Lovecraft Country Episode 3

Published August 31, 2020 · Updated July 6, 2022

Hi King Bee, Ashley, and Gene,
Another really good episode of Lovecraft Country last night and a fun Twitch round up. Two things I would like to discuss, neither having much to do with the haunted house. First is when Hippolyta shredded George’s copy of Dracula. She was so angry at George. I was widowed 12 years ago, and I can relate to those moments of ‘how could you do this to me? how could you leave me?’ There’s nothing rational about the feeling and like the other forms of grief, it comes and goes with no rhyme or reason. Then she felt bad about it and replaced the copy, even though the only person who would have truly cared about the dog-eared paperback was George.

Second was the comment at the party by Ruby when she was discussing her efforts at landing the job at Marshall Fields. The fact that she understands that being Black may affect her hiring prospects, but that just means she has to try harder. When I was a kid, my mother’s friend told me a story about the diner she worked at. She is Italian and had just come back from summer vacation. She tans very, very dark. The customers were upset that the owner had hired a Black woman. The owner had to assure them that she was not Black, just Italian. She thought it was hilarious, I thought it was pretty damn disturbing, but I was 10, so what did I know. And to show how little has changed, MIT did a study in 2003 sending 5000 resumes to 1300 companies. The only difference among the resumes were the stereotypical white or black names on the applications. Fifty percent more of the resumes with white sounding names received requests for interviews than the resumes with Black sounding names. Even the researchers were shocked by the outcome.

This is what is so interesting about this show. Moments that show the conflicting attitudes, motivations and life experience of developing characters.

Stay safe.
Stay well.

Susan
State College

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