Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Asians Are Vapid Too?

While the godfather of young adult driven reality television shows attempted to show real life for those who were exposed to those who grew up in worlds different from their own - many of today's youth-driven reality shows have taken a different path.
The Real World attempted to explore the differences and similarities between different genders, races, sexual orientations, traditions and cultures.
The original show featured young adults who were probably more talented and driven than those of a similar demographic.
Eric, Heather, Kevin, et al. all had careers after their stint on the show.
These people became more successful after the show - not because of it.

But The Hills created a newer self-centered model for youth driven reality television.
This cast was probably a bit more glamorous than the average young adult.
This cast was even more segregated than the average young adult living in Southern California.

But as Baldwin Hills showed - this segregation wasn't driven by the level of ones looks, money or education.
Many Blacks in Southern California (and elsewhere) lived better than the average American too.

But then producers decided to go low-rent on the East Coast.
Jersey Shore seems like a bad episode of "WOPS Gone Wild".

Now Asians are getting in on the act too.
K-Town (Although all of the cast members are not solely of Korean descent) returns the genre to the West Coast and shows that all Asians are not all bookish nerds nor "The Model Minority".
My only hope is that these shows actually show that interaction between these groups does actually take place in real life.
That (at least out West) race may be a factor in whom one chooses to hang out with - but it is rarely the factor among those of a similar socioeconomic background.
(Kind of like the original Real World.)

2 comments:

brohammas said...

UBJ, you are all full of hope.
I say if anyone is watching these shows to learn something, we have lost all hope.

FreeMan said...

Welp they have dumbed it down a lot. Personally I'm glad they aren't showing a Black show that comes out and shows all the dummies of our race. In regards to K-Town and JShore they went straight to what do you do for fun.

I agree with you on one thing. Out here it's not as much racial as money. Most of the clubs are pretty diverse as that's not the issue. It's funny to keep showing a unreal world knowing their little part of the world is very small.

But, sex in the city had 4 white women walking around never running into anyone of color in the middle of manhattan. I guess someone Korean said we want to show that we are stupid too and they made K-Town.