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December 1994, Week 2

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Subject:
From:
Jeremy Butler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 14 Dec 1994 09:33:43 CST
Content-Type:
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Author:  [log in to unmask]
Date: 12/14/94 1:10 AM
 
[Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted
above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).]
 
 
Melissa says:
I do have a question to regular viewers, do the parents live in a white
middle class town? Do they have any non-white friends? I am interested in
looking into this because tv shows either seem to mix races well (ie:
Homocide, Northern Exposure) or terribly (ie: Any soap opera, Beverly Hills
90210).
 
kal says: I believe they live in Pittsburgh or its environs. The parents
do not seem to know any non-white people. In the Adult world, the
principal (who's a prick and martinet) is the only recurring character.
Ricky is Latino, and there are non-white students, but Angela hangs in a
white world. Which is its own realism of course. When I visit high
schools, I see a lot of de facto segregation (through tracking, through
kids in a comprehensive hs who hang out with their neighbors (which are in
most of the US racially segregated)
 
Side note: I think that the daytime soaps are quite a mixed bag: All My
Children and One Life to Live so a lot of social relevance storylines
including race stories--one life did the first tv rendering of the "tragic
mulatta" story in the 60s with Ellen Holly taking the role of Carla
Grey--who was "passing" and about to marry a white man, hence having to
deny her black mother. AMC has since the late '70s anyway had black
characters centrally located in storylines. Now the younger cast is quite
racially and ethnically diverse. Anyway, Some are definitely better and
others much worse.
 
kal
 
 
kal alston
ed pol studies/ women's studies
uiuc
380 education
champaign, il 61820
217-333-3673(ofc)/333-2446(sec'y)

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