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So it took guts to take the final step
and choose one of these minorities.
Or did it?
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So Walter Mondale, the apparent
Democratic Presidential nominee, has
chosen a woman to be his running
mate this fall. The woman is Rep. Ger
aldine Ferraro of New York.
Mondale deserves some credit.
Among the standard white males, Mon
dale interviewed the kind of people
who never have been considered before.
He interviewed Los Angeles Mayor Tom
Bradley, a black. He talked to Gov.
Micheal Dukakis of Massachusetts, also
a black, and San Antonio Mayor Henry
Cisernos, a Hispanic. Besides the Cath
olic Ferraro, Mondale also considered
San Francisco Mayor Diane Feinstein,
a woman and a Jew.
Just interviewing these people, these
different minorities, took guts. Many
critics have said the country is hot
ready for a minority vice president yet.
Maybe it was pressure from people
like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who threa
tened political action because, in Jack
son's opinion, Mondale deliberately ex
cluded black women from the interview
Or pressure from the National Organi-
zation for Women, whose president
said Mondale should choose a woman.
Pick a woman, any woman. NOW also
threatened action at the convention
next week if Mondale didnt comply.
Whatever Mondale's reasons really
are, his ticket has been strengthened.
Already Gallup polls have shown the
Mondale-Ferraro ticket as a danger
ous one to the Reagan-Bush one. And,
after all, that is the most important
reason.
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Movies interest me because they project some
body's fantasies; whether it's outer space or some
adventure in a Third World country, a movie is
somebody's dream come true. It's somebody's way of
systematically showing how an area - or a people
can be overtaken by the proces's of gradualism.
And this is especially important when we look at
what I think is the latest fantasy trip an obsession
with city life and the systematic "de-blackening" of
its inhabitants.
For some time now the inner city has been the
focus of news documentaries and the like. But when
it came to television shows, the emphasis was on the
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Matthew
Stelly
suburbs, whether the shows go back to "Leave it to
Beaver" and "The Donna Reed Show" or more
recently, "Family" and "Eight is Enough." The sub
urbs were what was happening because there was
clean air, sanitation, city services and, of course, no
blacks.
Then came the late 70s and the early 80s and all of
a sudden the filth and scum of the city came into
being. In my vie w, this mentality was first apparent
in the more well-known police shows "Baretta,"
"Starsky and Hutch" and of course now, "Hill Street
Blues." But remember a short-lived show called "The
American Dream" the story of a white family who
moved back to the inner city from the suburbs? And
there were TV movies about whites coming to the
city, re-building their homes and living happily ever
after,
All of this had made the inner city an area of
attention even in the movies. The whole thing about
dancing is rooted in the city, as suburbanites are
shown copying black dance steps and then raking in
the big bucks. Whether you are talking about "Flash
dance," "Breakin' " or any of the others, you find that
city life and "soul" are made synonymous; if you
want to learn how to sing or dance, go into the urban
infrastructure. This point was made quite clear in
the recent flick, "Streets ofFire."
So then, what are the implication? or the impact
of this new area of emphasis?
First, all other realms have been conquered. The
Martians have been defeated, and there are no more
Klingons or Black Stars left to overcome. "Jaws" has
been eliminated three times and now the seas are
safe. And even though white heroes are in abun
dance to control the land, there are certain areas
that neither Superman or Matt Houston would dare
to enter: the ghetto and the barrio.
So then, these areas become "the new frontier,"
ripe for exploiting and pillaging. But not in the tra
ditionally coercive sense but today, these areas
are degraded in an even more diabolical way.
There is the implication that suburbanites can
immediately adapt to the urban setting. They can
come in, place their children in public schools (after
they had attended private institutions all their
lives), get jobs, ride the subway unharmed and then
of course fight and defeat the indigenous popu
lation if necessary. This is the same "defend your
land" mentality that the early settlers had when
they murdered off the Native American.
Secondly, there is the cultural element. These
people can come into the ghetto, be accepted and,
more profoundly, immediately learn and exceil at
black forms of song, dance and art. They can learn
the steps, market those steps and then make the big
bucks. This is the same kind of assimilation that is
taking place even now, as whites build, own and
manage Chinese and Mexican restaurants and as
white groups mimic the black sound and rake in
enough dough to make Howard Hughes blush.
finally, the political element. On the movies and
the TV screen, the new arrivals are shown moving
into the community and minding their own business
letting bygones be bygones and seeking to become
friends with the natives. In some cases, they go so far
as to save the life of a native, thereby becoming
accepted by the groups and dubbed "cool." But this
is not the reality of the situation.
Relocating back into the inner city is an economic
decision which inevitably becomes political White
real estate brokers buy up apartment houses, tear
them down and build condominiums that only
the well-to-do can afford. Then the arrivals enter
the picture, and once this happens, the native popu
lation inevitably is forced out of the area to what is
called "the urban fringe," away from health care and
the social setting that they once knew.
In a word, "re-settlement." The inner city is the
last forntier. Space has its orbitting satellites and
space stations (not to mention the colonies on other
worlds), the sea has its underwater cities and sub
marines as big as some of the towns in Nebraska.
And now, the conquest of the inner city, which
brings the former suburbanites closer to their jobs,
makes rent more affordable and eliminates the need
to drive for hours.
Different context, same con job.
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Pago 4
Dally Nebraskan
Friday, July 13. 1934