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<blockquote data-quote="Emelee" data-source="post: 220290" data-attributes="member: 73">I think a better way than having a coloured character and pointing out that he or she is coloured is to focus on the everyday racial issues. Why not have a white hero type suddenly say or do something that offends their coloured friends/partner/relative/co-worker? Not because he or she is a racist, but to actually be true to the world -- that we sometimes completely inadvertently offend people. You don&#039;t have to be a racist to accidentally say something that you didn&#039;t even know would offend a coloured person. Just like some men and some women may say something to the opposite gender that offends them and with gay/straight/bi. Instead of throwing in a black person and thinking &quot;I&#039;m not a racist cause I just hired a black man&quot;, do something productive with that choice. We are all aware that most people have prejudice opinions about others. It may be that a single woman in her 30s probably have a cat (it&#039;s been assumed of me by two male pupils - I have to let them down and reveal I have a dog). I myself have prejudice opinions about people who go on national TV to confront someone. I automatically get an image of how an adult woman is who is obsessed with wearing Hello Kitty or My Little Pony clothes. So why not build some drama around that real-life problem? Why not have a white hero character show he or she isn&#039;t perfect by showing some unawareness of his or her prejudice about how black people are? Then maybe viewers will start to use their brain and analyse themselves. Nothing will ever happen if we don&#039;t start with ourselves instead of only pointing out others. And that&#039;s what I think many showrunners ignore. They think that just by casting black people, they are in no way attributing to any form of racism. And my main point is that it&#039;s not that simple. It won&#039;t fix anything by thinking there is an easy solution to such a deep problem. Don&#039;t focus too much about having black characters - shift the focus to how we all contribute to uphold the social hierarchy. If only the bad guys on shows show signs of racism, we inadvertently say that only bad people are racists - therefore, we good guys have no responsibility because &quot;we are not the problem&quot;. I think we are all part of the problem because we live in a society and we accept social constructions too much, by for example not challenging our own prejudice.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Emelee, post: 220290, member: 73"] I think a better way than having a coloured character and pointing out that he or she is coloured is to focus on the everyday racial issues. Why not have a white hero type suddenly say or do something that offends their coloured friends/partner/relative/co-worker? Not because he or she is a racist, but to actually be true to the world -- that we sometimes completely inadvertently offend people. You don't have to be a racist to accidentally say something that you didn't even know would offend a coloured person. Just like some men and some women may say something to the opposite gender that offends them and with gay/straight/bi. Instead of throwing in a black person and thinking "I'm not a racist cause I just hired a black man", do something productive with that choice. We are all aware that most people have prejudice opinions about others. It may be that a single woman in her 30s probably have a cat (it's been assumed of me by two male pupils - I have to let them down and reveal I have a dog). I myself have prejudice opinions about people who go on national TV to confront someone. I automatically get an image of how an adult woman is who is obsessed with wearing Hello Kitty or My Little Pony clothes. So why not build some drama around that real-life problem? Why not have a white hero character show he or she isn't perfect by showing some unawareness of his or her prejudice about how black people are? Then maybe viewers will start to use their brain and analyse themselves. Nothing will ever happen if we don't start with ourselves instead of only pointing out others. And that's what I think many showrunners ignore. They think that just by casting black people, they are in no way attributing to any form of racism. And my main point is that it's not that simple. It won't fix anything by thinking there is an easy solution to such a deep problem. Don't focus too much about having black characters - shift the focus to how we all contribute to uphold the social hierarchy. If only the bad guys on shows show signs of racism, we inadvertently say that only bad people are racists - therefore, we good guys have no responsibility because "we are not the problem". I think we are all part of the problem because we live in a society and we accept social constructions too much, by for example not challenging our own prejudice. [/QUOTE]

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