Racism on SBTB?

[stayhungry]

I personally don't think there was any racism on the show, but I do think they could have at least addressed the issue of race a bit better. Outside of Lisa, there was not ONE black character on the show in any season. Lisa was the ONLY character to never really hook up and have a love interest. The only times she did, it was for one episode(the time she hooked up with a freshman, and the time she hooked up with Jesse's sleazy brother). There was One episode where she briefly hooked up with Zach but even that was squashed imedietly. Basically the only guy interested in her for the whole run of the show was Screech. That is a bit ridiculous given how pretty and charismatic she was. So they threw a token black in for a couple Lisa episodes, but outside of that it was purely white students all the time except for Slater who never really talked about his race in the high school episodes. The only other black character was MILO from GMMB, and he was basically a bafoon. I recall when he told Mr. Belding that Ms. Blis's friend wqas giving out hall passes to Zach, Ms. Bliss asked who Mr. Belding heard that from... and when he said Milo, Ms. Bliss rolled her eyes and shouted "MILO???!!!!!"...as if the black employee was an untrustable idiot. I still love the show...but it's handling of race was not great.

[gokinsmen]

I agree that Milo was the worst kind of stereotype -- they might as well have called him Steppin Fechit.

As anyone who's listened to the DVD commentary knows, Peter Engel wisely opened up casting calls for Slater and Lisa to actors of all races. So in that sense, the show did a good job of simply hiring the best actors for the job, whether they were white or not.

I assume you mean black recurring/principle characters? I do think that Lisa's lack of steady romantic partners was more related to her personality than anything else. Not only was she busy playing matchmaker for the gang, she was also something of a female "playa." Her schtick was, er, dating a lot of guys -- it wasn't that no one else was interested in her. That said, I do think that the network's would have certainly been hesitant to add another recurring black/minority to the mix.

I actually sort of liked Slater's ethnic discovery -- often we don't become aware of the implications of our race until much later, especially in a rich California suburb like the one Bayside supposedly was.

Ultimately, what I found more racially offensive was Lisa's sudden use of stereotypical "black humor" quips after season 1, such as: "we gotta talk girlfriend! Change your act, honey!"

[stayhungry]

I agree with your points however I do not think the race situation was handled appropriately. Take a look at the Senior Prom. Lisa actually was the prom planner, and helped develop the whole idea of the "fall ball" or whatever they called it. She helped develop the dance, yet not only was she the only main character without a date, she spent the entire dance trying to get Zach and Tori to hook up again after some argument. That's downright embarrassing, a black character making sure her white friends have dates and a good time at the prom, while she has no date and stands there as if she doesn't care. As long as her white friends are happy, that's all she really hopes for. No date, no dances, NOTHING. Come on know, that's not right.

[Erika]

Just wanted to let you know that the reason the "Racism on SBTB" thread is locked is because this topic has already been discussed and it got a little out of hand. And I had to lock and remove it. I wanted to prevent it from happening again because I felt it was going in the same exact direction. It's probably why most of the active members have not responded. We've been through this before! Thanks for your cooperation!

Erika