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

From:Carlos Thompson <carlos_thompson@...>
Date:Friday, May 28, 1999, 4:12
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