Evening Standard from London, Greater London, England • 11

gVENINa STANDARD MONDAY FEBRUARY 10 1 ff MDLfUM iVHAT IS TV DOING TO AMERICA? OSIY NEW I HERO IS BLACK! THE' inevitable garrulous New York taxi driver taking me into Manhattan from Kennedy Airport told me he would never pick them up Who I asked "The schwamers" he said using the Jewish word for blacks "They Jump you Twice opened my head enough After eleven-tholty I keep my windows locked: If they take you into even the good you get out They argue about the fare molder The next day in the Palm Court Room of the elegant Plaza New equivalent to as I was luxuriating in the atmosphere of mink and Gershwin my companion an Englishman resident in New York lowered his voice conspira torlally was very different here a year ago" he said They thought the blacks would do them in This was a place of fear more relaxed now But I know fen how long" The sad contradiction of the Civil Rights movement is that as the pace of black integration has been speeded up so has the hatred become more virulent and the violence more irrational Never before have there been so many black people employed in the best shops and the best executive suites in white New York Never- before have the whites been so terrified of visiting Harlan THE MILITANTS Caught between the black militants who view every white concession with contempt and the white liberals who demand faster and faster integration is the television Industry The current and perhaps typical response of TV executives has been to try to reconcile a social conscience with profits integrity with popularity Negroes now appear everywhere on the small screen They are in the commercials plugging soup and soap They Diahann Carroll: High in the ratings would liberalism outweigh finances if the viewing figures dropped? read the news No panel game is complete without its quota of black participants They have their own variety show called Soul in which the compere the entertainers and the audience are entirely black From what I saw of artistically and I cannot believe it does the Negro cause any good at alL Most significant of all they now have taken over star roles in the routine series fare of the networks They' are either stars or co-stars an increasing number of Westerns domestic comedies spy stories adventure tales comedy shows A short list of major series with blacks in significant parts would Include I-Spy Julia Mod Squad Ironside Mission Impossible Laugh-In Turn On Peyton Place The Outlaw Heroes Next season there will be many more The characters they play are almo st i arlably possessed of impeachable ethical edentlals They are nurses government spies righteous cowboys neuro-s geons amiable TOMORROW VIOLENCE IN THE CORNER life of America and a means of convincing the white man that they are as dignified as concerned as Intelligent as capable as any other rack in the land "I think going to help a guy looking for a Job or give him food when hungry" Clarence Williams of Mod Squad told me But when he comes home hungry and tired and sees a reflected on with dark skin a flat nose and kinky It makes him feel good" Yet there remains a nagging suspicion that the television moving in an anarchic way towards canned social Integration not considered the full implications of what they have set motion Suppose next season shows with Negro stars fall in the popularity scramble will they disappear from the television screens with the same Indecent speed that similar cyclical fads like Westerns or spy stories or had their day 1 Can such a crucial aspect of American life be treated with the same flippancy and callousness and self-interest as other facets of the entertainment business? If what" is happening Is not merely tokenism but a true cultural integration will the networks continue to show Negro-orientated programmes at the price of losing profits And If dollars triumph over good Intentions It leave behind a residue of explosive disgust Another serious doubt about this over-hasty HI prepared trend Is whether It Is not providing another layer of dreams for the poor Mack boy which he Is unlikely in any foreseeable time ever to attain Even to the under-privileged white boy American TV with Its promise of sexual prowess social status and 'ready popularity If he uses the right breakfast cereals hair pomades pomades or armpit deodorants the fantasy life of the Ms becomes a cruel tempts many society and Its values and a search for other visions In marijuana LSD or hlppledom THE CHILDREN What will happen to Mack Incapable now of getting -out of their ghetto starved of good jobs and if they are brought up on a diet of dreams In which their chances of becoming a neurosurgeon an FBI agent a successful spy a beautiful nurse are held out to them only to be crushed humiliatingly and irrevocably when they move out Into the world of reality The tragedy of this entire situation Is that nothing can be done about it while American TV exists in Its present framework of catering almost exclusively to the advertising interests who dominate It and who Insist on Its being used chiefly as an entertainment and escapist medium If one tells It to the people as it really Is as the black Intellectuals and militants demand then one would need to be producing programmes Showing honestly and clearly the despair the ugliness the boredom the unfairness of Negro life In the United States And what ratings would that kind of show get? American TV Is primarily for profits and only incidentally for America So long as that philosophy prevails the sight of TV Involving Itself In this superficial way In so dangerous an issue as black Integration is to put it mildly terrifying into the viewing price a black actor pays for playing in effect a white role for being say in some soupy soap opera wrote James Baldwin "is at best to minimise and at worst to lie about everything that -about every mainstream of TV produced about everything he knows" In a recent edition of Julia one can see the kind of thing Baldwin resents Being a nurse in a large engineering complex Julia is used as bait to lure a famous Negro football player to Join the firm He la a militant who accuses her of having sold out to the whites because I have a good Job in an Integrated establishment that mean sold out to replies the Indignant Julia "We drive to our obs In cars and for by our work drive not And later on punching home the white message Julia says: had it with men like him men who confuse ego with pride refuse to see both sides of an Issue who drat acknowledge progress" To the producer and writer of this story Hal Kantor who race used to write Amos Andy scripts the opposition to Julia amongst some clacks is Incomprehensible not a sociologist or an anthropologist and I keep myself out of their problems1' he said this is only a comedy bordering on fantasy I treat my characters as people not Negroes You know there are times when a black person goes through a complete day without being conscious of being Mack" To Harry Bdafonte the Negro actor Julia is an affront is certainly not representative of the exchange and the relationship of the Mack man with his white brother It is pure And when discussed all these ffiows with a bright Mack girl selling me a tie in a' Fifth Avenue shop she dismissed them contemi ptuously with the words: social Integration Of course not all blacks are opposed to this sudden flood of Negro faces on the box Many see it as a belated recognition of their place in the cultural GAME word APPROVING Agon agio apron aping argon pair pain paring plna ping poring proa prop pang piano Prig pronr prog proving ravin rapping rain rani raving rang raping roping roan roving oaring organ orang vain vair vlna iron nipa nova gain gnar grin graia grip groan groin ADVERTISEMENT gw --3 11 -A-'- 7-aA Forever comics Even when they have bad history as in Mod a Squad they bend 'their efforts towards helping the police these shows every spade is an ace" remarked a cynical white film producer rThey shoot better punch better nurse better operate better ride better than any white man a load of crap" The popularity of most of these shows is considerable Julia starring the lovely Dlahann Carroll is very high in the ratings and Clarence Williams the black boy in Mod Squad told me that his fan mall is the largest of the entire ABC network undoubtedly the networks will show more and more Negroes in leading roles on Tv" a sailor executive at CBS told me because they are successful and second because I think there Is an earnest desire to redress an Inequity in the medium" A rice-president at NBC was more blunt were doing it because they are getting good ratings The other reason is to salve our conscience" Amongst the activist and militant blacks there Is no gratitude for this effort to bring Negroes Install an electric water heater in your kitchen and get a ready supply of hot water the minute you turn on the tarn have a cooler cleaner less steamy kitchen Electricity is no dirt stains flames or fumes INSTALLED COMPLETE FOR £24150 You have dunce of two water 1J or 2 gallon sizes and either of them can be installed complete for only £24150 (This price indudes up to 40 ft of circuit wiring and plumbing to an adjacent cold water connection) Easy terms if you Uke Both models are specially made for LEB by leading and carry the famous LEB Double Guarantees Ask about them at your local showroom AUTOMATICALLY The 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