I grew up a child of the Seventies: Supergroups on the radio and sit-coms on the television. If Aaron Spelling liked it, you liked it too. Bell-bottoms, headbands, afros, peace signs, and flowers adorned everyone--and by everyone, I mean TV was inclusive in those days. For every Archie Bunker, there was a Lionel Jefferson. For every Mr. Grant, there was a Maude. Things evened out in prime time TV America then.
I'd like to think it was because we all got along and whistled "Hi-Ho", arms linked, as we went in to work every Monday morning. When compared with the climate today, that's even believable. But what is a more likely scenario, or at least one we should ponder, is that it made us feel better.
White America could have their JJ, Thelma, and Michael and not feel guilty that the real estate agent promised those folks would never live next door. Men could laugh with Maude, then go into the office and pay the women the same salary year after year while promoting the younger, less experienced men to management positions. The majority had safety in their numbers with a clear path and smooth sailing.
Then came the election of President Obama, and the realization--if they hadn't known it before--that their long-standing paradigm had shifted. Chico was now The Man. George Jefferson could take you to the cleaners if he wanted to. Maude was pissed.
And today's fear-mongers know it. They might as well shout "The world is getting smaller" on the Fox or at least on Glenn Beck's radio show. They can willingly tap into the psyche of the old folks, now down on their health and nearly out of money, and get them to blame the brown people, or the immigrants, or the women, or the youth, or whoever else has taken away their dreams of retirement. (It was the banks and Bain, but whatever.) "Blame the gays!" seems to be the rallying cry from a fair number of North Carolina pulpits these days.
Everyone fears change. Psychiatrists have long held that deaths and dissolutions of relationships are the most stressful events we encounter. Change can suck, but it doesn't have to. (Those of you who are parents know what I mean.)
I say if we went back to the days when Archie could spew his hate to a laugh track, we'd be better off--his insanity would be in context, with the paranoia obvious. (It wouldn't pass for "news" like it does these days.) And, as President just taught us by supporting Marriage Equality, everyone needs a good example.
Let's put some good and bad examples on the sits-coms again. Let's stop being PC and playing it safe--look at all those old, white men in Congress, you call that safe? We embraced many types of characters back then--stereotypically in some instances, and I wouldn't want that--think The Cosby Show rather than Good Times. Think George Lopes rather than Chico and the Man. And since we've jumped ahead to the Eighties and Nineties with the analogy, think Barney Miller if you like, but Reno 9-1-1 is still hilarious.
The revolution happens when we talk together, laugh and cry together--not when we pretend each other doesn't exist. I wouldn't want somebody to think that because I was raised in the South, I'm a caricature from "Carter Country"; I'd want them to get to know me, then together we could laugh at the show if we chose to. Because I work from home I wouldn't choose to be taken for June Cleaver, but I also don't mind making a pie whenever asked. We're all so much more complicated, so much more interesting than our single, publicly-displayed dimension.
TV can do that. TV is a magic box of wonder that can do anything! The prophet Tom Snyder called it a "colortini" which swirled images around for our amusement.
I hope the revolution gets televised again. I'll get my martini glass ready just in case. Then I'll be at the ready with, "I'll have what Snyder's having!"
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