Being 'woke' isn't new

[cornerofmadness]

And I think it might come in waves. But more on that in a bit.

Today was the dean of nursing's retirement party. She's been with my uni for 40 years and has been my friend. I've taught three of her daughters (ironically one of them is working at Grant, the trauma hospital I was treated in after my injury). The party was a bit of a sticky point. My uni won't pay for them (Honestly 40 years and you won't fucking spring for a shitty dinner?) so we paid 25$ for horrible food from our cafeteria's catering services. Food aside it was a nice send off and I'm glad I went.

Back to my initial statement, without being too political, I do feel like this comes and goes in waves, getting a little better each time before stagger back some. (Witness the freedom of the 1920s vs the overweening religiousness of politics in the 50s). So I'm rewatching Emergency! 1972-1979. I mentioned this before but I came into the rewatch around S3. (S7 sucked it don't bother).

So I AM wondering if the first two episodes were ever aired as the first two episodes because a) it's a frame story with Randolph Mantooth with WAY longer hair than he had until S3 b) it was frankly boring AF. BUT it did set up some of the politics of the time. Many younger people on the list have had 911 all their lives. I remember when it came to be. Paramedics as we see them today didn't start until the time period between me and my brother's births (late 60s early 70s). In fact emergency medicine we know today came about around the same time. THe first two were literal political battles in getting the program set up.

So we have a mirror to the politics of the time and it does do that a lot (Star Trek did too of course just a few years earlier and a lot has been said about that, books have been written). We see discourse on the drug culture of the 60s, women coming into the police/paramedic fields (which is one of the more misogynistic things I saw from the show), it did multiple episodes on child abuse and getting help to stop abusing etc.

But that's not necessarily what I wanted to say about the wokeness. Let's look at the first three seasons of Emergency! (because it takes until S2 to get the stable cast we have up to but sadly not including the last season).



Roy DeSoto (main star) & Chet Kelly (and Captain Stanley) are the White fire fighters but we also had Marco Lopez (who obviously was never meant to be a permanent character as that's the actor's name as well) and the other main star, Johnny Gage.

Marco being a Latino was always in full view. He spoke Spanish when needed (even in S1) He does things/cooks things to honor his heritage. Johnny is Native American and in S1/2 that isn't hidden (you don't see it much in later episodes). I just watched an episode "Peace Pipe" that tackles racism, not entirely successfully but keep in mind this is 1972. THey were watching a movie that in theory depicted an actual event dealing with Whites and Natives (Indians in 1972 parlance).

Johnny is very upset by this. Chet doesn't get it. Isn't this the truth? That's how we learned it in school. Johnny pops off with something about White Land grabbers (guess we'd call them colonial invaders now 50 years later). Roy defends the racist humor they sometimes have (thanks for nothing Roy for taking the well it's funny don't be so sensitive route) Chet tries the my great grandma was a Cherokee princess thing that SO MANY White folk have claimed over the years. (even 50 years ago Johnny found that stupid) Chet talks about the anthropologists and Johnny told him what it was like to have those people come on the reservation.

So we had a very in your face racism storyline that would be at home today (much like all the BLM story lines that pissed off racist fans last year).

Looking at Rampart, it's mostly White with Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early and Dixie. But we see Black nurses and we DO have a Black resident doctor, Dr. Morton who is there the entire show except the last season which isn't at Rampart at all. Morton does give us a Black perspective in various episodes.

So we have a fairly diverse cast when you consider this was 50 years ago (silvrethornStar Trek was too so why didn't I pick that? Because right now between Star Trek Discover and Star Trek Brave New World I'm seeing SO GOD DAMN MANY racist, misogynistic and homophobic fans I have to wonder what the fuck show they were watching when they decided they love ST? That show has ALWAYS been about diversity (it's the Vulcan philosophy FFS) so why the hate for a Black female captain or a gay couple? Did they forget ST DS9 gave us one of the first LGBT kisses on TV? That Uhura was an officer?

In both shows I did see less of the racial stuff as the series went on. Have to wonder if censors stepped in (Much more noticeable in ST)

And apropos of nothing, I noticed how many episodes have Johnny Gage whump. Guess I had a type even as a kid.

Comments

[under_the_silk_tree]

I didn't watch much of this series, but I did watch some other series in the same era like Starsky and Hutch and they were always having episodes that dealt with racism, misogyny, and violence against the vulnerable. So I am not sure why people are complaining about the "woke" culture today other than they want to complain.

[cornerofmadness]

I honestly believe it's a mix of fear and entitlement. The more we level the playing field for everyone, the more we can't sit back and expect to be at the top without effort just because we happen to have a certain skin color or gender. Seeing it openly accepted is a threat to some.

And you're right several shows back there were far more diverse than say a lot of stuff in the 80s-00s