Questions on Ethnicity Representation

How did Roots and The Cosby Show challenge previous stereotypical representations of black people in TV dramas?

For the first time on U.S. television some of the realities of slavery--brutality, rape, enforced de-culturation – were confronted over a protracted period, and through individual characters with whom, as they fought to escape or survive, the audience could identify. Against this historic first was the individualistic focus on screenwriter Alex Haley's determined family, presented as "immigrant-times-ten" fighting an exceptionally painful way over its generations toward the American Dream myth of all U.S. immigrants.

The Cosby Show (1984-92) was the next milestone. The fact it was popular with white audiences in the South, and in South Africa, was a favorite quick shot to try to debunk it. Some critics claimed it fed the mirage that racial injustice could be overcome through individual economic advance, others that it primly fostered Reaganite conservative family values. Both were indeed easily possible readings of the show within contemporary U.S. culture.

What does the article say about the representation of black policeman in programmes such as Miami Vice, NYPD Blue and Hawaii Five-O?

Miami Vice's tri-ethnic leads were less anchored in that tradition. NYPD Blue carried over some of that tradition as regarded the African American lieutenant's role, but actually starred two Latinos in the three key police roles in the second series (one was played by an Italian American, in a continuing variation on "blackface" seemingly popular with casting directors). A central issue, however, raised once more the question of "modern" racism. A repetitive feature of the show was the skill of the police detectives in pressuring people they considered guilty to sign confessions and not to avail themselves of their legal rights.

A vastly disproportionate number of prisoners, in relation to their percentage of the nation, are African Americans and Latinos. On NYPD Blue we see firm unity among white, black and Latino police professionals in defining aggressive detection and charge practices as legitimate and essential, even though it is procedures like those that, along with racially differential sentencing and parole procedures, have often helped create that huge imbalance in U.S. jails. A war is on, and hard-headed, loyal cops in the firing line, know it. Within the paradigm of "modern" racism, co-opting ethnic minority individuals into police work made a great deal of sense (the security industry was living proof). Any TV reference was extremely rare to the fierce racial tensions often seething between police officers.