>HR: Okay. Uh, you know, I’ve seen the show described as “racially charged.” Uh, do you agree with that, Deirdre and Seth? And David, if that is true, is that something you intended? (after a pause, to Seth and Deirdre) Let me ask you both first.

DL: Racially charged.

HR: Racial tension. Racially tense.

(Dierdre starts to answer)…

HR: Tension between races…

* laughter *

DL: Thank you…

HR: … think of 6 or 7 races and every tension…

DL: … give me another clue, Larry…

* laughter *

DL: I, um, I… I don’t know, I think it’s just realistic. Um, S… I don’t know, Seth, you’re black, why don’t you take this one?

* laughter *
* applause *

SG: I actually, uh…

HR: You play a black character…

SG: Yes…

HR: … which works out great.

* laughter *

SG: A lot of research…

MKW: … he just plays one on TV…

SG: Years and years of research go into the… playing of a black character.

* laughter *

SG: Uh, I don’t know, I… I’m not sure that the show is racially charged or if it just has a lot of black people on it.

* laughter *
* applause *

DL: I really don’t know. I… I honestly…

AR: Yeah, that’s all.

SG: Lot of black folks.

DL: I honestly don’t know how to answer that question. Because (the show) is what it is, and um, it depicts, um, in a very realistic way, uh, I guess, um, I guess it’s… (inaudible)

(a few people talking at once)

SG: I think there’s, you know, I think there’s a little bit of racial tension whenever you get people of two different, you know… different nationalities together, you know...

SS: … but the hoppers don’t have the cops because they’re black…

AF: Right.

SS: … the hoppers hate the cops because they’re cops.

AF: Right.

SG: I was… I wasn’t thinking about the hoppers and the cops, I was… actually, I was trying to look for something that was racially charged and thinking, well, maybe there’s something in the way that, you know, the lieutenants deal with the sergeants and what have you. It’s just black and white characters talking to each other.

SS: The thing is, we have black cops that are, you know, the higher ups. I mean…

DL: I do know that there was an AP article, um, last week, um, that mentioned, interracial couples, uh, on television. And it mentioned, uh—I don’t remember who the other ones were. Um…

* laughter *

DL: But it did mention Lance Reddick (Daniels) and myself. And I remember thinking, wow, I guess, I mean, we don’t… I mean, I… I… (to HR) that’s why your initial “racially charged” question stumped me so much, it’s just, I… it’s so much… I guess I think we’ve come farther than we… than we have. But apparently this interracial relationship is, um, something that still bears writing about, when… when I actually then thought about it I guess, you know, there’s not a lot of iconography for that and just (inaudible)--

AF: I actually think the term “racially charged,” about this show, is so lazy.

ED: Yeah.

AF: It’s charged, and there are a lot of people…

* applause *

DL: Thank you.

AF: …who are non-white on the show.

DS: Usually when we bring up race in the writing, we’re… we’re doing it to mock people’s expectations. Um, we usually… there’ll be moments of, somebody makes a racial presumption and then will be found out on. Um, the show’s about how power and money route itself in a city. It’s about class.

RW: Exactly.

DS: And class is the great… is now the great dividing line in American culture, it’s not race anymore. That’s not to say there’s not inherent racism, (and) that it won’t be a residual problem for a long time, but more and more people, with every generation, wanna live, uh, in a multicultural world. They want their kids to grow up with friends of different… I mean, this… in every poll it says, that part is getting… that cultural awareness is getting a little bit healthier, as we… as…. What’s not is the, is the divisions of class. Nobody wants to… you know, everyone wants to be in the right school district, uh, with… they want their kids to be in the right school district, the black and white kids alike, and they want, uh, a certain amount of, uh, of security and financial wherewithal. And… and so, the show’s really about that. And it’s written in this sort of post… you know, I mean, I worked on Homicide, and I thought Homicide dealt with issues of race very aggressively and very well. But I watch some of those shows now, uh, 10-15 years later, and they are dated in terms of the sophistication with which race is perceived by… by a lot of people in culture.

HR: Well, as a disclaimer, I have to tell you, I read that in the newspaper, and everybody knows you cannot believe anything in newspapers…

* laughter *

HR: … so, there you go.
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