Diversity/Conformity (was: assumptions of race)

[lyorkus at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Ebony Elizabeth Thomas" <ebonyink at h...> 
wrote:
 
> Many middle-to-upper class blacks despise black English... I 
> don't.  If I did, I think my family would disown me.  So I'd say 
> the majority of blacks learn to be bidialectal.

Actually, that phenomenon is called "context switching" by linguists 
(thought about being a linguistics major for a while in college).  
Linguists adamantly do NOT look down on any kind of dialect.  
Frankly, since I live in the city, I have no problem with many 
dialects of English, but I sometimes think it's weird when I travel 
to Pennsylvania Dutch country and hear someone say, "The car needs 
washed."  (they leave out the "to be.")  Evidently a holdover from 
Pennsylvania German.
 
> The only black character with a British accent I can remember is 
the butler in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

There is at the moment a character on "The Gilmore Girls" who is a 
snooty French hotel concierge, and, coincidentally black.  (This show 
also has some of the few Asian characters on television to day.)

> Amy:
> >-In most British TV we see, the cast is pretty homogenously white.
> >Mystery, Masterpiece Theatre, Monty Python, All Creatures Great and
> >Small, all those sitcoms (Are You Being Served, Good Neighbors, To 
> the Manor Born, Yes, Minister, Vicar of Dibley, Fawlty Towers, etc. 
> etc.). 

Hasn't anyone seen "Chef!"?  It's a hoot, with a lead character who 
is black, as well as several supporting characters.  There is also 
quite a diverse cast on Eastenders, but I don't really watch it just 
because I don't watch soap operas in general, American, British or 
otherwise.

It is odd that there aren't many American shows on these days that 
air on the big networks that have predominantly minority casts.  I 
didn't think it was strange to watch Sanford and Son or Chico and the 
Man or the Jeffersons or Good Times (which dealt with serious issues 
amidst the comedy) when I was growing up, but many things on the WB 
or UPN which have minority casts just don't appeal to me.  I liked 
Roc and Living Color, but they were taken off the air.  Figures.  
(Don't get me started on the good shows Fox has booted...)

And as far as diversity goes (this veers dangerously close to being 
on-topic!) it suddenly occurred to me that singing a school song in 
unison is in its way a kind of forcing conformity down kids' 
throats.    Perhaps JKR is thumbing her nose at that kind of 
conformity by having the Hogwarts school song be whatever each person 
wants it to be!  (Most school songs are dreck anyway; I was stuck 
playing my school song on the piano for 8th grade graduation and it's 
a miracle I made it to high school without slitting my wrists as a 
result.)