UK entertainment media. How much is how things really are?

[UnseenParticipant]

@ Enco

Remind me what I said that you’re disputing.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

@ Enco

Remind me what I said that you’re disputing.

Well, if British people have access to U.S. media, either via re-broadcast or recordings or streaming, the ideas and tropes they see from the U.S.are nothing new and may have influenced British society and media.

Also, since the ideas are decades old, it is kind of hard to argue that there is some recent conspiracy to sway people’s minds.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

HumanProgress.org had reported once that in the 1950’s, only 5 percent of U.S. Citizens surveyed were friendly to “interracial” marriage. Now, 90 + percent are friendly and one in five marriages are between people identified as different “races.”

Here is a graphic rendering of their finding on approval, as well as links to other measures of tolerance:

U.S. approval of interracial marriage

Most likely, there is a mix of the larger culture influencing media and media influencing the larger culture, as is the case with lots of questions regarding media influence.

[UnseenParticipant]

@ Enco

But what did I say or even imply that you are disputing?

“Mixed marriage” is an overly broad term for this discussion, especially given how breathtakingly broadly “race” is defined colloquially nowadays, when Hispanics (a language group), Middle Easterners, and subdivisions of Asian peoples (East Indians, Chinese, etc.) are referred to implicitly if not explicitly as separate races.

The only interracial marriage type that really matters is  between blacks and whites, though, isn’t it? No one (or almost no one) gets worked up over a white person getting married to a person with an East Indian, Japanese, Chinese, or Middle Eastern ancestry. Ditto for some white person of any Abrahamic religion marrying a Jewish person or even a liberal Muslim.

I don’t watch very much American popular TV, but even so I doubt if I would very often run into characters who are white families or mothers bringing up black children. I was just wondering why this was relatively common in UK television and if it reflected something common in society or if there was some sort of unofficial social engineering behind it? And why no black mothers or families raising white children?

 

[StregaModerator]

In the UK last year, there were just under 3,000 adoptions and 60,000 children in foster care. Ratio 1:20

In the USA during the same period, there were 70,000 adoptions and 440,000 children in foster care. Ratio 1:6

The disparity was studied, and one of the immediate difficulties in analysing the underlying data was that the vast majority of UK adoptions are “closed” ones, where records are sealed. However, a contributing factor to the UK fostering ratio seems to be that foster parents are paid around $28k a year (£22k) whereas there’s a one-off payment of $8k for adoption and that’s it. Don’t forget none of this money is needed for medical care, the NHS is free at point of service.

In the USA (where legal adoption was originally invented), it may be that adoption is less financially dynamic.

It seems that from your earlier comments, Unseen, you’re specifically asking about black children in white households, etc. In the inner cities, there can be multiple families made up of different ethnicities, but if you want to ask if black/white is perceived any differently from white/brown, brown/black or any other ethnic mix, then no it is not.
Anyone who is revulsed by white/black families, is probably going to be equally revolted by other ethnically mixed families.

The Brits are pragmatic and would not expect success from creating crime material where the characters and interactions bear no resemblance to reality. There are no ‘Happy Family’ ideals in British shows.
It seems when I compare the US and UK tv presentations, the US presents wart free perfectionists as ideal, and the UK is more likely to prefer a crabby drunk (Robbie Coltrane-“Cracker” Unseen, if you haven’t found that one yet).

US tv characters strive to be good

UK tv characters strive to just cope

🙂

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  Strega.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

But what did I say or even imply that you are disputing?

Today’s global media reveals the whole panoply of human experience for all to see, in any nation civilized enough to have Internet and satellite uplink, including the U.K.

“Mixed marriage” is an overly broad term for this discussion, especially given how breathtakingly broadly “race” is defined colloquially nowadays, when Hispanics (a language group), Middle Easterners, and subdivisions of Asian peoples (East Indians, Chinese, etc.) are referred to implicitly if not explicitly as separate races.

The only interracial marriage type that really matters is between blacks and whites, though, isn’t it? No one (or almost no one) gets worked up over a white person getting married to a person with an East Indian, Japanese, Chinese, or Middle Eastern ancestry. Ditto for some white person of any Abrahamic religion marrying a Jewish person or even a liberal Muslim.

I can’t speak for all regions of the U.S. or all businesses, but in my business of retail/grocery for the general public in North Carolina, I see many different combinations of couples and families. Neither myself nor my co-workers have a bad thing to say about it and the only customer I seen disparaging it was some drunk, drugged-out trailer-trash guy, whom everyone thought was ridiculous.

I’ve yet to meet an openly-identifying Polyamorous/Polygamous Thruple/Quadruple/Grokking, but it’s sure to happen sometime. “Spice is nice” as the Poly saying goes. 👯🧑‍🤝‍🧑👭👬👫😁

I don’t watch very much American popular TV, but even so I doubt if I would very often run into characters who are white families or mothers bringing up black children. I was just wondering why this was relatively common in UK television and if it reflected something common in society or if there was some sort of unofficial social engineering behind it?

Diff’rent Strokes and Webster immediately came to mind for me when the topic arose. There are probably many more shows with at least single episodes involving the subject. TVTropes.org is a good place to research TV, literature, comics, gaming, and other popular media.

And why no black mothers or families raising white children?

I would think single parenthood would be a big barrier to anyone adopting, since a caring agency would want to assure both optimum financial stability and emotional support in adopting parents and a single parent has more to prove on those fronts.

It may also reflect choices of adopting parents and agencies, for whatever reason good, bad, or indifferent. Interesting topic, though.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Grammar

[Author]

Posts