The issue of race has been the issue which more than any other has attracted the moral grandstanding of ‘progressives’. Paternalistic concerns for the supposed discrimination faced by ‘people of colour’, as we are now supposed to describe them, are merely an opportunist vehicle that has been co-opted by liberals to promote their own virtue signalling superiority. However, the sentiments are largely insincere, since liberals are no more likely to socialise or befriend black people than the average white person. In short, the race question is merely a platform amongst many others which the vocal left exploit for their wider political ends.
There appears to be a very simple rule amongst ‘progressives’ which is to invariably bend over backwards to accept the validity of a black person’s viewpoint, but to never give the benefit of the doubt to a white person in a similar situation. Our employment and race relations laws are all based on this assumption, and so can be used by black people to pursue their own self interests, in a manner that is not open to white people. The only exception to this outlook is when black people identify with, or express right wing views, when mysteriously they are treated with the same degree of contempt as whites. So the expectation of liberals is that their client groups should conform to approved stereotypical notions rather than to think for themselves.
Until about the early 1980s black people were largely invisible in advertising, and usually only appeared in TV dramas when portraying non-Europeans in realistic real life situations such as for example a government representative from an African country. This was regarded by most people as completely normal as well as perfectly acceptable, and there was absolutely no clamour from the public to introduce black characters into dramas were the audience would normally expect an exclusively white cast, or to bring more black faces into advertising.
But matters gradually began to change when black characters started to be introduced into drama situations that previously would have been exclusively white. The numbers were still relatively small, the assumption being that the public would gradually be more willing to accept the occasional black character as a legitimate feature of the storyline, and thus avoid alienating too many viewers who might prefer to watch programmes exclusively showing their own kind. This was in accordance with the policy of introducing small incremental changes as the most effective way of furthering the liberal agenda.
More proactive commentators criticised this approach as ‘tokenism’, demanding that more be done to improve ‘diversity’ and to increase the profile of black people in the media. Gradually the number of black characters started to increase, but the type of roles they played was circumscribed. They were very rarely portrayed as villains or criminals; instead they were disproportionately presented as the good guys fighting injustices, or occupying positions of higher rank or authority, bringing much needed guidance, advice and leadership to junior white colleagues.
In advertising, black faces first started to become apparent in publicity posters and documents issued by left wing local authorities. But commercial organisations still resisted breaking the white monopoly on imagery, presumably fearing that the inclusion of black faces would alienate many white people from buying their product. But eventually black faces started to appear in commercial advertisements also, and gradually these numbers started to increase. It was noticed that there was no pushback against this trend in the media, since to raise concerns would inevitably risk accusations of ‘racism’ and bigotry.
Today we have reached the absurd situation were more than 50% of advertisements feature black people, where mixed race couples are promoted as the norm, where nearly every TV drama has a disproportionate number of black characters, where historic costume dramas falsely and inaccurately include black characters, and where white historic figures are increasingly played by black actors. All this has occurred with little if any discussion or debate in the media. It is unclear who is driving this agenda, whether it is media and advertising regulators, or the management of commercial companies anxious to appease vocal woke activists or employees. But what it does demonstrate is the extent to which white liberals are consumed with guilt and self loathing for the newly discovered original sin of being born with white skin, an agenda that the mainstream media are too cowardly to challenge.
