There wasn’t anything furtive about the phone call or a gentlemen’s agreement to identify the man by first name only.
It wasn’t a matter of physical danger. State secrets and war plans weren’t going to be discussed; that’s what Signal is for.
But if we — reporter and source — proceeded, there were reasons for concern. The man had legitimate reservations about the rush to declare “The Andy Griffith Show” the official state television program and he didn’t want to risk catching strays from trolls.
“That’s your job,” Ken said.
But in a diverse state with 2.2 million Black residents, and 1.1 million Latinos out of a population of 11 million — 30 percent — officially embracing a lily-white TV show filmed during the height of the civil rights movement is, at minimum, worth a discussion.
“I love that show,” our man said. “I grew up in North Carolina and I relate to it. I always thought my dad was a lot like Andy Taylor or vice versa. But ….”
Yeah. But.
Official television show
Me, you, Ken and that guy spending hours watching cat videos knows the honorables in Raleigh have far more important things to do than debate the merits of a 50-plus year old sitcom.
Hurricane Helene relief, school vouchers, rigging elections and ignoring a coming tsunami when Congress shreds Medicaid to name but a few.
But the honorables being what they are — wealthy enough to take a full-time job for $22k a year and overwhelmingly white — have always made time for the frivolous. Besides, Andy Griffith is a most favorite son and slapping an official designation on his namesake is harmless, right?
At last count, North Carolina has an official dog (the Plott hound), carnivorous plant (the Venus fly trap), sport (stock car racing) and art medium (clay) to name but a few.
So why not toss another designation into the mix? It doesn’t cost anything. Other than hot air wafting across the floor of the Legislature.
H.B. 557, which sponsors called “an act adopting ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ as the official television show of the state of North Carolina,” sailed through the House of Representatives, headed for the Senate and very likely will land on the desk of Gov. Josh Stein.
On a superficial, surface level, it seems to make sense.
“The Andy Griffith Show,” per bill sponsors, celebrates North Carolina and its culture for a national audience and displays “positive character values.”
Save one thing: Mayberry, as depicted on CBS for eight seasons in the 1960s, was rather, shall we say, monochromatic. Not a Black character in sight.
The ink on Brown vs. the Topeka (Kansas) Board of Education was still wet and barely three years had passed since an American president ordered the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to enforce it.
The 1960s, as far as race relations go, were far more complex than the idealized, make-believe Mayberry,
And that’s what set Ken to thinking.
“I don’t have the statistics in front of me but a third of the state must be African American,” he said. “I just don’t see how the state can put its stamp on something without acknowledging that in some way.”
The man has a point. Like it or not, we are in the throes of a cultural war.
The Trump administration, love it or loathe it, has launched a crusade against the “influence of a divisive race-centered ideology” with laughable results.
Pulling references to Jackie Robinson’s military service, even temporarily? Come on.
Messaging, even for something as seemingly innocuous as acknowledging the light-hearted fun — and yeah, the positive values of trust and respect — begat by Andy, Barney, Aunt Bee and Otis, matters.
If it didn’t, would young white tweens be openly using the N-word and making whip-cracking noises at classmates?
It’s not an everyday thing, the evidence is anecdotal and easily denied at administrative levels, but overt racism isn’t an outlier, either. Ask a teacher who works in a suburban school.
I get that choosing an official state television show isn’t the world’s most pressing issue and the yeah-buts apply: Ease up. It was a different time.
Ken and I both know that the inbox and the comments section are about to get swamped.
HB 557 will sail through with little or no debate before the honorables get back to the real business of gutting public education through the voucher program.
“I can’t imagine how awful it must make non-whites feel that the Legislature would even consider this,” Ken said. “What does this say about the way our leaders see them?”
