‘Apartheid TV’ Affects Viewers’ Lives : Television: Dividing prime-time series into ‘black shows’ and ‘white shows’ contributes to racial polarization.

The 1992 television season is supposed to be a landmark since it has had a dozen African-American prime-time series on the air, putting enough black people on television to help viewers color-tune their sets.

Rather than this abundance being a revolutionary breakthrough, however, it is quite the opposite, because it continues the archaic practice of “apartheid television.” Today’s TV landscape is still divided into “white shows” and “black shows,” contributing to the racial polarization in our society instead of ameliorating it.

In response to Jimmie Walker’s Oct. 26 Counterpunch (“Black Shows Should Have as Much Dramatic License as White Shows”), the real issue is not whether black shows have the same right to exercise dramatic license as white shows, but whether African-American viewers and the country at large have the right to see a balanced portrayal of African-Americans in our media.

While whites have their share of undeniably silly comedies, they also have a variety of bright, literate comedies such as “Seinfeld,” “Cheers,” “Murphy Brown,” “Love & War,” “Designing Women” and “Mad About You,” which show intelligent protagonists in clever situations.

Such adjectives as “smart” and “witty” are used by critics to describe white sitcoms, while such words as “sassy,” “outrageous” and “in your face” are used to describe the low-brow humor that has become the exclusive preserve of their black counterparts.

To further illustrate the negligible esteem with which African-American shows are held within the industry, it is well known that a writer who writes a “spec” script for one of the black sitcoms to show around Hollywood as his or her calling card will not be considered for a job on any show but a black one.

Black shows are not considered “quality” shows and as such, scripts for them are not taken seriously as an example of writing ability that applies to anything other than black shows. If an African-American wants to write a script that reflects any intelligence whatsoever, he or she must write a “spec” script for one of the white situation comedies, although the chances of getting on the writing staff of a white sitcom are virtually infinitesimal.

Consequently, African-American writers who want to write intelligent, universally oriented material find themselves doubly frustrated--unable to express their intelligence on a black sitcom, unable to get hired on a white one.

So what is the answer? No. 1, African-American viewers have to reject the argument Walker put forth in his Counterpunch that to criticize any black show, no matter how silly and demeaning it is, is to jeopardize the future of African-Americans in the television industry. That is a risk we have to take, given the alternative--years more of stereotypical images. That is unacceptable.

We should not be so desperate to see ourselves on television that we will accept any drivel without an appropriate balance of images. We should speak out continually and relentlessly no matter what the cost.

It’s absurd to let white television executives and producers have sullen ghetto hip-hoppers and lascivious buffoons set the cultural agenda for African-Americans. That would be tantamount to white America letting the Hell’s Angels, skinheads and “white trash rednecks” set theirs. And that’s not happening, is it?

Given Hollywood’s sorry record of portraying minorities, Asian-Americans and Latinos should give thanks that they are almost invisible in the media. Unlike African-American parents, they do not have to combat the constant silly images put out by television and films as they try to instill good values and sensible behavior into their children.

It’s a tragedy that African-American children are growing up seeing African-Americans portrayed in a mostly ludicrous fashion, while white children reap the psychological benefits of balanced representation in the mass media.

African-American parents should monitor closely what their children watch, and if the portrayals do not get better, then I say turn it off. We won’t lose, we’ll benefit, for in the long run it would be much better for our children’s psychological well-being and self-image. It certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Second, and on a broader level, the creative community of Hollywood has got to use its tremendous power to change societal perceptions and get ahead of the curve on racial issues. The stagnation and resulting regression in race relations in this country in the last 12 years will only intensify unless Hollywood stops its policy of “apartheid television” and does its part to meet the challenge of making progressive attitudes on racial matters interesting.

What is needed is for the creators of network television to address the reality that there are many colorblind people of all races in our country who honestly treat people as individuals, and to create programs that show people of all races interacting in a normal fashion without regard to race, creed or color.

It happens every day in our society, and when this is shown more on television, we will finally start progressing to a point where racial ancestry is placed in its proper perspective--as something to be noted but not dwelled upon. The indisputable fact is that there are more similarities among people of different racial makeup than differences.

Hollywood can and must point the way to an enlightened society.