← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Robbie
Thread ID: 12162 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2004-02-05
2004-02-05 13:56 | User Profile
Last night, I saw a show on a public television station about New York City. I soon discovered it was one of those shows where hosts go to various places around the city to get a "feel" for things. The two hosts were British.
It didn't take long before I figured out that this particular show was not going to show the viewer a lot of Manhattan has to offer. For the majority of the show, the male host was in the Lower East Side, showing us Chinatown, the Jewish section, a barrio, and some blacks playing basketball. The clueless host trades in his All-Star lowtops for a phat pair of Nikes and gets his thang on with the brothas, shows them that he's got game. He then travels to Harlem (with a black chaperone) who brings him to something called the "Afro-American Mall", where he meets a man named "Farrakhan" and the cameras display a flag of the Nation Of Islam. From there, he goes to City Island in the Bronx, one of the borough's barrios, with a Blatino chaperone.
The female host spends her time in Chelsea, staying at the avant-garde Chelsea Hotel. She also goes to a gay bar and a modern art museum. Surprisingly, she goes to a trapeze lesson school off the Hudson River, does some kayaking on the water, and goes to a thrift shop in the Upper East Side. The latter is the only time on the show where we get to see anything that resembles gentility. Along the way, she goes to the future rebuilding site of the World Trade Center and weeps in a church with some Indian man who was around the area when the attacks happened.
There was also a segment where she visits the United Nations, and it is obvious that the stressing of "multiculturalism" is, in essence, the hallmark of this particular show. The female host also goes to Fire lsland, where they show a gay section with the rainbow flag flying. Nothing could be complete without adding that one of the neighborhoods has been a refuge for gay men since the 1930's, to escape the "prejudices" they encountered on the mainland.
It was obvious that this show was not going to show the viewer many of the things that make New York City what it is. Though the female host was seen on Fifth Avenue, it was not for a long time, and there was no mention of the fact it was one of the most pre-eminent avenues in the city. She did appear on Museum Mile to visit the Metropolitan Museum Of Art, and surprise of surprises, they did tone down the "diversity" when they were inside.
To be expected, there were no visits to Little Italy, Broadway's Theater District, the department stores, and the like. Since this is a public television show, you can believe that anything that hints at Eurocentrism is going to be avoided or if at the most, downplayed.
2004-02-05 14:32 | User Profile
Robbie, I watch GlobeTrekker almost every week on NYC public channel WNYE. I've yet to see their NYC trekk but the ones I've seen almost always concern the "great cultures" of Africa and Asia. Ian is the British guy and the woman is a Jewess, Justine Shapiro. I've seen her pontificate wildly on her trips to Africa, most recently South Africa where she all but gave blowjobs to all the "poor" folks in the townships. Racism still exists there you know!!!
Ian, on a recent show about the Outback in Australia, of course-you guessed it-featured the terrible plight of the poor Aborigines. At one point, in the middle of the desert, a huge rock that is considered an Aborigini shrine had a bunch of tourists climbing to the top. Ian declared that he would not dare set one foot on that piece of rock.
I remember Ian doing a trek in Austria. The jewish cemeteries made prominent features in the show as well as Austria's past Nazi affiliations. However, I'll give him some credit on highlighting the fact that most metro stations in Austria use an honor system for the metro fees....meaning there's no turnstiles or armed police guards roaming the subways.
I still wonder if Ian and Justine actually realize anything about the superiority of White lands compared to the shite in their Third World trekks.
2004-02-05 16:39 | User Profile
This is an aside to your post. Some years ago there was a survey done in Australia where the question was what should be done about the plight of the aborigines. A big majority of those who answered put in responses along the lines that they should be dump on an island in the Pacific and bombed into oblivion.
2004-02-05 22:59 | User Profile
[QUOTE=xmetalhead]Robbie, I watch GlobeTrekker almost every week on NYC public channel WNYE. I've yet to see their NYC trekk but the ones I've seen almost always concern the "great cultures" of Africa and Asia. Ian is the British guy and the woman is a Jewess, Justine Shapiro. I've seen her pontificate wildly on her trips to Africa, most recently South Africa where she all but gave blowjobs to all the "poor" folks in the townships. Racism still exists there you know!!!
Ian, on a recent show about the Outback in Australia, of course-you guessed it-featured the terrible plight of the poor Aborigines. At one point, in the middle of the desert, a huge rock that is considered an Aborigini shrine had a bunch of tourists climbing to the top. Ian declared that he would not dare set one foot on that piece of rock.
I remember Ian doing a trek in Austria. The jewish cemeteries made prominent features in the show as well as Austria's past Nazi affiliations. However, I'll give him some credit on highlighting the fact that most metro stations in Austria use an honor system for the metro fees....meaning there's no turnstiles or armed police guards roaming the subways.
I still wonder if Ian and Justine actually realize anything about the superiority of White lands compared to the shite in their Third World trekks.[/QUOTE]
I didn't even know that Justine was a Jewess, but now that you told me, she did come off as being p.c. and "artsy", if you will.
Ian reminds me of one of these types that come to America and marvel at the nirvanas of the ghetto and barrio and think that these places are some gift from God. Keep in mind that this was the first time I had watched this show, so from the beginning I knew it was very p.c. (obviously, since it was publiuc television).
I can be sure that their Austrian excursion was yet another pity-the-oppressed-Chosen-never-forget-the-evil-Nazis hack job. I can only wonder what they did for their journey to Germany (if they've ever done one for her yet).