There's racism everywhere!!!!

So as previously mentioned I'm in a pop-culture studies course. Last week we discussed racism in television shows. We were given two examples Friends and Sex and the City, according to my prof both of these shows are quite racist. He explained to us that because neither of these shows feature a minority as a main character that makes them racist. I was very troubled to hear this. I don't care if Sex and the City is racist, that show is pretty terrible, but Friends? That's one of my favourite shows! I refused to believe that one of my favourite shows was racist.

Let's take a look deeper into my professor's lesson. If a show does not feature a visible minority as a reoccurring character, uh-oh, it's racist. I apparently like a lot of racist shows. Think about your favourite show... You got it? Is there a minority as one of the main characters? If you said yes, congrats you're not racist, but if you said no... I've got some bad news for you...

If you haven't guessed it by now, I think this lesson was garbage. Just because a show doesn't have a main character that's black, or Asian, or whatever, that doesn't mean the writers specifically said "there is no way that Joey is going to be black!" I'm not saying there aren't any racists in the television business, I'm just saying it isn't fair to jump to that conclusion.

This leads to a pretty undesirable end. If this is how you determine a show is racist, you're asking them to put in a token character simply because he's a different race. What is more racist, not hiring a minority because there was a better actor that just happened to be white, or purposely hiring a minority solely based on his race? Pretty sure the latter is much more racist.

Another discussion that came up from this had to do with realism versus progression. That question was basically should a television show use a stereotype or not. Let's take the stereotype of Middle-Eastern cab drivers, if statistically in New York there is a majority of Middle-Eastern cab drivers should the show feature that. Should the show follow that statistic and be realistic or should the show avoid any sensitive issues. This is an interesting topic. Personally I think people need to stop worrying so much about these things, most television shows were not made to be this deeply read. I can't believe I'm paying for this class...