Aidan:
Quote:Snood - Have continued reading along. I think the answer has become pretty clear - the majority of the paying public doesn't care if blacks are portrayed realistically in the media because
a)they're not black
b)noone else is portrayed realistically either (as if that's a legitimate reason - scuse me but it smells an awful lot like bullshit to me).
D'you smell that, too?
Quote:The majority of the replies here are as "one-note" (defensive) as they say your topic is. It's not their problem because they don't have to deal with it everyday. What I don't understand is why they don't seem to care about the feelings of the people who do.
It's exactly the same as those who pooh-pooh the protestations Native Americans who have a huge problem with the mascots' names on sports teams. The Native Americans who complain say that to them it is offensive, backwards and hurtful. I take them at their word - I ain't Native American. But there are so many who can't or won't know how they feel that say their complaints are baseless and empty. They just cannot understand. And to hell with them.
Quote:Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
May yours be peaceful and warm and full of quiet joy, as well. Hey, Aidan, here's a case-in-point....
Foxfyre:
Quote:I think the comment unfair, Aiden. Most of us are not insensitive to other peoples' feelings, but there comes a time when you simply have to go with what is practical and reasonable even though some would prefer it to be different.
So, by "most of us", I take it you are speaking for the whites in America? well, that's helpful - no need to ask araound, we can just listen to Foxfyre.
"Go with what's practical and reasonable"? Again, we are so lucky to have someone like you to clue us in to when to "go with" the status quo.
Are you from the moon?
Quote:The earlier deviation into television and movie codes, for instance, was not off base. Fifty years ago, blacks were generally stereotyped, yes, but stereotyped as maids, porters, news vendors, shoeshine boys etc. This did not 'feel' like stereotyping since the only black people that most white people knew were in fact living those kinds of real life roles.
It didn't "feel" like stereotyping to you, huh? Well then, it must not have been. And anyway, there probably wasn't any disconnect between hollywood and reality then either, right? And the depictions that are out there now are still by and large accurate depictions of the "roles" blacks are playing today, right? You sure you're not from the moon?
Quote:Now the black people in television and movies are doing all the same stuff that people do in the world I live in: they are good guys and bad guys and everything from chauffeurs to nuclear scientists. Because they are living the kinds of lives that I see black people, in my world, living every day, again this does not 'feel' like stereotyping to me. It seems as realistic as any television or movies are realistic which is a whole different subject.
Hey, if you're happy with the status quo, that's all that really matters.
Quote:Maybe it would be helpful to understand better if Snood would be more specific about what he would like to see on television or in the movies.
I sincerely doubt that you will ever understand, foxfyre. But if I had hope for you, I would try to explain how I as a black man want to see nuance and complexity and weakness and madness and romance and grandeur depicted in those who look like me. I would try to explain how, while there are exceptions (as have been pointed out to me in this very thread), the rule is to package ethnics in the most easily digestible form for the unthinking public, along with the rest of the commercial-driven industry - packaged for those with nanosecond-long attention spans and rapidly shrinking souls.
But I won't try to explain those things to you, Foxfyre because you are infected with the blindness of those privileged never to have to think about these things until pressed.
