COLOR QUOTIENT

TV has come a long way since Bill Cosby was one of the first blacks to be portrayed as an ordinary person. Now the NBC show “A Different World” features an almost exclusively black cast. I often have wondered why this is so. Hillman is not a black college, since in the background they show other races as well. Also, shows like R227S and “Amen” have these tendencies.

In contrast, most other television shows feature only white families and their affluent friends, who are also white. Are TV producers targeting a certain audience or is it just coincidence? I do not see any example of a show which is truly intermixed in races.

In schools and in real life, there are tendencies for Asians to group together, blacks with blacks and whites with whites. But TV should be the pacesetter and show an example of a more ideal world. Bill Cosby and others should try to provide a more racially balanced cast in an effort to both improve programming and not to just have a black or white show, but simply a show.

Cecilia Park, Laguna Niguel