As you say, it also strikes me that the show might be seen as balancing previous bias or under-representation rather than accurately representing a typical Australian police force - not that I'd make the demand that any specific TV show needed to reflect average ethnicity anyway ... the whole thing is too bound up with premise, context and the other crucial aspects of good drama to be mandated by demography, and in this case it's clear that the non-white ethnicities of the cop protagonists is part and parcel with the premise.
With my previous comment I thought to point out that your statement that this show portrays the "real" or "actual" Australia was, for me, contentious - the paper you found itself cites the disproportionate representation of the "Anglosphere" in policing and the difficulties faced by diversity initiatives particularly in recruiting from East / SE Asian ethnicities among migrants and second / third generation settlers. Interestingly the paper seems to imply the principal reason for the under-representation of these ethnicities was a perception of policing as a low status profession - fits nicely with monoculture stereotypes, I wonder how true it is.
It would be ridiculous for me to comment further without actually watching the show anyway ...
There are many Australias ... yours, unlike mine, has no scenes that don't feature Chinese-Australian women. Mine features a fuckton of scenes involving only white guys, I lived through yet another working day of that today. Also real, also out there, and probably more representative of my recent experiences with police (which have been oddly numerous lately).
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-19 02:48 pm (UTC)With my previous comment I thought to point out that your statement that this show portrays the "real" or "actual" Australia was, for me, contentious - the paper you found itself cites the disproportionate representation of the "Anglosphere" in policing and the difficulties faced by diversity initiatives particularly in recruiting from East / SE Asian ethnicities among migrants and second / third generation settlers. Interestingly the paper seems to imply the principal reason for the under-representation of these ethnicities was a perception of policing as a low status profession - fits nicely with monoculture stereotypes, I wonder how true it is.
It would be ridiculous for me to comment further without actually watching the show anyway ...
There are many Australias ... yours, unlike mine, has no scenes that don't feature Chinese-Australian women. Mine features a fuckton of scenes involving only white guys, I lived through yet another working day of that today. Also real, also out there, and probably more representative of my recent experiences with police (which have been oddly numerous lately).