Re: CHAT: American Racism [was: Star Wars]

Brian Betty wrote:
> "Other nations do marginally better in making programmes where
protagonists
> don't need to be racially segregated."
I guess Colombia is not one of them :-(

There are three cultural _races_ in Colombia: the mainstream white-mestiz=
e
race, the _indigenas_ (Indians) and the _negros_ (Black).  Anyhow and ind=
ian
that lives in a city, wears bluejeans or a tie and speaks Spanish is
mainstream and nobody will segregate him/her for being an indian.  But th=
at
indian in the indian comunity or in the jungle, which wears their
traditional custom and speaks their native-american language is almost no=
t a
Colombian, is not an equal and I have see no TV show on them (but
documentals or historical series).

There are black communities similar to indian communities and they have n=
o
representation on TV (like indian comunities), but there are also black
people living in the big cities.  More common in costal cities like
Barranquilla or Cartagena, less common in Bogot=E1.  They have also littl=
e
representation in TV and most of those representations are as servants.

> Absolutely. I should have been very specific when I wrote: I mean Ameri=
can
> television. Other shows shown in the US which have racially diverse cas=
ts
> are all foreign-origin: Xena: WP, Hercules, and the like.
>
> I have determined through conversation with my coworkers that racially
> diverse shows in the US are apparently limited to:
> Emergency services: ER, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Homicide:LoS, etc.
> Science Fiction: Star Trek TOS, Voyager, DS9 [the most racially diverse
> show on TV, IMHO), Sliders
> Foreign Shows: Xena WP, Hercules
Most US TV shows that are shown in Colombia are emergency services and
comedies.  Probably that's why I haven't noticed such a segregated world.
Well, something in the comedies.  But after US soap-operas have nothing t=
o
do against Mexican, Venezuelan and local telenovelas... (except for a few
like Dallas).

> Would that be 'ethnic dirtying'? *irony*Here in the US, I always have t=
o
> fill out forms and mark my race as Caucasian, African-American-not-Lati=
no,
> Latino, Native American, or Asian-Pacific Islander. I fall into three o=
f
> those categories. And there is no 'other' or 'mixed' box.
What I know about myself: my grandfather was from Trinidad and Tobago and=
 he
was black (I don't know how pure he was), the rest of my family is from t=
hat
Colombian (Andean) mainstream that combines some _pure_ whites, a lot of
mestizos and a few _pure_ native-american.  My Spanish ancestors would ha=
ve
arabian, basque, visigoth, latin, iberic (and who knows howmany other)
blood.  My Native-Americna anscestors... who knows, probably Chibcha...  =
I
remember once that I entered at the US and I have to fill a card.  There =
was
no _Latino_ box and the closer was _Chicano_... of course I'm not Chicano
but I could find a relationship with the word _Latino_, not as a race but=
 as
a culture (which is a very broad culture, I should say).

Well,  I gess I drew myself a little offtopic.

-- Carlos Th