The networks are mocking you. Drive down Wilshire and you will see what I mean. Above you, ABC’s hit-shows parade themselves on banners, flying at half-mast on the green lampposts. On the left, each yellow flag, spells out with black letters COMEDY, DRAMA, SPORTS, and on the right are gleaming faces of familiar stars. They smile at you, they look at you seductively, alluring you to come and watch them in the comfort of your own home. White faces that tell you to buy the products that they sell on your TV. In ABC's world, ethnic minorities do not exist. ABC even had the gall to put up these flags in certain regions of Los Angeles, mainly the poor ones, where whites are a minority. ABC is mocking you.

But before you conclude that ABC and the rest of their network cronies are racists, let me tell you that TV executives are merely doing what they are programmed to do. This is America. Money dictates everything. In fact they are worse than racists – they are as ignorant as they are greedy. In a recent article by Paul Brownfield in the Los Angeles Times (As Minorities' TV Presence Dims, Gay Roles Proliferate – July 21, 1999) he reported that there are more gay characters on this year’s fall TV line-up than there are Blacks, Latinos, and Asians combined. However, I disagree with his implied conclusion that gay characters on TV are proliferating because of the sensibilities of the networks, and that most of the people who control what goes on television are gay. If they are, then they must also be white gays because most of the gay characters Mr. Brownfield mentioned in his article are white.

In the article, he quoted Paul Schulman, head of the agency Schulman/Advansers New York, saying, "People just became used to seeing it. I don't think it's a taboo the way it was a couple years back. The heat is pretty much off." If this is true, I only remind you that Ellen DeGeneres’ TV character was months out of the closet when Matthew Sheppard was slain in Wyoming. No, Mr. Schulman, I don’t think the heat is off.