Newspaper Page Text
Augusta News-Review - June 1, 1978 -
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A&P GIVES GOLDEN LEGACY - A golden legacy is what Reading Is
Fundamental’s (RIF) fiela officer, Carolyn Gunn (L), received from the A&P
supermarket chain. The legacy took the form of 500,000 illustrated Black history
magazines to be used in ivIF programs around the country. Bill Batson, A&P S vice
president for affirmative action, (R) presents copies of the magazines to ms. Gunn.
“J.J.” Continued from Page 1
the estimated 382 characters in
daytime serials (although fewer
than half of the 19 have story
lines and contracts).
But the only regularly
scheduled Black appearances
on the major networks today
are in situation comedies.
Whites, however negatively
portrayed in sit-coms (and
there have been some
exceptions here, too), also
appear in a wide variety of
other kinds of shows - drama
like “The Waltons” or
“Family,” for instance. For
Blacks, such balance simply
doesn’t exist.
The absence of a serious
Black dramatic series during
the more than three decades of
television was pointed out
frequently during the “Roots”
fever that hit the country over
a year ago when a whopping
130 million Americans
watched at least part of the
eight-segment series.
NBC’s six-hour “King,” a
year later, failed dismally.
Whether due to network
executive Paul L. Klein’s
explanation that American
viewers find the subject “so
threatening as to be
ujwatchable,” or to the
assertion by Blacks, such as
ACTION associate director
John Lewis, that parts were “a
distortion of history,” the
result seems to be a kind of
moratorium on serious
subjects.
The common factor in the
current situation comedies is
that most of the writers of
Black shows are white
(although never the reverse)
and the most rapidly rising
commodity is the dialect joke.
“We don’t buy by color, we
buy by script,” said Mart
Lachman, co-creator of “Baby,
I’m Back.” “We’re not
color-coded, never bought that
way and never will. I just have
the feeling that in writing,
nobody cares where it came
from. All we’re dying to get is
the script. I understand at IBM
you need pressure, but
certainly it never was needed in
the writing business.”
In “Baby, I’m Back,” the
clear message from the writers
is that good guys don’t win.
The deserted wife Olivia is
increasingly cooling to her
solidly employed suitor -
“You’re about as romantic as
Post Nasal Drip!” she told him
in one episode - and warming
to the charms of her wandering
former mate.
The argument over whether
“Baby, I’m Back” is accidently
or intentionally racist claptrap
will stop here, however -
probably permanently. CBS
canceled the show last week.
George Jefferson, whose
main virtue may be that he is
TV’s only Black middle-class
father who supports his family;
has lately become a caricature
of his original character. The
air in his penthouse is thick
with arguments, put-downs and
empty invectives.
Esther Rolle left “Good
Times” a year ago shortly after
the father character was killed
off because, she said, she had
taken the part with provisions
that the show would have a
complete Black family. “I had
a good father. I wanted the
characters to portray a family
where the father stayed with
the family like mine did.” She
also felt the show was no
Page 8
longer true to the original
concept and that she should
have been consulted on the
story lines as were some series
stars.
She is returning to the job
for which she made an
estimated $30,000 per
segment, befause she will now
have script consultation and
can eliminate some of the
things she personally found
offensive. There still will be no
father. “It’s a compromise for
her,” her agent said. “In the
end, she’s an actress.”
Norman Lear, the producer
responsible for “Good Times,”
“The Jeffersons,” “Sanford
and Son” and “All in the
Family,” has consistently
defended his creations,
insisting that they have done
“a lot of heavy subjects.”
When Soul magazine asked him
recently why producers never
put a strong, contemporary
Black prime-time drama on the
air, he responded, “I never
thought of it, but I’m thinking
about it now. You gave me an
idea. It just never occurred.”
Black parents, teachers and
even students have begun
increasingly to blast this
programming. The Hilltop, of
Howard University, wrote in a
recent editorial, “We contend
that this constant and
consistent degradation of Black
men is dangerous. It is
dangerous because a people’s
strength and weakness lies with
their men. If Black men are
failures, Black people are
failures.”
Georgia state legislator
David Scott, 31, told UPI,
“There must be a revolution,
focused on television, to take
the works of Langston Hughes,
James Weldon Johnson, Paul
Robeson and other notable
Black artists off, the dusty
back shelves ... Until ‘Roots’
there wasn’t much for Black
youths to see on television that
could acquaint them with their
heritage.” He tried to fill that
void with a show he created
and produced on poet
Langston Hughes on Georgia
public television.
As minorities, Blacks are
forced to know a great deal
about the dominant culture in
order to live, work, get an
education. (An estimated 12.2
percent of all nonwhite
households watch daytime
dramas compared to 7.7
percent of all white
households, to use a
particularly grim Nielsen
indicator of crosscultural
pollination.) But white
Americans rarely know about
the culture and heritage of this
country’s other minorities.
The powerful medium of
television partly fills this void,
and fills it largely for ill.
Television clearly needs to
urgently upgrade the quality of
its programming in general, and
Black programming in
particular. Time magazine
suggested recently that maybe
it was time to apply higher
standards to Black shows that
are applied to white shows in
order to reverse the 30 years of
damage done.
There is a saying among
Blacks that when the economy
sneezes, Blacks get pneumonia.
If the same analogy is applied
to televison programming, the
patient is quite sick, but Black
programming is at death’s
door.
Principal A.L. Williams Jr. of
Richmond Academy
announced recently that 19 of
Richmond students have been
inducted into The Society of
Distinguished American High
School Students.
Students who were inducted
are: Michael Brooks, Sara
Burris, Erin Echols, Charles
Ergle, Harvey Fields, Alicia
Gardner, Katherine Harrison,
Kaj Hoernle, Willie Howard,
Lisa Hudson, Gisela Ingr, Fred
Kinney, Ava Lias, Melvin
Mariney, Ronald Oliver, Julie
Rece, John Staak, Daniel
O’Rourke, and Charlie Cato.
The society, which is one of
the nation’s foremost high
school honoraries, inducted the
students because of their
demonstrated excellence in
scholastic leadership and civic
achievement according to
Williams.
The National Awards
Program is sponsored by 58
IS THE
NAME OF OUR GAME!
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ARC students
inducted into
‘distinguished’
society
colleges from across the
country. Thousands of dollars
in scholarship funds from these
institutions are made available
to society members each year.
Sponsor Ellis M. Johnson
received a National
Appreciation Award from the
society on behalf of the
students and stated, “I am
extremely proud of these
exceptional students and the
honor that they have received.
It is a reward and should also
be accepted as a challenge to
them to continue their course
of excellence.”
One of the Society’s guiding
principles is to promote both
academic and civic
achievement on the high school
level by recognizing students in
its Membership Registry. The
Society of Distinguished
American High School
Students, which is published
annually, and distributed
nationwide.
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President Carter hosts President of Zambia
WHITE HOUSE GUEST -President Carter gives a White House tour to visiting Dr.
Kenneth D. Kaunda, President of the Republic of Zambia, during a state visit by the
African leader.
The two leaders held intensive talks during President Kaunda’s visit to
Washington. President Carter hailed President Kaunda as “a man whose integrity has
never been challenged, never been doubted.”