Monday, 5/5/97 ‘Ellen,’ black comedy have strange links
Stereotypes created even in increased exposure for gays, blacks
By Derrick Z. Jackson The Boston Globe I hope gay men and
lesbians solve the TV role-model riddle better than us black folks
have. It has been three decades since television decided black
people could be shown without toppling the government. Our "outing"
was "Julia," "I Spy," and "The Flip Wilson Show." So what if
Diahann Carroll had no man, Bill Cosby had no woman, and Flip had
to cross-dress as Geraldine to get into America’s living rooms? We
figured the "spooks" had gotten in the door, and, in time, the
klieg lights would show black people as wholesome and that America
would come to see us with a complexity that would replace the
stereotypes of minstrels and clowns. We too would get to solve
crime, go to nice schools, kill Indians and zap aliens in 22
minutes, not including commercial interruptions. That hope died
long ago. The television in our home is not in the living room. It
is almost always off. Despite Cosby’s finally getting a family and
breathtaking live news, such as Nelson Mandela’s release from
prison, TV remains poisoned by dumb, black characters with nothing
on their minds but sex, broken language and stupid jokes (a fair
amount of them homophobic). Cosby said last year that many black
comedy roles might please D.W. Griffith, the racist filmmaker who
put shiftless, watermelon-eating, bug-eyed black stereotypes on
film in "Birth of a Nation." For a night, "Ellen" and Hollywood
acknowledged homosexuality. Whether or not America embraces gay and
lesbian people is another question. There has been progress. In
1993, a New York Times poll found that 78 percent of Americans
thought gay and lesbian workers should have equal rights on the
job. A poll last week by the Human Rights Campaign, a gay and
lesbian advocacy group, found that 59 percent of Republicans
support work protections for homosexuals. A Newsweek poll last fall
found that 57 percent of Americans say a gay person can be as good
a parent as a straight person. But it remains true that the closer
many straight people get to gay men and lesbians, the more nervous
America becomes. While only 11 percent of Americans in the Times
poll said that they would object to a gay airline pilot, half would
object to a homosexual doctor and more than half still object to a
lesbian elementary school teacher or their child playing in a home
where a parent is gay. The same is true politically. President
Clinton last week met with the Human Rights Campaign and issued a
written commitment to push for the Employment Non-Discrimination
Act. But he has yet to make a speech on the subject. Early in his
first term, he backed down from a pledge to lift the ban against
gay men and lesbians in the military and signed, in the shadow of
midnight, the bill that allows states to refuse to recognize gay
marriages. Private companies have begun to recognize that gay men
and lesbians make up 6 to 10 percent of the population and have
$200 billion in income. Half (251) of the companies in the Fortune
500 now have policies forbidding discrimination against gay men and
lesbians. But most gay and lesbian partners do not receive
domestic-partner benefits. "Ellen" sold out its advertising space,
but Chrysler, which chickened out on the show, and dozens of other
big advertisers are now pressuring magazines for advance notice of
controversial stories which include depictions of homosexuality.
Only nine states have laws banning workplace discrimination against
gay and lesbian employees. Because of the worldwide hype, I did
watch the last half of "Ellen" Wednesday night. I felt a
connection. A friend told Ellen that she always wanted to know more
lesbians. Another said "you people." Black people have heard those
lines before. But the very connection should make everyone realize
that it is no guarantee that the gay and lesbian "spooks" have
gotten in the door. Just as America’s token acceptance of Cosby has
not bridged the Grand Canyon of attitudes between white people and
people of color, a 1992 survey of 1,400 gay men and lesbians in
Philadelphia found that 76 percent of men and 81 percent of women
conceal their orientation at work. A 1995 Los Angeles Times poll of
460 teenagers found that 55 percent said young people have
significant prejudice against gay men and lesbians. Everyone needs
entertainment that connects to their lives. But projecting what
"Ellen" will mean for everyday gay men and lesbians is more the
subject for a documentary than a comedy. Hollywood let a wayward
bookstore clerk, hardly a power position, come out. The question is
whether she joins the hall of token celluloid feel-good victories
or is ushered in a new era of hugs and kisses from friends and
family and comfort in the workplace. The end of "Ellen" made me
think the answer was far from certain. In fact, I was a little
"spooked." Did anyone notice that at the end of the show, she was
without a partner, just like Diahann Carroll or Bill Cosby? Jackson
is a columnist for The Boston Globe. Previous Daily Bruin stories
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