COMMENTARY
Violence on TV, in movies reflects reverse racism
By Peter Collier and
David Horowitz
he other morning televi
sion viewers were treated
JL to a surreal dialogue
between Today Show host
Bryant ('.umbel and Holly
wood's Laurence Fishbume, star
of Scorching for Bobby Fischer
and other recent hits. The two
men had hardly began dis
cussing Fishbume's latest suc
cess and his astronomical rise in
the film world, when the con
versation. inevitably it seems
these days, turned into a diatribe
about Hollywood's racism.
Gumbel asked Fishburne if it
was easier now' "for an
African—American male to get
work in Hollywood." Despite
his own multimillion-dollar suc
cess. Fishburne couldn't say
realistically that it was. except
for himself. "Wesley” and "Den
zel." Other African-American
actors still had to "do the tradi
tional types of roles that we’ve
had to do." Here Gumhle cou
pled his thought: "Pimps, hus
tlers. gangsters," while Fish
burne added "junkies, thieves,
racists."
It was quite a spectacle. Here
were two men making millions
of dollars as African-American
mega-stars, complaining about
the white conspiracy to deny
them success. (And of course it
was not just Wesley Snipes and
Denzel Washington, hut also
Whoopi Goldberg. Hill Cosbv,
Oprah Winfmy. Eddie Murphy.
Arsenin Hall. Danny Glover and
Spike Lee who can call their
own roles and tunes in today's
I lollywood.)
Deploring the unreformable
reality of American racism has
become a ritual for African
American celebrities, almost
like presenting an apartheid
pass in order to retain their sta
tus in the community, even
when their life experiences
argue the exact opposite.
Who. today, would deny the
fact that in the institutions of
slavery and legal discrimination,
America committed a great
crime against African-Ameri
cans and also against itself? The
question is whether the cause of
a racially plural society is
advanced by denying the reality
of redress that has already lieen
made, or progress that has
already been achieved.
Has white Hollywood con
spired, for example, as Jesse
Jackson has claimed, to portray
African-Americans as "more
violent than we are"? (New York
Timm, Sept. 4, 1989)
The reverse, in fact, is closer
to the truth, in real life, Afrii an
Americans commit more than
.r>l) percent of the violent crimes,
including 55i percent of the
homicides in America, but on
television whites commit 90
percent of the homicides and
most of the violent crimes. As
Bruce Saltan, former ABC Vice
President has said "Almost
every villain (on TV') you so© is .1
WASP."
Nor is this an in cident It is
the result of a calculated effort
1.11st April, NBC broadcast a
made-for-TV movie called
Moment of Truth Why My
Daughter? It was the true story,
filmed in documentary style, of
a mother’s search for justice
after her daughter was raped,
tortured and killed. But the pro
ducers made one small change
in translating reality on the
screen. The real rapist/killer was
black. For TV he was made
white.
Kven simple gangster films are
often written to portray whites
in a way that feeds racial para
noia Fishbumo starred in Under
Cover, in which every white is
a vicious knave and the plot
revolves around the blood libel
that the American government is
part of a conspiracy to spread
drugs to the ghetto. (The si men
writer, it happens, was white )
Does the derogatory portrayal
of whites as racist oppressors
have a social impai t? We think
it does. Anger often leads to
action. We think there is a con
nection between socially sanc
tioned racism and other fai ts
The I.os Angeles riots, for
instance Another Fishburne
movie, lloyi ’.V the llood. fea
tured a sjieuc.h by the hero again
accusing the government of con
spiring to spread drugs in the
ghetto. It also accused Koreans
In real life African-Americans commit
more than SO percent of the violent
crimes, including 55 percent of the
homicides in America, but on television
whites commit 90 percent of the
homicides and most the violent crimes.
of conspiring to buy the* ghetto's
real estate out from under the
black community If these libels
did not inflame passions in Los
Angelos, wo don't know what
would.
The politically correct will
predictably condemn the explo
ration of these ideas It is
unfashionable to discuss social
ly sanctioned forms of ra< ism.
Yet not to discuss thorn is to
enter into another kind of con
spiracy the failure to speak
clearly in the past has helped to
create the present situation in
which fabulnled racism feeds
directly into the real thing If
there is a new rm ism in Ameri
ca it is one that is I rased on dou
blit standards and special prefer
eni M, along with a sentimental
attachment to persecution, that
add to a kind of social blind
ness.
Hollywood contributes to
these double standards hv por
traying the white community as
more vicious, racist and mean
spirited than in fact it is We do
not think such distortion serves
the interests of racial harmony
or of the black community
David Horowitz and Pvtrr Col
lier ore president and vice pres
ident of the Center for the Study
of Popular Culture in Isis Anne
les, Calif.
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