I would like to see a gay rat catcher actually. Perhaps in Hollyoaks.

Not at all. This is BBC we are talking about.

I could not agree more with Samir Shah, and I am so glad that a non-white person has said it, because if it had been a white person, they would have been slaughtered and accused of being overtly racist,

I see more non-white people presenting news and weather etc, than I do white people, and they pop up on kids programmes and documentaries and all sorts. And EVERY programme or soap or drama or whatever, seems to have to have non-white people on there, whether they 'fit' into the programme, or the scene, or not.

I believe the programme makers have them there, just so they can say 'aren't we good?' 'Aren't we politically correct?' 'Look at how cool we are; we have a black person in our programme?' It's ludicrous.

This country is approx 92% white and yet almost every programme seems to HAVE to have non-whites in it. Even Big Brother often seems to have approximately 30% of the housemates who are non-white. It's hardly a true reflection of our society is it, when only about 8 out of a 100 people in this country is non-white?

This man is correct when he says that the BBC and ther other channels are guilty of blatant tokenism; just having non-whites there to say they have, and to try and be 'politically correct,' is patronising and annoying. And they do the same with gay people; Again; blatant tokenism. Almost every programme has to have a gay person in it? Why? Being gay is no longer shocking, and having gay characters constantly introduced to programmes - or having gay people kissing or canoodling, is so last century now. No-one cares anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by poppy-doodles:
Being gay is no longer shocking, and having gay characters constantly introduced to programmes - or having gay people kissing or canoodling, is so last century now. No-one cares anymore.

I care.

OK then I shall re-phrase the last bit. No-one I KNOW cares..

Should the idea of representation ever be about trying to achieve a perfect balance?

How many peoples from different cultures and backgrounds have now come to live in the UK and should we now try and represent all these people on tv? Or should we ignore them and just moan about wether there is to many or to few Asians and Afrocaribeans on tv?

quote:

Originally posted by Chrisgo:
Should the idea of representation ever be about trying to achieve a perfect balance?

Technically, Yes, but in practice it will probably never happen.

quote:

How many peoples from different cultures and backgrounds have now come to live in the UK and should we now try and represent all these people on tv? Or should we ignore them and just moan about wether there is to many or to few Asians and Afrocaribeans on tv?

It isn't truly about real political correctness or any true fairness or equality but merely Kowtowing to those who make the loudest noise. It works in all spheres of our society.

Look at health issues - How much funding and publicity is given to Breast Cancer? It isn't the biggest killer or the most common, even in women - that remains Lung Cancer. It is disproportionate to that given to other forms of cancer and that is merely because this is a cancer which is actively campaigned (by mainly women's groups, though it does affect a small proportion of men too).

When was the last time there was a programme devoted solely to, say, testicular or prostrate cancers or any time you have seen a public campaign about these diseases given that testicular is known to be one of the most curable cancers when caught early and prostrate is the most common cancer in men.

quote:

Originally posted by poppy-doodles:
And EVERY programme or soap or drama or whatever, seems to have to have non-white people on there, whether they 'fit' into the programme, or the scene, or not.

Here I have to agree with you. I don't have any problem with there being ethnic peoples in soaps and the like but I do not agree with their being cast in roles for which they were not envisioned nor fitted. By that I mean a black or asian person in a play set in medieval Britain. Yes there may have been the odd Moorish traders plying the waves and visiting our coasts but so what. That certainly does not mean we must rewrite the reality of history just to include ethnic actors and characters and keep the PC ratio up.

quote:

And they do the same with gay people; Again; blatant tokenism. Almost every programme has to have a gay person in it? Why? Being gay is no longer shocking, and having gay characters constantly introduced to programmes - or having gay people kissing or canoodling, is so last century now.

Actually the most annoying thing about the gay people they choose for TV is that they always seem to be chosen because they conform to some characiture. How often do we get the grotesque - the Carmen Miranda style, over the top, drag queen. On BB I can understand the reasoning since they want controversial talentless wanabees but what is the justification on other programmes?

And what's with that effeminate (and affected) accent? I have known a few gay guys in my nearly 50 years of life and none spoke with that stupid, put on, Graham Norton voice.

As for the kissing, no I don't particularly like to see that but then I don't particularly want to see some heterosexual pair trying to suck each others tonsils out either.

Gay people do have themselves to blame somewhat for their representation. I am all for them being given the same rights as heterosexual people. However, in their campaigning for this equality I do feel it is somewhat disingenuous that they feel the need to tell and show everyone that they are soooo different. By this I don't particularly mean TV programmes but by holding things such as gay parades merely to celebrate their sexual orientation. Big deal I cannot recall there being annual parades by heterosexuals just to proclaim their sexual preference.

Ticking the right or wrong boxes I dont think that needs to come into it, when writing or making a show for television.
Lets take the soaps for example. We have characters that lie, cheat and people who sleep with thier brothers wifes. And woman who burrie thier husbands under a patio. Does that show some kind of bad reputaion on the average joe bloggs of course not.
Then we have Shameless on channel 4 about a family from Manchester who slip pills get drunk have no disregard for thier kids and who are benifit cheats. So has this given the people from Manchester a fair representaion. Of course not but we no its only for our entertaiment.
Then we have characters from minority backgrounds on television who are claimed be un-fairly represented the question i would like to ask is HOW?.
Is it because there is an asian shopkeeper in Corrie st. Or we have a elderly Jamacian gentelman in Eastender who likes to gamble and drink rum in the pub all day long.

