Television: a way to unite humanity, or just a large scale marketing ploy?

When I first read that “…television was a sympathetic, even breakthrough, medium for African Americans…long before Rosa Parks refused a backseat bus ride in Montgomery , Alabama, in 1955” in the Hypersensitivity chapter of Thomas Doherty’s Cold War, Cool Medium I was intrigued (71). It was surprising and interesting to learn that the interactions portrayed between different races on television shows were years ahead of their time in terms of racial equality and integration.

However, as I continued to read I became less and less intrigued and more and more angered as I began to realize that the racial equality portrayed on TV had almost nothing to do with promoting civil rights and instead had everything to do with making as much profit as possible. Black actors and actresses were seen as just pawns in the American television economy. They were used in order to entice a “15 billion dollar Negro market” to watch the shows, and they were treated as equals only to placate the network’s black viewers and keep them returning for more. As Doherty puts it, “show business producers worried that offending African Americans might be more costly than amusing white Americans” (76).

I obviously agree with Doherty that “behind the ethical qualms were economic fears” (76). However, I wonder why he did not probe and question the subject further. Did the black audience know they were being exploited? If so, did they even care, or were they just so happy to see someone on TV who looked like them that it didn’t matter? It is hard to deny that even though the network producers clearly had hidden agendas and motives when casting African American actors, hiring them did in fact promote a message of equality that was never before acknowledged. Thus, I wonder if Doherty simply feels that the ends justify the means?