Privilege can be Straight and Narrow

Consider this scenario:
My girlfriend of three years is Canadian. We both live in Oklahoma and are going to OU and have plans to get married some day. In the next few years we plan on moving to Illinois. She is here on a green card with her family, which will expire in about seven years. By marrying her in the next seven years, getting full or even dual citizenship can be expedited and her naturalization won't really be an issue.

Everything in that paragraph seems normal and wouldn't be cause for discussion when talking about privilege. Nothing based on race, creed, color, or nation of origin causes any red flags to go up in that situation. Everything seems normal and is what we have come to expect from immigration laws in the U.S.

Now let's look at the actual situation:
My boyfriend of three years is Canadian. We both live in Oklahoma and are going to OU and have plans to get married some day. In the next few years we plan on moving to Illinois. He is here on a green card with his family, which will expire in about seven years. Even if we get married in one of the six states now allowing equal marriage rights, the federal government does not recognize these marriages and they are not eligible for expedited naturalization. Within the next seven years he will either need to start a longer immigration program on his own, find an employer who provides sponsorship for immigration, or we move to Canada. O Canada!

This is one of many legalized privileges afforded to heterosexual couples through civil marriage.* Other legal issues arise even outside of civil marriage rights. Sexual orientation is not covered under the Fair Housing Act, any related acts, or any housing related executive orders.

Coming off of the legal privileges and focusing back on a social and cultural privilege, we can look at the knapsack McIntosh discusses(pdf) and make similar comparisons to the privileges straight men and women have in our society.

For example: "I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my sexual orientation widely represented."

In the 2008-2009 television season, 2.6% of all regular scripted characters on network television are identified as LGBT, an increase over previous years. Of those, lead characters on network television who are gay or lesbian consist of Kevin Walker on Brothers and Sisters and Callie Torres and Erica Hahn on Grey's Anatomy, both found on ABC. This is twelve years after Ellen first came out as a lesbian on her television show (her sitcom, not her talk show) becoming the first lead character to be out on television. This is the generation that grew up watching Will & Grace, gay characters on television is not supposed to be an issue anymore, yet only three lead characters can be found on network television.

Is privilege only in being seen on television? What about in the way gays and lesbians are viewed. If only three lead characters are gay or lesbian, that still leaves supporting characters. It seems that being the leading man or leading lady is left more to the straight characters.

(I differentiate civil marriage here for a reason. All legal marriages conducted in the United States must have a civic element, usually a marriage license provided by the government. Not all marriages in the United States, however, have a religious component to them. Therefore we can use the term civil marriage to define the act and rights afforded by government recognition of a union of two people).

Watching Television in Black and White

I grew up watching quite a bit of television. I credit certain parts of my sense of humor on classic 1950s and 1960s sitcoms like I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched. These shows weren’t exactly the bastion of multi-cultural casts and didn’t expand my young views of the world. And growing up in a pretty white washed semi-suburban, semi-rural community didn’t add any real exposure to people of other races.

However, one cornerstone of family television in our house was The Cosby Show. The Huxtables were able to reach into the middle American family in a way that previous shows with predominantly African American casts had not. But that may have had less to do with America’s general acceptance of a black family on their television every week and more with how the family was constructed

The Huxtables were an upper middle class family living in a nice brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. The parents were a doctor and a lawyer and the children didn’t seem to have any concerns about how they would attend college. The show featured some African American themes, but in general they didn’t branch outside of their typical sitcom family situations. This wasn’t as accepted by everyone though. Sut Jhally and Justin Lewis wrote a book criticizing The Cosby Show claiming although well intentioned, it helped to create an “enlightened racism” through the non-discussion of race, class, and achieving the American dream.

Has television really changed that much since the Huxtables last came into our living rooms? Shows with African American families have existed on and off on various stations, but when it comes to other minorities, they have had much less screen time.

In 1994, ABC and Margaret Cho premiered the short-lived All-American Girl. Cho’s traditional Korean family tries to come to terms with the culture clash that is embodied by their daughter Margaret. Screen time for the mostly Asian American cast lasted for one season. ABC featured Hispanic American’s with George Lopez’s self-titled family based sitcom in 2002 and lasted for five seasons with an all Hispanic American cast.

Television dramas seem to be a bit different. Shows like Grey’s Anatomy have a culturally diverse cast and characters. The race of the characters never seems to be a direct issue, however moments of racial stereotyping do tend to pop up from time to time. Law and police drama shows also tend to have fairly diverse casting. The premium cable thriller Dexter features a storyline focusing on two of the characters Afro-Cubano heritage and the Hispanic community at large in Miami, where the show takes place.

It starts feeling like television is continually segregated, especially sitcoms. It can be hard to be diverse when filming a family sitcom, but other shows that are more ensemble based have the potential to be more diverse. The more diversity shows can bring in without making it an issue or relying heavily on stereotypes helps to break down barriers in the racial tensions that still exist in our society today.