TV’s ‘Comfort Years’

Rick Du Brow tells us of yet another attempt by the TV networks to capture the nostalgia of the 1940s and 1950s--the “comfort years” in America (June 16). But comfort for whom?

Evidently, the producers of some of the new shows planned for the fall season believe that the ‘40s and ‘50s were a time when all Americans shared the milk-and-honey good life.

But let’s look more closely. In 1945, thousands of black GIs who had fought honorably for their country did not come home to bobby-sox and soda fountains. They came home to an America where segregation was the law of the land.

Latino and Asian citizens also faced discriminatory practices. And women were booted out of their wartime jobs in plants and factories to make room for men.

Despite the promise of some black characters in the new shows, I ask: How much of this part of America’s past will find its way into these series? Or would that be too discomforting to the networks’ mythical view of bygone America?

EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON

Inglewood