I agree it doesn't need to be a binary choice. Lots can be done, some little is actually being done, and history proves the rate of change, while probably seen by those not suffering the inequality themselves as great strides forward from how bad it used to be, is frustratingly slow for those who are the ones suffering the inequality.
I don't disagree with any of this. Fast is better than slower. And we could be going an awful lot faster than we are today.
Related to this: Forward is better than backward.
My only original point in responding to your comment about quota "racism" was that it could well be a reaction to the perceived limited action towards tackling systemic covert racism beyond making it taboo to be openly racist.
Alternatively, imposing racial quotas on reality TV participants is a great way to generate headlines for a TV network (both positive and negative, but most likely to be perceived primarily positively by the young, affluent and college educated demographics which are most valuable to networks) and generate the perception of "doing something" without having to devote money or resources to addressing the real problem.
There seems to be a pretty strong consensus in this thread that racial quotas on reality TV are extremely pointless and frankly not even worth discussing. I don't think anyone is arguing reality tv quotas are actually an effective strategy to combat and disarm systematic racism are they?
My understanding is that I'm an outlier only in that I think stupid gestures like this may do long term hard to the goals it intends to promote even as it generates postive-to-their-target-demographics coverages for the corporations who enact it.
I certainly don't agree with that.
Representation in media really matters, even just stupid reality tv shows. But not seeing POCs on television definitely has a huge impact on the sense that the default is to be white and that POCs are the "others".
It matters that people of colour are seen. It very much matters that they are seen on media for young people and cast in roles that are cool, sexy, and fun, and that those roles are not just reserved for white people the way it was on The Bachelor for a truly embarrassingly long time.
And we can dismiss trash TV as pointless and not important, but let's face it, this is what people watch.
More young people watch and talk about Love Island than the news. The second season was won by a black couple and the man really played up his respect for his partner as a strong black woman. This started a massive online discussion of race issues because the woman was very dark and African, and the man was light skin mixed and had a white mother. It was revealed that he and his mother are both staunchly racist against dark black women and he was playing her and pandering to the audience.
Love Is Blind was another MASSIVE hit that featured a black man who faces enormous struggles and clear mental health issues because he is bisexual, and many people may not be aware of the additional struggles that LGBTQ+ POCs have to face.
Suffice to say, a lot of young white viewers who may have known very little about race issues got educated as to the realities that black women and queer men can face even within their own community. All because they wanted to gossip about a trashy reality show on Reddit where very involved discussions of race issues were happening, with a lot of POCs leading the conversations and educating readers as to the nuances of the dynamics they saw onscreen.
So it may seem frivolous and like pandering, but when POCs get included in the pop culture media, so do their experiences and issues become more entrenched in the pop culture narrative.
This is also how awareness becomes easy, and not a chore that people have to actively seek out. When non white cultures get blended into the dominant cultural narrative, the dominant culture stops being so Lilly white.
Reality show quotas aren't going to solve racism, but they create exposure and representation that's a hell of a lot better alternative than our young people continuing to consume hours upon hours of content featuring pretty much ONLY white people.
If this is the shit that people watch, then yeah, it being all white is a problem.
If quotas bring more POCs onto the screens of people who will then spend hours watching them and getting exposed to non white culture without having to put any effort into learning.
Well, I'm all for it, and certainly don't see it as a hollow PR move.