User blog comment:Bigwolfonbase/Affirmative Action apparently it even applies to the pack/@comment-14168656-20130812154058

First off I am very surprised that there haven’t been any inflammatory comments made in the comments section. I’m very positively surprised. That being said I am half Puerto Rican and half African American. I was born and raised in Cataño, Puerto Rico and now living in the US for years. So my perspective on the social construct of Race is very unique. I found your article interesting, but am viewing it from a slightly different angle. I can appreciate your perspective (being a minority myself), but I think sometimes we need to try to look at things from the perspective of others as well. As minorities we have been socially conditioned to see everything racially (both by other minorities and by the majority). White Americans have not. Some do see things in terms of Race, but others don’t. I think it could be completely feasible that a show’s casting dept sometimes doesn’t think about how many minorities are on a show. Do you pay attention to how many Asians are on the shows that you watch? I personally don’t even think about it. It’s been pointed out time after time that there are often not enough African American actors in TV, so many LOOK for it every time there’s a new show. Keep in mind that African Americans make up about 12% of the US population where as White Americans make up approximately 65%. Then you have the fact that in different areas the distribution can skew significantly when looking at specific cities and neighborhoods. Personally I just want my TV to be realistic. If it takes place somewhere you could reasonably expect there to be a lot of African Americans, then I expect to see them. If it’s in a place I wouldn’t expect there to be many, I probably don’t even think about it. Teen wolf takes place in a fictional small town in Northern California. There have been FOUR recurring cast members that were played by African American actors this season. That’s more than how they would be represented in the general population. The main protagonist, the one the show is titled after, is Latino. Even more important than the numbers is the way that I’ve noticed the show works in general. Race is not acknowledged in the show at all. A few examples: Tyler Posey is half Mexican American (and to me even LOOKS like what is stereotypically thought of as Hispanic). However his character is racially ambiguous. I don’t know what Gage Golightly’s ethnicity is, but on the show her character’s name is Erica Reyes. The show has also NOT acknowledged or implied anything about her characters ethnicity either. A third example is Keahu Kahuanui. He is of indigenous Hawaiian decent, and his character’s surname, Mahealani, would imply that Danny is as well. Yet again there has been no racial implications to his character. The first Beta that Deucalion killed was named Marco, also racially ambiguous. Seeing a pattern here? They have a very diverse cast, but without throwing it in our faces. I think they have done a very good job of making the more important contrast, that of humans vs supernatural beings. When you have people that can shift into werewolves, I think it makes racial differences trivial. I get where you’re coming from, but I can’t say that I’ve had a similar reaction to the show. Interesting article though.