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“Interracial Couples & Professional Blacks? TV implies too many” Says White dude.

On June - 9 - 2009 View Comments

Michael Russnow, a blogger at the Huffington Post wrote a piece titled : Racial Advancement on TV: Is the Progress Depicted Well-Intentioned Fantasy? where he points out a few things that just seem SILLY on TV right now…

For example, almost every prime-time television show features romantic inter-racial relationships, most notably between its Caucasian and African-American continuing characters. While there are certainly more such situations in our current life than in former decades, is it as prevalent as depicted? As commonplace so as not to be noticed or rarely discussed?

Here is a partial list of such shows on CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and CW, just from the last few seasons:

Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, ER, House, Boston Legal, Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money, Bones, One Tree Hill, Everwood, Lost, Heroes ,The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Kings, Lipstick Jungle, 90210, Cold Case, Ugly Betty, Privileged, October Road and Brothers and Sisters.

…Why do they do it in such great numbers, when it goes against statistics, according to a 2007 piece by Harvard professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr:

… In Gossip Girl every grouping has a rainbow assortment of races. Equal opportunity bitchiness on Twitter, Facebook and MySpace with the main high school clique consisting of white girls, black girls, Asian and Hispanic. As if life conforms to a quota system, which for the most part just isn’t so.

It’s funny. My response while reading this article initially was “Go Fuck Yourself” because I immediately took offense to it (I do that sometimes). He also pointed out that there aren’t that many black doctors, surgeons, lawyers and judges. I quickly realized that my anger stemmed from the fact that I know a bunch of black lawyers and doctors. I know tons of interracial couples. Hell I’m IN one. I’ve known so many that I started to think there was something in the water. For me that aspect, the professional Blacks and interracial unions, isn’t fantasy.

But I also live in New York City.

Cities in general have a more diverse backdrop. Yes, if you’re in the Midwest a Black doctor might be strange. But I’ve worked at 2 different hospitals in NYC. It’s not strange at all. I’ve worked at Fordham University. There’s tons of Black kids going for the Bar.

When Minorities are in environments with Whites, are we supposed to NOT mix? Sure there are plenty of White people who have no connection to blacks, but is it that way in reverse? Past a certain class, almost ALL Blacks I know have white acquaintances and friends. Not to fill a quota, but because that’s JUST LIFE.

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reality check

practically every show i see has a black person in charge, and also features interracial couple. it's really a joke.. blacks are being way over represented. at first i thought it was just me,, that's why i googled it. it's one big joke.
stefanie

i'm a black woman who grew up in a white family, surrounded by white people. i dated who asked me out. if i had realized how much it would offend or confuse people who got all their information from primetime television shows...i would have done it more. idiots.
ddot

Actually the majority of americans do live in cities or major metropolitain areas... if you didnt know this from your normal intellectuall curiosity or general reading you should have learned this from the election process and maps....They went over this fact a million times....Barack talked about it in countless speaches....Democrats carried many swing states and red states because so much of thier populations live in major metropolitain areas....PA( Philadelphia and its surrounding suburbs..carry the sate) VA (Arlington/Fairfax..ie metropolitain dc carrie that state) FL carried by Miami/Ft. Lauderday/Palm Beach/Boca Raton metropolitain areas..NC Charlotte/Raleih-Duram metro areas the list goes on and on
Ben

I happen to be black (I'm actually mixed race), married to a white woman, and live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Twin Cities area is about the most progressive place in the nation when it comes to interracial relationships. If you go anywhere in Minneapolis, St. Paul, or the surrounding suburbs, you will see people of many races in relationships. Even in the white suburbs. And no one thinks twice about it or at least makes you feel strange about it. Because it is not. The same is true in Duluth, Minnesota, a much smaller town further up north. To perpetuate that the Midwest is a hotbed of interracial ignorance is ludicrous. I will admit that there are still firm racial lines in places like Chicago. Even in St. Cloud, MN, a smaller town, has had trouble embracing various races. But, the Twin Cities area is awesome in this respect. Don't believe what Chris Rock says; there are more black folks in MN than Prince and (now deceased) Kirby Puckett.
Alicia

Since when has television been statistically reflective of the larger population?

The argument in and of itself is ridic to begin with.
Darren

Victoria made a good point that the shows that were listed are in cities and/or surburbs right outside the city so the demographics actually do make sense unlike what the author complained about. I believe this is a good thing so someone in rural Kansas can see how life is outside their "bubble". I also noticed a lot more minorities and interracial couples in random commercials as well. But even if the demographics are not portrayed in a statistically accurate way, WHO CARES. Really? TOO much diversity? TOO much getting along? TV and movies for too long have created negative images of different ethnic groups that it is good to finally see more positive images on TV even if it seems like a "quota".
Victoria

I agreed with your statement until you declined to take it further. You're right; you live in NYC, where the racial mix encourages people to mingle, regardless of race. However, the majority of America does not live in big cities. They live in suburbs and small towns and interracial dating is still something of a anamoly to them.
When I look at the list of shows Michael Russnow provided my immediate thought was that they are set in either in urban areas or they are the suburbs of urban areas. Therefore, the show can cast an interracial couple (and in a few of those cases, a gay/lesbian couple) and not seem out of place. Try doing that in rural Georgia or Minnesota.

Finally, now that we have a black president who is married to a black wife, when are we going to start seeing more FUNCTIONAL black families on TV? Can we get back to that reality or does it not exist on TV?
reality check

the president is not black,, he was born from white mother and raised by white grand parents in hawii, he went to all white private school. his black father only saw obama twice. he's mixed
Laurel

You're right. Why wouldn't people mingle and get together? I was in an interracial couple not because the guy was black, but because I liked the guy. I bet your other half of your couple isn't a "white person" to you any more than my ex is a "black man" to me. He's just Bob who among other things has black skin. Maybe we all shouldn't look at life through the perspective of race and just look at each other as people. But then this website wouldn't exist, would it?