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Dawson's Creek-- was it racist?

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JanMichael Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 02:42 PM
Original message
Dawson's Creek-- was it racist?
We just watched Season 1 on Netflix because we were in Wilmington last month, and had never seen the show.

We were both shocked at the complete lack of diversity, except for one character who was described as Joey's sister's "black boyfriend," with whom she had a child out of wedlock. (whoop de doo, was that an attempt at a plot twist?)

Thoughts? Incidentally, I really don't want to hear about the South; it was filmed in NC, but was supposed to be in Massachusetts.
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 02:45 PM
Response to Original message
1. (shrug) No more so that Seinfeld's black-free NYC, or a brazillion other shows.
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JanMichael Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 02:46 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. I don't recall a character on Seinfeld
being referred to by a white character in a disparaging manner as "the black boyfriend."
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Drunken Irishman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 02:57 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. They had a whole episode with Jerry's American Indian girlfriend.
Edited on Sun Jul-12-09 02:58 PM by Drunken Irishman
Where he buys Elaine a cigar shop Indian, delivers it to her house and starts singing, "Hey-yah, ho-ah, hey-yah, ho-ah."

The card he got her also reads:

Let's bury the hatchet. We smoke um peace pipe.

The whole episode is about how he now becomes extra sensitive toward her and avoids saying "scalper" when talking about buying tickets off a scalper, accidentalally asks a Chinese mailman where a Chinese restaurant is and then essentially calls her an Indian Giver after she takes something back she had given Elaine.

Pretty funny episode, actually.
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Dr. Strange Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:05 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Black-free? That's outrageous! It's salacious!
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:11 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. :)))) Jackie!
:rofl:
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monmouth Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:34 PM
Response to Reply #10
17. I loved that guy. Hope he's working and I miss his character so much...n/t
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JanMichael Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #1
12. yeah. I agree, and you know what?
I am beginning to think that really sucks.

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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:14 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. "that really sucks." - Yup.
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Tan Gent Donating Member (137 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
3. What percentage of minority actors makes a show non-racist?
10? 15? 50.1?

I don't even know what that word means any more...some people clearly are willing to label anyone who dares to even criticize a black person as racist.
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JanMichael Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:04 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. That is a very good question
and one I am asking myself while I think about "Dawson's Creek" and "Friends," and "Seinfeld," etc.

Maybe we should ALL be asking ourselves this.
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imdjh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 02:57 PM
Response to Original message
5. You watched the whole first season?
How did you do that without barfing? I only watched the first five minutes.
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JanMichael Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:03 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. nah, the first 5 episodes
we aren't getting more, obviously. Not fans for sure. Plus we aren't teenagers.
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ButterflyBlood Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:08 PM
Response to Original message
9. You're reading way too far into a stupid, stupid show.
More importantly than whether it was racist or not was what it was wrenchingly horrible.
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Lex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:12 PM
Response to Original message
11. I've been wondering this about the Scooby Doo Show for some time.
I mean, :wtf:



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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:33 PM
Response to Reply #11
15. Well, there was Velma
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Lex Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 04:09 PM
Response to Reply #15
18. Velma was black?
who knew
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iris27 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:24 PM
Response to Original message
14. No more or less than the current Transformers movie,
with its token military guy as the only POC character, and the two awful "ghetto-talking" transformers.

I guess what I'm saying is, it's fairly representative of most media. It's racist, but not intentionally so, and just as we've come a long way from "Song of the South", hopefully Hollywood will continue to improve in this area.

This is an awesome blog that deconstructs various bits of pop culture as related to race: Racialicious.
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bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jul-12-09 03:34 PM
Response to Original message
16. No, just a shitty show.
:rofl:
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