Race & Who again; the British Actor's POV

[neadods]

With a few notable exceptions, the discussion about race and Doctor Who has been just that - a mature discussion with a lot of issues being brought up from several different perspectives. Fascinating and educational, and I'm so proud of the fandom as a whole for leaving the wank for the canonicity of Lungbarrow and treating this with gravity.

But a few have knee-jerk dismissed it. Not just said "I don't see it, what are you seeing?" (that makes sense to me; it's subtle and I honestly think subconscious on RTD's part) but refused to consider the concept. One of the methods of dismissing the point is to insist "That's American oversensitivity; such things do not exist in Britain."

And for that, I point out this article from the Telegraph.

Its mix of wholesome entertainment, homely features and television listings has brought Radio Times millions of loyal readers.

So they are likely to be surprised to find its editor at the centre of a racism row.

Gill Hudson has admitted that black and Asian people seldom feature on the magazine's front cover but insists her hands are tied by commercial considerations.

Miss Hudson, who has edited the BBC-produced magazine for five years, told The Sunday Telegraph: "I do notice when we put an Asian or black figure on the copy and I think, 'Yippee', but it's not often you can do it. We have to sell almost a million copies a week and we have to go for the biggest programmes possible. I can't choose the cover by quota. It's about getting the right programme, not the right ethnic mix."

Miss Hudson's comments came after Noel Clarke, one of Britain's brightest young black actors, whose credits include appearances in Doctor Who and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, accused listings magazines, including Radio Times, the biggest seller, of discriminating against ethnic minority stars.

Comments

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

There's an excellent archive of RT covers here - I've looked at covers for the past 4 years and the only non-white people featured who aren't teeny figures in large cast shots are Freema, Samuel L Jackson and Dame Kelly Holmes (and none of them get a solo cover).

[patsyrant.livejournal.com]

An excellent point, though it should be pointed out that the tv listings mags and their covers reflect the shows they list. If not enough actors of ethnic minority appears on the covers, it's because not enough shows here are lead by them. So that problem lies not with the RT, but with the tv producers and networks.

That said, while I do see the point about American oversensitivity to a certain extent, people from the UK who believe that "such things don't happen here" are perhaps not seeing that although racism in this country has very different historical roots than racism in the US, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. We may not have the Klu Klux Klan, but we do have the BNP, and the term "Paki Shop".

Oh dear, hhope I haven't fanned the flames all over again.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, hope I haven't fanned the flames all over again.

Hopefully I'm having a dialog and not getting hysterical. I could point you towards some hysterical... (How about the fic where the Doctor outright says he just couldn't connect with his black companions?)

racism in this country has very different historical roots than racism in the US, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Exactly. Different background, but still there. Which makes what is unspoken or understood in one culture glaring to the other, IMO.

I will never forget the lovely, wonderful, couple that took me in when I was a student wandering through Glastonbury. They could not have been kinder... and at one point in the conversation, shocked me into speachlessness with the casual line that "Well, blacks belong in your country, but not here!"

American ignorance - what's the BNP?

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

British National Party, formerly known as the National Front. Fascists, basically. Their main raison d'etre is that non-'British' people should return 'home'. Of course, they define 'non-British' as non-white - they wouldn't have cared about someone like me, not British but still white. Born in the UK, born in Africa, whatever: they don't belong in Britain.

Of course, given race equality laws in the UK they can't actually publicise those as their policies, but they do sail quite close to the wind. They encourage racism and racial violence, also; some university campuses in ethnically diverse parts of the UK have had huge trouble. Check out the BNP's website for more information.

Roots of racism in the UK... For the most part (and this is a generalisation) it wasn't until the encouraged migration in the 1950s due to labour shortages that racism really reared its ugly head. People from Africa and the Caribbean were brought to the UK to fill jobs in transport and health-care (all lower-level jobs) that British nationals weren't filling, in much the same way as the Irish took jobs on building sites, road construction and so on. Hence enrolled nurses - used to exist as a lower category than state-registered nurses - cleaners, nurses' aides, ticket collectors, station attendants and so on were black in much greater proportion than the population as a whole. When I used to teach this stuff back in the UK, I remember that the ethnic minority composition of London Transport was 30% of the workforce, with only 5% of management from a visible ethnic minority. Something like 20% of London's population at the time was visibly ethnic minority. So we saw horizontal and vertical segregation along ethnic lines, in the same way as we do with women.

There were black people in the UK before the 1950s, of course, just nothing like in the same proportions, and racism, while it existed, wasn't as blatant or vicious. Greater numbers brought out the nastiness - that whole 'they're here to take our jobs' attitude, and 'no blacks or Irish here'.

Things are better in the UK now, but I think cultural understanding and appreciation of racism has never really been the same as in the US. Because there was no history of slavery (despite the involvement of some British shipping owners, traders and so on in slave-trafficking) there's not the same sense of guilt in popular consciousness.

I don't claim to be an expert on representation of visible minorities in British TV. I'm a bit of a fence-sitter on this one, in that I can see the point at a collective level (they bring in black cast members and have them shat upon), but when looking at the individual character I might be tempted to say 'well, she wasn't rejected because she was black, but because he just wasn't interested'. That all makes me agree that the stereotyping is at a subconscious level. RTD's good at presenting positive images of gay people, and he probably thinks he's being positive in including black cast members (including bit-part characters like Jabe/Swanson - and they were both excellent characters; Zach from TIP/TSP; the unnamed black friend of Jackie's in AoL), but overall perhaps he needs to think a little more about the overall impression being given. *Shrug* I'm still a bit on the fence, really.

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

(How about the fic where the Doctor outright says he just couldn't connect with his black companions?)

That line astounded me. It was so unnecessary, and so patently untrue. Apart from anything else - as I think kateorman pointed out to the author - in TSC it seemed as if it hadn't even dawned on the Doctor that Martha is black.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

in TSC it seemed as if it hadn't even dawned on the Doctor that Martha is black

I would have laughed myself sick if the Doctor said "all humans look alike to me."

[tabula-x-rasa.livejournal.com]

Yay Who fandom!

"That's American oversensitivity; such things do not exist in Britain."

I've definitely heard comments almost exactly like this from British friends, and I've definitely heard racism too (not from my friends). I don't know if it's just not as visible in mainstream Britain as it is in the US, but racism is still around.

did you see this yet?

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

via shewhohashope


Caught on CCTV: the police sergeant who said Somalian needed 'a good beating' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,,2120836,00.html)