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Notes -
If you meet Clarence Thomas walking your dog, you don't live in the average American neighborhood.
They don't need to move in to be in a neighborhood, sometimes they're just 'jogging' through. If none of your neighbors are black and you see some unknown dark faces then it is uncommon.
Could be somebody's friend visiting or one of the horrific situations you hear about on the news too often.
I don't think your neighborhood is representative of what white American tv watchers live.
I know of 2 different wealthy/middle-class neighborhoods with a mix of Indians and whites in 2 different states, but I've never been in a mixed black wealthy/middle class neighborhood. I'm sure black judges and surgeons live in nice neighborhoods, but I expect them to be in a minority there and to be unlikely to see them while walking my dog.
My point all along is that your specific living situation is not universal across the country, yet advertisers predominantly show that specific white-washed middle-class American, with 'middle-class white Americans but dark-skinned' actors.
I think it would be better to show more black people on the poor side (ie the majority of them) and I'm sure white people on the poor side would also be able to relate to them. From what I've noticed, (poor) black women are more likely to be taking care of their family personally, at home.
I knew of one college students taking classes online while full-time handling a heavily disabled brother.
I had one neighbor (who was not a judge, police chief, surgeon etc) who had 2 disabled family members living with them. On my first and only conversation with another of her relatives I later learned was a convicted felon, they casually shared the story of some uncle doing time for a horrific homicide. I've know of many apparently 'good' white families with a failson, junkie or other - supposedly there is even one in the White House- but to me that interaction stood out. This kind of nuance of a good, hard-working person being 1-degree related to brutal [former?] criminals is not something American media shows.
The type of black people who appear in the media are more likely to show concern for admission to Ivy League schools, disparities in boardrooms and other upper-class concerns than the type of issues that most black Americans have to deal with. Broken families, out-of-wedlock childrearing, food deserts, transportation issues, crime issues...
Doesn't his mom live in some lower-middle-class borderline shithole southern hood? There was some controversy around him selling her house to a wealthy acquaintance for high five figures as I recall.
[EDIT] "his", it turns out, is genuinely ambiguous.
Unless you are Clarence Thomas, I think there is some confusion going on here...
...oh. that makes a great deal more sense.
Fucking pronouns, man
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