What Is Racial Awareness In Tv Shows

Words: 1516
Pages: 7

Awareness in Television When people watch television, what do they look for? Are they watching just to watch? Are they paying attention to the actors or to the background more? Personally, I watch the shows to follow the plot. There is a story to follow in mainstream series that air on television and you can get wrapped up in it like you’re living it on the sidelines. One important thing, though, that producers ensure during shows is racial equality. It is subtle and not meant to be noticed, but there will always be at least two races in anything you see on television, from commercials to series. You may not notice, but I’m sure you will after today. Major shows you watch on Netflix are especially careful to avoid racial issues. One show …show more content…
Some producers don’t recognize that people pay attention to that kind of thing and then they end up on some forum somewhere on a list of “the most racist shows”. Not every show has the need to demonstrate that either two races or multiple races are included or are working together. HGTV’s House Hunters is a simple example where they don’t need to demonstrate such. They are simply showing a white couple buying a home from a white realtor. This does not mean that a black couple or a black realtor could be involved, it just has a very specific cast for that 30 or 60 minutes and they are focusing on them and what they are doing, not whether or not they are being racially correct. They make up for this by having new episodes with people of different races, whether they are the buyer or they are the realtor. You will see them sometimes incorporate a scene where they are buying ice cream or out walking the town they are about to move into where they have people of different races helping them there, but I’m sure it was not on purpose to meet the racial guidelines they might have to …show more content…
I had a class in middle school over mainstream media and things of that nature and the teacher gave us the assignment to go home to next day and to watch each commercial and each show we watch and pay attention to the incorporation of different races. I did and I noticed every time. There are times now when I think about it and start looking and not every single thing does it. Sometimes, like I mentioned, the short clip they are showing or what they are portraying, doesn’t trigger people into thinking that they should have involved a different race. It simply didn’t fit the script and wasn’t racist to do as much. However, TV is not the only place that is required by some places to include multiple races. It is a vast majority of anything anymore that race is involved