If we have to many or to little mionorty characters, It always boil down to the same old story they are not seen to be in a good light.

Maybe i've lost the point, but when i turn on the tv to watch a soap or some other kind of drama on tv. I sit there to be gripped and entertained to the story. Not to see how many boxes should be ticked. do we have the right amount of gay,straight lesbian characters do have the right balance of disabled characters or the right amount of black,white,indian,jamacian,polish,spanish characters. If a character is needed for the story then it will be included whatever age,race,religion or disability.

Maybe someone should count how many people on TV are from minorities and calculate the ratio between those minorities on TV compared to RL and see who are being under represented.

I think they have gone too far with it. You cant move the gits now on telly. Its so obvious they have just chucked a load of asians in to stop them complaining.

Its obvious that black faces that pop up almost everywhere in the media are there for basically PC reasons. Undeniable fact it seems to me.

Dianne Abbot is a perfect example. She has no analytical skills. She parrots the PC line on many matters She has demonstrable double standards on education. ie believes in the state system except for her kids.
But...she is black.

Multiculturalism and social stability dont seem to go together very well.
The latest little problem rising to the surface is Romas in Italy and Czechoslovakia.(sp?)

this is the kind of things that annoys me now.
first things first these soaps [shout] are not real[shout].
secondly if your going to cry racist for a thing like this then it is you that is racist not the tv companies. this politically correct stuff has got to stop. i doon't watch soaps for the reason above but whenever they are in eye shout its always showing someone with an attitude problem, i hardly think this is true of such places.

you don't need to fairly represent a minority or majority in any form, its stupid. people come out with things like statisticly black people are overrepresented in crimes per their popluation in britain and ... so on. some people are looking too much into it (the pc types). as for getting a job in the workplace in general whatever happened to meritocracy? you shouldn't pick someone because they are a minority or not in the majority. if they've got the qualifications, hire them forget what they are.
people who make the most noise seem to think that a racist is a skin head nazi, and that a sexist is a middle class landed gentry bloke. not so. feminists who bang on and on and on and on and on and on, and on and on about female equality but there comes a point when that too is sexist. then theres those racist who, well heres an example, there was a police call centre that was going to be shut down because there weren't enough people of an ethnic minority so they were going to more it to leicester to hire more from the minorities, this is racist against white people if womeone from a minority background wants the job they'll apply for it, they didn't. tokenism is racist and of course so are those that complain that there isn't enough people from a minority in any particular line of work. racist.
then there's tony blair when he first took charge of there country he hired women over men because they were women, sexist tokenism. get the idea. the next time someone complains about misrepresentation like this just tell them to shut up because they don't know what they're on about, they are over pc and more racist and sexist than those they acuse, they are hippocrites and not worth listening to. just stand up for yourself C4.

There was a woman at work who complained of feeling 'swamped' by black people, and I thought there are 399 white people working here, and 1 Sikh, and she feels swamped.
Perception is everything.

How do you assess fairness? Is it just ratio-to-population? Overall, I think they are treated fairly in that they're portrayed as being just as flawed as everyone else. Society's moved on from the bland characters of The Cosby Show.

According to statistics the white British person will BE the ethnic minority in 20-25 years in this country.
How long before the white actor becomes the token gesture in TV programmes?
Just a thought.....

quote:

Originally posted by Toolz:
Maybe someone should count how many people on TV are from minorities and calculate the ratio between those minorities on TV compared to RL and see who are being under represented.

In the east end where eastenders is set i think the ethnic minirity ration is something like 70% bangladeshi people now living in londons east end!

The point im trying to make is that it is a good idea to calculate the ratio but remember in certain programmes like eastenders its not the ethnic ratio of the country that needs assessing its the ratio of the district that the programme is set in :-)

quote:

Originally posted by MikeOxlong:
According to statistics the white British person will BE the ethnic minority in 20-25 years in this country.
How long before the white actor becomes the token gesture in TV programmes?
Just a thought.....

I think actually a few years back that Leicester became the first UK city to have a white minority

quote:

Originally posted by MikeOxlong:
According to statistics the white British person will BE the ethnic minority in 20-25 years in this country.
How long before the white actor becomes the token gesture in TV programmes?
Just a thought.....

Which statistics are these?

My view is when it comes to Asian or Indian parts in dramas the same 'stagey' actors and actresses are seen time and time again. There seems to be a quite small number of actors who have appeared in many British films who crop up in TV dramas more often than they should. While these roles in drama are perfectly valid, it would be nice to see less use of what appears to be a clique of Asian/Indian actors who appear almost every time there's an Asian/Indian role.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeOxlong:
According to statistics the white British person will BE the ethnic minority in 20-25 years in this country.
How long before the white actor becomes the token gesture in TV programmes?
Just a thought.....

Very doubtfull

To be honest i havent noticed. i dont particularly register colours very much it just goes over my head. but i do understand what everybody's saying. I realise not everybodyy thinks the way i do so i could be that the cultures put on T.V are very intentional especially in soaps. Soap wise they should compare there characters to real life because thats what its supposed to portray. However when it comes to news readers i dont particularly care because if you hire somebody just because of there race that jut makes them a token. It should be whoevers right for the job, whether white, black or asian.

I have said this before and I will say it again...NO!