So I found myself talking about racism in the show "Intervention" tonight. I forget how it came up but I wasn't drunk because my son and his friend were with me. I was talking to a person of color (I forget exactly who) but I was saying how they only have white people on "Intervention." One of my co-workers (who is white) overheard and she jumped in sort of taking offense. Soon as she jumped in I thought to myself, "why the fuck did I even bring up this shit... I'm about to turn a good time with alcohol and good music into a discussion on race." The crazy thing about is my white co-worker is liberal (by my definition). She's a mid 40s foster child who labels herself a "recycled hippie." I didn't think it would be hard to explain but right off the bat I was sorry I had to explain and sorry that my favorite white person on job had taken offense to something I said.

I proceeded to break down to her how the show only profiles people who are middle class. People who are the anomaly in their family and have a foundation to return to after the intervention. She mentioned trailer park white people and I had to agree with her. You will not find a trailer park white person on that show. The people profiled are usually people who come from fairly well to do families who have suffered some extreme trauma such as an abandonment from a parent, abuse from a parent, sexual abuse from _________ or PTSD from war... some also deal with anorexia or bulimia. The show is based on addiction but I'd say ninety percent of the people profiled are addicted to drugs. Anyway I found apologizing to my co-worker but explaining that the show failed to profile the people we deal with in our work. Never have I seen anyone (or immediate family) that seemed to have a life of poverty be profiled. The only black person I've seen was a former pro basketball player and I once saw an Indian guy whose family was watered down (forgive me) to the point where those who staged the intervention looked white.

In the introduction to the show there's a stat that appears that says something like "___ million Americans suffer from addiction." My question is why do they never profile those in poverty. Although my co-worker got the point I was trying to make, I have to admit that I knew she would. My concern is that the show builds this picture of someone who suffers from addiction and frames it as an illness. The show lets you see this person getting high but it also shows what in their past may have made them supseptible to addiction. I like the show for that reason. My primary beef is that it doesn't show people of color people in poverty. All to often our society thinks of those who are poor and suffering from addiction as choosing to be addicts as a lifestyle like a crack addict chooses to leave their kids because their bad parents and not suffering from an addiction. In the show "Intervention" a white person leaves their children and the children are taken in by other family members while their parents are portrayed as people dealing with a sickness. It's like so and so has a common cold and will go to rehab after the intervention to get antibiotics and everything will be okay.

I'm not sure why the show chooses to take this route but I have a feeling that they want a happy ending. Happy endings make people feel better. If every intervention failed than people wouldn't want to see it. People like to see/hear stories of triumph where people rise above the odds. And to the people at "Intervention" the more people they can attract the more/better advertising they get. Covering people in poverty (or simply poor people with poor families) who go through interventions would be much more harder to frame in a positive way. What are the odds of a person going through an intervention and rehab and returning to poverty and little financial support-as far as food and shelter) How do you get a person whose family has only food, clothes and shelter to offer. While those three basic necessities may be hard to offer for someone in poverty they often are. However those suffering from addiction still face are a lot.

Anyway I found myself trying to break this down to some co-workers. At one point I apologized and said how prior to my current job I worked for an organization that funded community organizing and talking politics was more than water cooler talk and was a part of the job. It felt weird saying it, but when the person I was talking to said "oh" and then started talking about Obama, I realized how fortunate I was to be working at a place where talk of politics because while people may have good hearts and vote democrat that doesn't really mean shit in the big scheme of things. It only reinforced my feelings on a show like "Intervention" that attempts to show what its like to deal with addiction but fails by only show middle class and primarily white people.

a sample;

Labels: race, television