Television – My Escape…

With all the tumultuous incidents going on around the country recently, surrounding police brutality allegedly stemming from racism and racial profiling, I find comfort in watching fictional television to escape from the hateful scenes on the nightly news.

Shows like NBC’s Parenthood (now off the air), which includes an interracial family who is fully and lovingly embraced part of the white Braverman clan begins to restore my faith that we can all exist harmoniously. Other programs like ABC’s Black-ish, and Fresh Off the Boat, personally indicate an America where we are beginning to maturely accept ourselves, accept one-another, embrace diverse cultures, and even chuckle about our differences a bit.

Some may frown on my position, and see it as trifling a large systematic issue in our country, and using fiction to falsely suggest that all is well in America. Well, I am not doing that exactly. Instead I offer that fiction sometimes predicts a coming trend, or outcome.
Beyond on-screen fictional content, even television commercials tend to showcase the landscape of our population with more variety as businesses, fully aware of where the buying power is, seek to get their products sold in every sector.
Does a brown, black or colored face on my television screen solve our race problems? Of course not! The events are a part of a deep rooted problem that requires urgent, and focused attention. – This may not be the answer, but as a minority, it does provide an inch of hope every-time I see someone like me under the glittering lights of the camera. A sense that, in the midst of demonstrations of “old thinking”, we can still forge ahead radically to bring about change.