Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 16:41:07 -0500 From: Schooley <
gsp.schoo@skylinc.net>
>>The ditzy, frigid,
>>money-grubbing Jewess (isn't that the way that
stereotype goes?)
>>becomes the educated professional/hot
tamale/drinking buddy,
>mmm, I was thinking the well educated, particularly
in the mind-games
>department, stereotype. The one racists begin by
saying "I've always
> >admired your people for..."
I haven't read enough Parker to jump too deeply into this but
I think it's getting a little silly to say that portraying a
Jewish woman as highly educated is playing to a stereotype.
I'm thinking that when Susan came on the scene in the
mid-70s, it was still somewhat novel to see a female
portrayed as a highly competent professional.
>More the savvy, immoral and not very articulate
"six-foot nigger with a
>switchblade" stereotype
with only a brief exposure to the series, I've never gotten
the impression that Hawk is less than articulate. Seems he
sometimes plays up the abovementioned stereotype, as a way to
cause people to underestimate him, but Spenser (and the
reader) knows better.
Here's my thing - if the minority sidekick is automatically
offensive than it seems your alternatives are (1) never have
a white male hero or (2) have a white male hero with only
white friends so that there's no risk of one coming off as
superior.
>I don't see all side-kick pairings as racist, or
otherwise bad. I just
> >don't see why Hawk had to be black and Susan
Jewish and not, say, the
> >other way around.
Well, they don't "have to be" that way, but they are. You
can't fault a story for all the "better" alternatives it
rejected.
From:
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net (Mark Sullivan)wrote:
>There was a series called A Man Called
Hawk
>starring Avery Brooks, spun off from Spenser: For
Hire. I liked the >few
>episodes I saw, but it didn't last very long. The
show's page on
>www.imdb.com has one fan's theory on why that was,
because America
>wasn't ready to see a Strong Black Man as the lead in
a series. He
>makes a pretty good argument.
[veering a little OT here but. . ] wasn't ready? as opposed
to all the dramatic series out there now with strong black
men in the lead role? Brooks actually may eventually have had
the longest running success in that regard with "Deep Space
Nine."
Carrie
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