BEING UNTRUE TO LIFE
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Yep, it’s a new year now. And let’s hear it for all those good cop, doctor and lawyer shows we are seeing, and the occasional Movie of the Week on any channel pandering the same tiresome racial stereotypes.
The people who are the unethical shysters and cowardly nerds are the Jews; the blacks are portrayed as unappealing, helpless victims of circumstance to be rescued; Latinos are forever the unsavory, misapprehending victims of their own anger and frustration; and it is forever the beautiful Aryans clinking cocktail glasses and hopping into the sack with one another--male or female--whenever they are not courageously saving everyone else.
Whenever you’ve gotta have conflict with somebody unsavory out there to give your story three dimensions, make him a minority. It must be wonderful for some people to be able to turn on the tube and have what they always believed about some kinds of people be confirmed by what they see.
The most accurate and truthful portrayals of creatures I see on TV I find either on the news, or on PBS. I’d like to see people portrayed with as much accuracy and fairness as I see sea lions and whales portrayed.
MATT MAIBAUM
Los Angeles
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