Thursday, December 5, 1996
DISCRIMINATION:
TV
portrayal of Hispanics fuels racial ignoranceBy Migdia
Chinea-Varela
This is in reference to an episode of "Wings," which aired on
NBC Nov. 14, 1996.
In this "Wings" segment, Sandpiper, (the charter plane around
which the series revolves) acquires a new owner, who in turn
appoints his spoiled son, Cord, as the boss. It is all pretty funny
up until the punch line, which is that Cord, who has been kicked
out of just about every university on the planet  from
Harvard to UCLA (the list goes down the line to mention numerous
second-rate colleges, etc … ) Â finally graduated from a
"university-slash-brothel outside Guadalajara."
Unfortunately, here the joke falls flat. The vision of Mexico
 and Hispanics  that seems to emerge from that line is
racist, offensive and untrue.
The path is altogether very different. If "Wings" producers had
done their homework, they would have learned (according to the
Encyclopedia Britannica), that La Universidad Nacional de Mexico
Autonoma was founded in 1561; that is, in fact 85 years before
Harvard University was founded, in 1636. And that the state of
Guadalajara also has its own university founded in 1792, making it
more than 120 years older then our own UCLA.
It is, therefore, clear that the people who write and produce
"Wings" are projecting a kind of insensitive border-town experience
to the entire Hispanic culture. And it illustrates, once again, the
prevailing lack of Hispanic writers, actors, producers and network
executives.
I am a professional writer. I know the problems all too well.
According to the 1993 Hollywood Writers’ Report commissioned by the
Writers Guild of America, west, Latinos comprise 1 percent of the
WGA west membership. And our employment ratio is even smaller.
There is no doubt that shows such as "Wings" are a reflection of
an existing trend in television with regards to its depiction of
Hispanics and other racial and ethnic minorities. And it is not a
healthy picture. The image of Hispanic culture that emerges in
these types of shows is precisely the reason why the Writers Guild
of America, west, in collusion with the networks, feels that it is
all right to create cut-rate training programs for its professional
Hispanic members as a means of "increasing" diversity.
I am referring to a 1993 "access" program at CBS created by the
Writers Guild, under which professional Hispanic writers were
required to call themselves "trainees" and work for half of our
contractual union minimum just to get a job. Programs such as these
serve not only to create an immoral two-tier wage system based on
ethnicity, which not only exacerbates the underlying problem of
racism, but may in fact be at the very root of racism.
One might think that these "access" programs are designed on the
notion that we Latinos are somehow inferior. But then, one is
reminded that according to NBC’s "Wings," even our universities
("slash-brothels") are inferior.
So for me, there is no way around it. The NBC "Wings" episode
represents another example of one ignorant racist stereotype
feeding right into yet another ignorant racist stereotype and
hurting all professional Hispanics in terms of employment and
access to employment. And there appears to be no end in sight.
There are, therefore, some things that we must all begin to
understand:
That ultimately, the view of Latinos, as a culture, is degraded
by these practices, not only in our own eyes, but also in the eyes
of our children and the eyes of the viewing public.
That in light of certain racist remarks made by top executives
at Texaco, which have been used to epitomize the kind of rampant
racism that exists in corporate America, so too, these remarks in
"Wings" serve to drive the point home about the manner in which
Hispanics are viewed in the television industry and the need for
change in the way we do business.
That there is simply no justification for the racist remark
about Mexican universities made on "Wings."
And that all the networks, in this instance NBC, are playing to
this racism until they extend equal employment opportunities to all
professional Hispanic writers, actors, producers and network
executives.
According to … "Wings," even our universities … are
inferior.
Migdia Chinea-Varela is a third-year political science
student.