In the 1970s in black and Asian households up and down the country, there's a familiar story that when we saw a non-white person on TV we would call the rest of the family to the sitting room to have a look. The story that is less well known is what it was like to be that one black person on TV.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the significance of representation in media and the impact it has on marginalized communities.
Lenny Henry reflects on a shared experience within black and Asian families in the UK during the 1970s, where seeing a non-white person on television was a moment of pride and excitement. He also hints at the isolating experience of being that sole representative, emphasizing the dual perspective of joy in representation and the burden of being the only one visible in a predominantly white media landscape.
In practice
Using this quote in a discussion about changing representation in film and television.
It is wrong if nearly every time we hear a black or Asian actor portraying their lives they are actually speaking the words of someone who has never experienced their reality. And to effectively silence disabled people from telling their own truth on film or TV is close to criminal and will not help wider society understand their reality.
Manner is personality—the outward manifestation of one’s innate character and attitude toward life.
Graphomania (a mania for writing books) inevitably takes on epidemic proportions when a society develops to the point of creating three basic conditions: - (1) an elevated level of general well being which allows people to devote themselves to useless activities (2) a high degree of social atomization and , as a consequence, a general isolation of individuals; (3) the absence of dramatic social changes in the nation's internal life.
Memory does not make films, it makes photographs.
Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.
Monsters,' her dad said, a tear tracing his cheek. 'I live in a world of monsters.
To theology, ... only what it holds sacred is true, whereas to philosophy, only what holds true is sacred.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.