Hollywood’s Colorblind Illusion (audio)

Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed that his kids “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” And in the years that followed, it seems Hollywood didn’t quite get the message. Justin Gomer is an assistant professor of American studies at California State University, Long Beach, and he joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the films of the 1970s and 80s and how the portrayal of race worked against gains of the Civil Rights movement. His book is called “White Balance: How Hollywood Shaped Colorblind Ideology and Undermined Civil Rights.”