationships, I think the media and the arts have an important role to “educate” in some sort of the way the audience. Watching on TV an African American guy and a Latin girl having a romantic relationship may help the middle American (or the middle European, Chinese. Japonese or whatever) to accept there is a wide range of races, colors and relationships beyond the traditional ones.
For instance, in Spain, which 20 years ago was not very progressive country, the Gay-Lesbian civil marriage has recently been legalized. Spain is one of the very few countries where this step forward has been made so far… Of course, when the law was approved, there were voices that claimed against such an action… But, and this is my personal point of view, the media (and especially the television) played a very important role normalizing the situation. There are still people who think the homosexual marriage should not have ever been approved, but most of the people are realizing that this is not such a big deal.
For this reason, I think this kind of programs, like Survivor: Cook Islands, are not very helpful in integrating races and ethnicities. It is too easy, and too dangerous, to make assumptions like: “Ok, so the whites have won… That’s because we are a superior race”.
The line is too narrow to play with these things. I really think the bet must be on integrating, not on separating.
Laura Prieto Garcia
Is it safe to say that no one finds this funny? The whole reason why they make shows like this and have controversial issues is so that people will watch it. And, inevitably, they are making millions as we speak. Its sort of ingenius; take something that we are so afraid to talk about (gay marriage, racism, slaves) and put it into a television show. OF COURSE people are going to watch it. They've made such a big deal about it, people will tune in simply to see how they deal with the races. I think its a genius marketing strategy. This white cracker gives Survivor a thumbs up.
Post a Comment