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I just discovered this video from the 1950s while on YouTube. It’s really fantastic. It’s a totally honest, holistic look at the process of hiring a “Negro” (a more widely used term back then) secretary at a business in which that has yet to be done. It’s especially interesting to see how the prejudices are fresher and stronger in the people working within the company at the grunt level as opposed to the managers and higher-ups.
5 comments
1 |
Decatur Deb Sun, Jun 5, 2011 6:16:49am |
There is an ironic blend of racial anti-discrimination message and gender bias. Did you notice a very young Ed Asner at the board meeting? (The 50’s attitudes are fairly commonplace, IIRC.)
| 3 |
What, me worry? Sun, Jun 5, 2011 9:04:57am |
Love, love, love it.
It’s especially interesting to see how the prejudices are fresher and stronger in the people working within the company at the grunt level as opposed to the managers and higher-ups.
I didn’t really see that. I think management voiced both reticence and acceptance as did the office workers.
The theme that spoke to me was fear. Not just Mary’s fear of being the only Black woman in a white office, but the fear represented by Beth, the stenographer at the board meeting, that if she accepts Mary, what will the other women say? Even though she believes “it’s about time we woke up” to this reality. The boss tells her not to be frightened of the other womens’ prejudices. It is Beth who quite willingly invites Mary to the lunch table.
Then the scene at Mary’s home where her mother explains the fears she had and her mother had, and that she needs to press through. So many Rosa Parks existed who remained unsung.
What about the woman who threatens to resign? Did you notice the boss chastises her twice about coming in late?
Anyway, thanks for sharing :)
| 4 |
Our Precious Bodily Fluids Sun, Jun 5, 2011 9:34:56am |
Read the credits carefully, all the way to the end. Utterly fascinating.
Also, Tea Party shit-storm fuel.
| 5 |
Michael Orion Powell Sun, Jun 5, 2011 12:49:26pm |
I didn’t really see that. I think management voiced both reticence and acceptance as did the office workers.
They weren’t exactly marching with Martin Luther King but their reticence was very different from the overt hostility of the secretary and the man who just stares at her and says “How do you do?” twice.
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