# The insane color prejudice of US TV in the 60s **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2017, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731 "2017-06-11T22:33:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/21 "2017-06-12T14:48:26Z")
My only point was that the poll is skewed by period. The poll I linked, or a poll taken around the time of the Rodney King video, isn’t going to be as optimistic. In other words, these polls can hardly be cited as definitive. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/22 "2017-06-12T15:27:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **TriPolar** : > > The Jeffersons was a ‘black’ show. This technique of allowing such relationships on ‘black’ shows still exists. I hope I don’t have to explain the horrifying ‘logic’ involved here. For that matter, on the comics page, the strip _Jump Start_ has as secondary characters an interracial couple… but the main characters are all black. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/23 "2017-06-12T15:26:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **TriPolar** : > > The Jeffersons was a ‘black’ show. This technique of allowing such relationships on ‘black’ shows still exists. I hope I don’t have to explain the horrifying ‘logic’ involved here. For that matter, on the comics page, the strip _Jump Start_ has as secondary characters an interracial couple… but the main characters are all black. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/24 "2017-06-12T15:43:48Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > It’s hard to believe insane shit like this went on as comparatively recently as the 60s. As someone old enough to remember the 60’s… no, it’s not hard to believe. It’s history and I remember this stupidity. > [@](#): > > Was such idiocy common back then (as if a white woman was somehow violated by contact with a black guy) or was this just the reaction of an extremist minority in the South? Yeah, it was common as dirt back then, and not just in the South. Not everyone was like that, but it was a significant slice of the population. [Some of the bigots didn’t restrict themselves to angry letters to the media and literally got away with murder](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till%5B/url) back then. Yes, there were (and still are) people who think something as simple as a black man touching a white women is offensive/contaminating/whatever. [Take a look at this gem](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=695701) from this forum in 2013, some folks clearly still hold that opinion. Everyone has a right to their opinion, of course, but I also have an opinion about their opinion. > [@](#): > > When did things start improving, eg when could the networks show blacks and whites interacting normally, sexually or otherwise, and not bring down a shitstorm? First interracial kiss on TV that I recall was on _Star Trek_ - which caused a shitstorm. Things gradually got better over the ensuing decades but there are STILL people who get their panties in a twist over interracial interactions on TV to this very day. I’d say it was around the turn of the century when interracial couples stopped causing head explosions, but that’s from just one person’s perspective. It’s going to vary by US region. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/25 "2017-06-12T15:48:47Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > It’s hard to believe insane shit like this went on as comparatively recently as the 60s. Try as recently as the hate marches two days ago. If the last year has shown us anything, it’s that those rocks are not to heavy to crawl out from under. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/26 "2017-06-12T16:57:58Z")
Was I the only one expecting a discussion of how much red or green bias is needed in a YCbCr signal to give the most authentic/vintage picture? Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/27 "2017-06-12T17:19:16Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > [The Jeffersons](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072519/) had an interracial couple (Tom and Helen Willis). The show debuted in 1975, and while it was a bit controversial, I don’t remember any boycotts (threatened or actual). On the other hand, I think the reaction would have been different if an interracial couple had been regular characters in a drama, or if it had been a black man with a white woman. The Jeffersons had an automatic excuse – George Jefferson himself. George was vocal in his criticism of the Willis marriage (he called them “zebras”) and opposed to his son’s marriage to Jenny Willis because she was mixed race. For that matter, George didn’t particularly like his white next door neighbor, either. The show eased up on that particular theme in later years. But there was certainly enough discussion of the elephant in the room that it pretty much neutralized viewer outrage. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/28 "2017-06-12T17:29:10Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Was I the only one expecting a discussion of how much red or green bias is needed in a YCbCr signal to give the most authentic/vintage picture? Anyone? Yes, yes you were. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/29 "2017-06-12T17:59:21Z")
The bar owner of a St. Louis neighborhood dive in 1969 once chased a young black/white couple out of the bar for the crime of necking in a dark corner. Those of us in the next-door theater group were quite upset, since we used the bar as the hangout joint after rehearsals. I spoke to the bar owner, who I always thought was a nice guy up to then. He was adamant. “Ain’t gonna do that shit in _my_ bar!” And my mother, a southerner, refused to sit down to dinner at a family get-together in the early 60’s since one of the guests was the wrong race. “Those people” belong in the kitchen, not eating in the dining room! I tried to bring an opposite-color friend to a neighborhood discussion group in the early 60’s, and was told that if I did, half of the members would walk out and never come back. I saved them the trouble, and left first. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/30 "2017-06-12T18:46:32Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Yes, there were (and still are) people who think something as simple as a black man touching a white women is offensive/contaminating/whatever. When I was in college in Madison, WI, in the 1980s, I lived in a co-ed dorm (girls on two floors, boys on the other two floors). One of my fellow dorm residents, a white girl from suburban Milwaukee, was dating a black guy. There was another guy in our dorm – a white guy from an affluent Milwaukee suburb – who found this to be highly unacceptable. Every time he’d see the two of them together, he’d grumble something along the lines of, “how can she debase herself like that?” Now, everyone else in the dorm thought he was a racist asshole (which he was, and he was an asshole in many other ways, as well), but it shows that (a) those prejudices weren’t just a southern thing, and (b) they persisted well past the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/31 "2017-06-12T18:49:08Z")
