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| "A VIRTUAL WHITEWASH"? | |
 August 1999 
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The
NAACP challenged NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox over the lack of minority characters
in their new fall programming. Two experts take your questions.
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Cathe
Bell of Bainbridge Island, Washington asks: Do you think the networks are perpetuating a myth about what our country looks like? How do our programs make us appear to our global neighbors who buy and air these programs outside the U.S.? Damon
Standifer responds: I do not think that the networks are perpetuating a myth about what the country looks like. The absence of ethnic diversity is this year's phenomenon, however, what is exported to foreign countries is very often integrated shows such as: "Ally McBeal," "E.R." and "Homicide: Life on the Streets." Most of our global neighbors are too concerned about where their next meal is coming from and holding on to their dollar-an-hour job to worry about the fact that there are no blacks on Baywatch. There is probably a Kenyan who can't afford shoes on his feet who wishes that his greatest concern was that his agenda didn't send him out for "Spin City." My point is that our global neighbors have far greater problems than our own.
Earl
Ofari Hutchinson responds: Yes, if current population projections are accurate people of color will be the majority in America by 2020. When viewers in other countries see TV shows that are ethnically sanitized of minorities or portray them as clowns, crooks, and charity cases then they believe that people of color are dangerous and dysfunctional and treat them accordingly.
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