‘South Central’

I am perplexed by Rick Du Brow’s insistence that the pilot Michael Weithorn and I wrote for CBS, “South Central”--which presents an honest portrayal of African-American life--is somehow exploitative because it puts a name on the place and a face on the people who live there (“Letter Campaigns Fail to Save Shows,” May 18).

And what is downright unsettling is Du Brow’s suggested solution that we simply switch our locale to a “generic, unnamed urban setting.” I disagree. (Although I find the thought interesting. Why not change the Los Angeles Times to the Unnamed Urban Times?)

Unfortunately, the same lack of specificity has already resulted in far too many detrimental and flawed portrayals of African-Americans by the media.

RALPH FARQUHAR, Executive Producer, “Generic Unnamed Urban Setting”, West Los Angeles