The Wry Side of Life

Could this be the dawning of a new age in television? Can Private Practice break the trend and feature an interracial couple in a relationship that will last? I've been keeping an eye on various shows since I last wrote my blog on interracial relationships on 90210 and Privileged . Its disheartening to see that this is nearly an impossible task. More often than not these couples tend to break up and go back to dating within their own race. Reminds me of straight people who flirt with being gay before deciding they were always straight to begin with. I've tried to think of interracial couples on tv in recent memory, and I cannot find an instance where it ended happily. Another things that bugs me is that interracial couples are not allowed a full level of intimacy like straight white couples. Why is it so difficult to show people kissing on the lips? Why is the cameraman or woman instructed to shoot the back of the head? Let's not talk sex scenes because you won't see ...

I noticed an interesting trend the other day on two of the shows I watch on the CW 90210 and Privileged. Both shows feature an interracial couple, one is straight the other is gay. One of the partners is African-American while the other is white. What disturbed me until last Tuesday (Feb. 10, 2009) was that neither couple was ever shown kissing on the lips. The camera would capture the kiss from a angle where you would see the back of someone's head. I found this annoying, because I've never seen this done. You always see at least the lips touching especially with straight couples. This had several implications for me. Was the censorship of these couples part of because we had a Republican administration in office at that time? Or could it be part of an even more disturbing implication that interracial relationship are on par with gay relationships. That they are things that shouldn't be promoted and have to be watered down to the point where it seems more like a friendshi...