MovieChat Forums > Grease (1978) Discussion > No blacks, no asians, no hispanics in hi...

No blacks, no asians, no hispanics in high school?


I guess diversity in movie was not a big thing back then....

Show me the holes!

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No, that's not it. The movie took place in the late 50s and back then, high schools were still very much racially segregated. You need to keep in mind that the Supreme Court had ruled on Brown vs. the Board of Education only several years earlier (in 1954), but many localities, especially in the South, were still very resistant to integrating their schools--from elementary school on up to college. If there were any minorities in these schools, they truly were in the minority. I'll give you an example: my mom attended high school in West Chicago, Illinois, from 1957-1960, and she was one of only about 2-3 Hispanics out of an otherwise white student population. Her classmates did accept and befriend her, but she was truly in the minority. Of course, it's a much different story today, but this movie is a portrait of life in another era and I think the producers wanted to faithfully portray things as they were back then.

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Makes sense. Thanks.

Show me the holes!

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You're welcome. Knowing your history is key.

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I can't believe anyone is so dumb to not know that.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

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You can't be blamed for not knowing something. Discussion is how you learn.

The only thing anyone should be ashamed of is turning away from knowledge - not how they acquired it.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

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No. You can definitely be held to account for not knowing etiquette, grammar, punctuation, arithmetic, personal hygiene, the Social Contract, the rules of the road (ALWAYS signal when changing direction or braking, sidewalks are for pedestrians and not for ANY kind of vehicle except for baby carriages, shopping carts and children’s electric toys supervised by parents).

How can you be blamed for writing an interrogative sentence without a question mark? Quite easily.

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There is a black couple at the dance.

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Yes, there is. In a real squint-and-you'll-miss-them scene lol

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Hello?????? Fernando Lamas is Hispanic!!!

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Hello?????? Fernando Lamas is Hispanic!!!
What has that got to do with high school kids in the 50's?

Let Zygons Be Zygons.

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She meant Fernando's son Lorenzo Lamas (now Lorenzo Lamas Craig), who appears as the dumb jock Tom Chisolm. Half of his heritage is South-American. Since he seems to have a combination of features--and a very good combination they make-- from his father and mother Arlene Dahl (born in the U.S.A., and of German and Norwegian heritage, like many Minnesotans) it would be a stretch to say that the non-speaking character was meant to "represent". In fact, we know he was not, because originally cast in the role was Steve Ford, son of former president Gerald and as white as they come.

Well, I guess Johnny Winter was as white as they come, but you get the idea.

Back to the topic at hand, I'm guessing that no one gave a thought to diversity when casting began in late '76 or early '77. Nor is it likely that anyone behind the scenes said, "We'd better not use any black extras, because that would've been no-no in 1959". I totally get how it sticks out today, but was how it was back then.

"Well, for once the rich white man is in control!" C. M. Burns

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There's a few black people about but like someone else said if you blink you'll miss them.I did notice though it was black guys dancing with white women,I don't recall seeing one black woman.

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was cha cha not hispanic? i thought that was implied (the rhythmic and sensual dancing) perhaps im wrong

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Her surname is DiGrigorio, which is Italian. Cha-Cha is a nickname, we're never told her given name.

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Of the surnames - Rizzo Lattieri, Maraschino Italian, Zuko sounds Polish, not sure about Kenickie.

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One of the singers in the group Johnny Casino and the Gamblers (Sha-na-na) was definately black. And yes, there was a black couple dancing in the gymnasium. Plus I could swear one of the girls in Beauty School Dropout was dark skinned.

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In addition to the segregation someone mentioned, consider this movie was made in the 70's about life in the 50's.
The cultural makeup of the nation was VASTLY different in both if those eras from where it is now.
There's a reason the term "minority" came into being. LoL

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And there was a bigger cultural gulf between the 50s and the 70s than there is between the 70s and now. The reason there is little diversity in Grease is not because it was made in the 70s (the Civil Rights Movement had taken place over a decade earlier, FFS!)but because, as others have said, it's set in the 50s. After the seismic changes of the '60s, in 1978, the year 1958 must have seemed like a thousand years gone. Go back 20 years now, and 1994 doesn't seem *quite* so distant, does it?

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nope, none at all.



Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

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I went to junior-high school in Massachusetts in the 70's and we didn't have one black student. Some neighborhoods just didn't have blacks. Eventually there were only 2 black students.

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I'm white, and was in grade school in the sixties. We had one black student in my grade - and very few in other classes.

High school was almost as bad.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

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'High school was almost as bad.'
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Interesting , what do mean as bad?
It's not a question of bad or good, but demographics. I didn't live in an upper-class town/neighborhood. It's just the way it was then in a smaller New England town.

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"Bad" as in less educational. People learn from being around a whole variety of others. Our segregated town turned out people with unchallenged perceptions about "others", because we never knew anyone but our mirror images.

A woman from the same semi-rural area visited my home in the 90s. (Family friend of my husband, she was about 10 years older than me.) She used the n-word and I told her firmly but politely that was unacceptable. We ended up in a heart-to-heart about the standards we were brought up with. She was told as a child that all black people had lice, and carried that "knowledge" right into her twenties. They weren't real people to her, because she barely knew any.

Sure, integrated areas people with misperceptions about others. It's just that much less likely when you all grow up together.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

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I have to disagree. Educational is different than having class, much of which is due to parenting. Being in a small town meant I was only 20-30 miles from Boston, not "segregated" from the world. Watching TV was also educational. Again, it depends on where; town /state you went to high school.

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Yeah, different experiences. I was in the sticks - the nearest city was 2-3 hours away.

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Nothing to see here, move along.

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Yeah, could you possibly imagine filming this movie today? I bet you couldn't even get the kids to put their cellphones down!

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I don't have that much of a problem with there not being many minorities in movies like Grease. 1978 was a long time ago and I would imagine that schools during the 50's in most of the U.S. were pretty white, and as another poster said earlier there was still racial segregation at all levels. My problem is that in 2015 there are still no Mexicans in most movies or television. It's like we don't exist. I personally can't stand that they force Asians or Blacks into roles were there would not be any, such as in medieval movies. Give me a break. I'm 50 years old and I don't see things changing anytime soon. When most people talk about discrimination in Hollywood they're always screaming that there aren't any women directors or producers or that a western movie had no blacks. Think about this: in most U.S. made Westerns there were often no Mexicans at all. How is that even possible? Of course when they do appear they're drunks and bandits only, and can't shoot straight. It took Spaghetti Westerns to give a more realistic view of the South West. Embarrassing.

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That inappropriate, forced race casting drives me nuts too. But your right - if anyone is oppressed and misrepresented, it's Latinos....which really stinks.

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Actors have to first of all look right.

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There are movies out now that have no whites, asians, or hispanics. So what's your point?

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It would've been more politically correct to add minorities but not very realistic. I don't think minorities were very prevalent in the 50's back then and if they were present, I can't imagine them being accepted and may probably have remained in the fringes. Sad but true.

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This movie is set in Southern California, where schools were desegregated in the '40s and minorities were definitely prevalent. A lot of schools were very diverse. Adding minorities would have been both realistic and correct.

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At my high school in southern California in the late 1960s there were zero black students. This was in low to average-income north Orange County, not some exclusive rich community. Being all or predominantly white in the late 1950s was quite plausible for the school in "Grease".

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