real world has been trying to get its gay on for several seasons now. deconstructing the casting of these shows has become a bit of an obsession for me. these decisions are made to contribute to the preset storyline that the producers want to explore. it has been a hoot to watch the "real people" transcend their "characters" and confound the producers and the audience's expectations.

take hawaii for example. ruthie and that white guy. what was his name? take a cute white guy throw him into hot party climate and watch the stereotypical sparks fly. he ended up a bookish nerd (no worries there...so am i) who was nearly invisible and left early heading back to law school. and ruthie? well, her alcoholism quickly overshadowed any controversy her lesbianism might have stirred up. that left only a warmed over "white folks hook-up and regret it" story which was a snooze. at least, no one was cast to be an overt homophobe. strike one.

then came new orleans. danny. one hot white guy, one party town, one mormon girl; whip to a frenzy. but then danny went and got his boyfriend on right before shooting. except for one night during the gras, sexuality was never a controversy (and actually this was more about fidelity than homo-ism). julie turned out to be the most open-minded, accepting, fully-realized person ever to appear on this schlock-fest, miles away from the reactionary, sheltered archetype she was meant to be. the show ended up falling back on time-worn race issues. boring. strike two.

return to new york gave up almost entirely on the gay as controversy angle, focusing almost exclusively on race, albeit with a twist: identity within the black community. though this could have been compelling, it was more often shrill and simplistic; of the "you aren't really black!" variety.

this season, it appears that the producers are not leaving it up to the fates. real world chicago will be about the gays. white gay male and black bisexual female. black straight male and white straight female have a problem with the lifestyle. set in the summer, throw them on beach and have at it. no chances here. insulated from devolution into controversy over gender or race, chris and aneesa are front and center. both are single and both have already gotten their freak on, stirring up a fair amount of shit around the house. hopefully, by season's end, both will have connived a way to appear as something other than the tired cliches the producers have set aside for them.

this isn't the only reason i've been watching this winter. having been filmed here in chicago last spring and summer, it is a weekly reminder of how nice it can be here once old man winter gives up the ghost for the year. and believe me, with snow in april, i need the reminder.

with the real world chicago preoccupied with the gays, that leaves MY real world chicago to address race. and address it, it has. this city is exceptionally diverse. what it is not is integrated. diversity without integration only takes race relations so far. recently i overheard a fairly disturbing conversation that drove this point home for me.

white woman in her late 30's/early 40's anxiously articulating her troubles to black woman in her late 20's/early 30's. both are fairly well appointed and clearly professional. from what i can gather, white woman is seeking black woman's advice about how to proceed against several white male colleagues who have been expressing "inappropriate" (her word) racial attitudes. but from the tenor of the conversation, she seemed to be more concerned about the expression and less concerned about the content. it isn't wrong to dislike "those people"; it's wrong to talk about it. she seemed quite upset that these men didn't have the good manners and common sense to keep their racism to themselves. and her friend seemed to accept that, suggesting diversity workshops, etc and offering that she prefers for people to ask when they have questions about black people than to remain ignorant.

when i was in law school, i had a black female friend who had a white female roommate who constantly asked questions like "do all black people...?", "why do black people...?", "but i thought black people..." after a few weeks of trying to address this politely, she had had enough and explained that she could only speak for her own experience; she could not and would not speak for "black people" and the assumption that any one person could speak for "the race" was even more offensive than her questions. she was getting past the words and addressing the attitudes underlying them. right on, sister.

unfortunately, the conversation i was overhearing was simply addressing the words. an important step, admittedly, but alarming in that it illustrated just how far race relations has to go in this part of the world. even the black woman's willingness to entertain whitey's questions reinforces the notion of "those people" at the heart of those words, the same notion of "those people" behind discrimination, hate speech and racial violence. talk about the REAL world.

didn't expect this to get so heavy, didja?