No surprise here. Don’t racist hicks still boycott over commercials showing interracial couples? Cheerios comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/32 "2017-06-12T18:58:44Z")
On this Board several years ago a Doper recalled that her father worked for GE, in the 1960’s. He often had to host engineers from the developing world on training trips. She said that he would look over their skin tone to see if they could pass for white. If they could not or were Black, he would ask them to wear something on their clothing to indicate their foreignness. This was done so they could gain admission to restaurants and hotels easily. As anyone who is of S Asian or ME heritage can attest; over the past 16 years in airport security, how much “random” checking you get depends on a lot on your skin tone; light skinned you are often safe, very dark, safe again, medium; “uh oh”. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/33 "2017-06-12T19:21:01Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > Gallup has done [several polls](http://www.gallup.com/poll/163697/approve-marriage-blacks-whites.aspx) on interracial marriage over the decades. It was…not popular at the time **(and remained below 50% approval until the mid-90s)**, so presumably even a hint of a relationship would have been pretty controversial too. Bold added because this is worth repeating, particularly so, this being [Loving Day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_Day). There’s a nice plot on wikipedia, which uses data from those gallup polls: > **[Interracial marriage in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States#/media/File:Public_opinion_of_interracial_marriage_in_the_United_States.png)** > > Interracial marriage has been legal throughout the United States since at least the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court (Warren Court) decision Loving v. Virginia (1967) that held that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional via the 14th Amendment adopted in 1868. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote in the court opinion that "the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State." Interracial marriages have been formally prot Hist... ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/34 "2017-06-12T20:54:41Z")
In 1985, I lived on the beach board walk in Mission Beach in San Diego, it’s super nice there now but it was a sketchy neighborhood back then. Where I lived was two four-plexes with a common courtyard. On weekends, many of use would invite friends over and it would be a big party. One particular weekend, a few of us coincidentally had African American friends over so it was a very mixed race party. No one thought anything of it. My roommate and I were hanging out on the fence by the boardwalk when a nearby resident came up to us and angrily asked why we had “all those niggers” with us. I was literally dumbstruck. My roommate finally managed to say “because they’re our friends” and the dickhead stomped off. This was in the 80’s in liberal Southern California. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/35 "2017-06-12T21:02:58Z")
AK84 wrote: " If they could not or were Black, he would ask them to wear something on their clothing to indicate their foreignness. " Like what, a flag pin from wherever? Funny how American racists only discriminate _American_ blacks. (I recall hearing much the same in an interview with actress CCH Pounder who is from Guyana.) ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/36 "2017-06-12T21:25:02Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Was I the only one expecting a discussion of how much red or green bias is needed in a YCbCr signal to give the most authentic/vintage picture? Anyone? No, you weren’t. I read the title originally as “color palette”, so… ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2017, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731/37 "2017-06-13T00:04:00Z")
I think the consternation the OP feels, is a result of accidental associations. The 1960’s were made famous as a time of great optimism and social and cultural awakening, with the media in particular (which was far more limited in those days, with only three major networks) constantly patting itself and others on the back for how all sorts of advancement of all kinds was going on. All that hopeful blather went down in the record, and by now people think of the sixties as a time of peace, love, and hippies, with liberty and justice for all. It fooled me too, even at the time. As 1968 began, and I was changing schools, I thought that I was about to enter into a society of creativity, friendliness and so on. But it turned out that not even the people who were dressing up AS hippies and free spirits were anywhere near as liberated as they wanted to pretend that they were. Big social changes take a lot of time, and don’t come at all to most individual people. The haters still hated, they just lost control of the Big Microphones of radio, and were shut away from control of the Big Eye of TV. I saw the third Men In Black movie recently, and it did a good job about this, in a small subplot. I commend it to you to look for it. Will Smith’s character has to go back in time, and the guy who helps him do so, warns him “Do not lose that time device or you will be stuck in 1969! It wasn’t the best time for your people. I’m just saying.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-insane-color-prejudice-of-us-tv-in-the-60s/788731.md?page=1)