Brown
23rd March 2004, 09:35 PM
From Yahoo and Hollywood Reporter (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=638&e=8&u=/nm/20040323/en_nm/television_muppets_dc_2):Where countless politicians and diplomats have failed, Elmo, Cookie Monster and their "Sesame Street" buddies are on a mission to promote peace and tolerance in the Middle East.
A programing experiment using the Muppet characters was launched six months ago and was widely welcomed by parents, educators and the media. But the Muppets are not without their critics in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. Before we laugh too hard at this, let's pause and remember that Sesame Street started out with minority characters (such as Gordon and Susan) who were presented on equal footing with white characters and Latino characters. It's more common now, but in the 1970s, this sort of thing was rare on TV. In the show, racial distinctions were present, but they were shown to be unimportant. And damn if this sort of color-blindness didn't wash off on some of the kids.
Besides, awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Elmo and Cookie Monster is no nuttier than awarding it to Arafat, and it seems to me that Elmo and Cookie have a better shot at success than Arafat does.
A programing experiment using the Muppet characters was launched six months ago and was widely welcomed by parents, educators and the media. But the Muppets are not without their critics in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. Before we laugh too hard at this, let's pause and remember that Sesame Street started out with minority characters (such as Gordon and Susan) who were presented on equal footing with white characters and Latino characters. It's more common now, but in the 1970s, this sort of thing was rare on TV. In the show, racial distinctions were present, but they were shown to be unimportant. And damn if this sort of color-blindness didn't wash off on some of the kids.
Besides, awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Elmo and Cookie Monster is no nuttier than awarding it to Arafat, and it seems to me that Elmo and Cookie have a better shot at success than Arafat does.