Today is the first day of school. Not for me, but for the 35,000 undergrad students and 5,000 graduate students at the University of Arizona. I am no longer part of your population. So for me, today is just Monday.
Today is actually my first not first day of school. And while I am still interning at the same show I was before as the other interns around me slowly disappear in a Stand By Me, walking along the tracks kind of way, I also see what most of them are going back to.
Am I out of college long enough to be nostalgic? Already once or twice I've caught myself muttering "When I was in college-" which is the young adult equivalent of "back in my day." Things really haven't changed that much. If you go to Tucson, Arizona, you will still find a batch of newly turned 21 year-olds and a sprinkling of 20 year-olds with compensating good posture at Champs on a Tuesday night. The football team will still suck, and the basketball team will still be under performing. Freshman girls will still be partying at fraternities while getting hit on by the senior who hasn't yet moved on.
So today is the first day of school; and while I miss returning to the familiar, I know that next year, on my next first day of not school, I'll look back at today with a similar sentiment. I'll make sweeping (possibly untrue) generalizations about my days as an intern and those I encountered with great nostalgia. And when I look back at pictures, I'll say I can't believe I ever thought that looked cool.
But I do look cool.
~Ross
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
An Affinity for Affinity
Minority is a bad word. Diversity is not.
I had the opportunity to assist in NBC Universal's NBC Unified program which, to define it simply, consists of a skimming along the top of the five affinity groups associated with NBCU. It was a who's who of gay, female, Asian, Hispanic, and black executives all in the same place for one reason. To give me a job.
I wish.
In reality, they were there to promote and encourage diversity in the workplace. Something that a sheltered white boy like myself didn't have the pleasure of growing up with.
I had a black friend once. His name was D'Angelo and he spoke in ebonics. It was from him that I first learned the "words" 'coo' and 'aint'. Subsequently, that's also when I learned from my parents what a double negative was; and that when I said "I ain't gonna eat no broccoli" I was actually declaring that, yes, I was indeed going to eat some broccoli.
Even though D'Angelo lived in one of the richest suburbs of San Francisco, he was still different from the rest of his classmates; less by the color of his skin than by his culture. When his family moved out of our white bread town, that was the last of my social encounters with a black person.
Also, I realized that for the first time in my life, I have a gay friend (HEY BRETT!). I could launch into a story about how even though I am from the San Francisco Bay Area, I was never exposed to a homosexual peer (nor was a homosexual peer ever exposed in front of me), rather I will assume that you get the point that I was fairly sheltered in my white washed suburban childhood.
And it wasn't until I went to the University of Arizona that I was introduced to the world of a minority and exclusion of my own at the Hispanic film festival. Films solely consisting of Hispanic themes, actors, and audiences isolated me from the culture rather than introducing me to it. Feeling out of place, my emotions wandered toward contempt. Being self-aware (a vice given to me by my two therapist parents) I acknowledged these feelings and opened my eyes for the first time that there might be some disdain directed at the Caucasian culture that this country clings to.
After working this event and sitting in on some of the discussions regarding diversity within a company, I realize that many of the same principles should be instated in my everyday life. First and foremost, we do not live in my white washed suburban hometown anymore, even Larkspur, California has seen an influx of other cultures, races and creeds. Second of all: this is not a bad thing. While we may choose to live in our own sheltered communities, we are all a part of a bigger global community. It is the result of an inability to communicate and understand other cultures that breeds contempt.
The way to fix this is not to hold exclusive events for one group, but rather trickle in diversity. Having an all Hispanic film festival is not diverse, nor does it make up for a lack of Hispanic presence in American culture. It merely creates a separation between the current culture of this country and the Hispanics within it leaving both Hispanics and Caucasians feeling threatened.
And as for "diversity" programs at companies that solely target minorities, this is also not diversity as diversity would also include Caucasians not exclude them because they are presently the majority.
In summation, please accept me into your diverse writer's program even though I am a white Jewish male in the entertainment industry.
Thank you,
Ross Bercun
I had the opportunity to assist in NBC Universal's NBC Unified program which, to define it simply, consists of a skimming along the top of the five affinity groups associated with NBCU. It was a who's who of gay, female, Asian, Hispanic, and black executives all in the same place for one reason. To give me a job.
I wish.
In reality, they were there to promote and encourage diversity in the workplace. Something that a sheltered white boy like myself didn't have the pleasure of growing up with.
I had a black friend once. His name was D'Angelo and he spoke in ebonics. It was from him that I first learned the "words" 'coo' and 'aint'. Subsequently, that's also when I learned from my parents what a double negative was; and that when I said "I ain't gonna eat no broccoli" I was actually declaring that, yes, I was indeed going to eat some broccoli.
Even though D'Angelo lived in one of the richest suburbs of San Francisco, he was still different from the rest of his classmates; less by the color of his skin than by his culture. When his family moved out of our white bread town, that was the last of my social encounters with a black person.
Also, I realized that for the first time in my life, I have a gay friend (HEY BRETT!). I could launch into a story about how even though I am from the San Francisco Bay Area, I was never exposed to a homosexual peer (nor was a homosexual peer ever exposed in front of me), rather I will assume that you get the point that I was fairly sheltered in my white washed suburban childhood.
And it wasn't until I went to the University of Arizona that I was introduced to the world of a minority and exclusion of my own at the Hispanic film festival. Films solely consisting of Hispanic themes, actors, and audiences isolated me from the culture rather than introducing me to it. Feeling out of place, my emotions wandered toward contempt. Being self-aware (a vice given to me by my two therapist parents) I acknowledged these feelings and opened my eyes for the first time that there might be some disdain directed at the Caucasian culture that this country clings to.
After working this event and sitting in on some of the discussions regarding diversity within a company, I realize that many of the same principles should be instated in my everyday life. First and foremost, we do not live in my white washed suburban hometown anymore, even Larkspur, California has seen an influx of other cultures, races and creeds. Second of all: this is not a bad thing. While we may choose to live in our own sheltered communities, we are all a part of a bigger global community. It is the result of an inability to communicate and understand other cultures that breeds contempt.
The way to fix this is not to hold exclusive events for one group, but rather trickle in diversity. Having an all Hispanic film festival is not diverse, nor does it make up for a lack of Hispanic presence in American culture. It merely creates a separation between the current culture of this country and the Hispanics within it leaving both Hispanics and Caucasians feeling threatened.
And as for "diversity" programs at companies that solely target minorities, this is also not diversity as diversity would also include Caucasians not exclude them because they are presently the majority.
In summation, please accept me into your diverse writer's program even though I am a white Jewish male in the entertainment industry.
Thank you,
Ross Bercun
Thursday, August 13, 2009
What to expect
First let me say that if you have any expectations for this blog, then you're going to be greatly let down; and then skyrocketed into space to surpass all your previous expectations to such a degree that your head, heart and genitals will surely explode.
From here I will begin to tell you my life and observations as I see it. From the perspective of a white Jewish guy in Hollywood trying to play the minority card. From the mind of an offspring of two therapists. From the upbringing of a sheltered upper middle class American, thrust into a world that could care less about his expectations.
There. Now that I've set the bar impossibly high, let us begin.
From here I will begin to tell you my life and observations as I see it. From the perspective of a white Jewish guy in Hollywood trying to play the minority card. From the mind of an offspring of two therapists. From the upbringing of a sheltered upper middle class American, thrust into a world that could care less about his expectations.
There. Now that I've set the bar impossibly high, let us begin.
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