'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' Episode 8: Charlton Townsend, both racist and gay, mirrors real-world problem
John Logan's second edition of 'Penny Dreadful' has hewed quite closely to our real-world realities -- even the uncomfortable ones. So, in last week's episode, you had Councilwoman Beck confront Alex about her ambitions to make Councilman Charlton Townsend, "a racist demagogue without a single scruple, the President of the United States". Alex declares it's possible because of the vote bank of "angry men and women" who think they have been betrayed.
Within the show, this betrayal refers to the 'New Deal' President Roosevelt and the values he espoused. Alex, then says that Councilwoman Beck and President Roosevelt will keep the vote of the "colored and the Jews and people of worth", while they would "take everyone else". Simultaneously, Magda as Rio fires up Mateo to lead the Pachucos in a bloody revolution after he and Josephina are accosted and assaulted by the LA police for no reason.
The series has been so accurate in depicting current realities through the lens of 1930s LA that there have been discussions on Twitter about the show's good/bad timing portraying race realities, depending on how real you like your entertainment to be.
However, in Pride Month, it is uncomfortable to see one of the prominent gay characters on the show, Councilman Townsend, representing the worst kind of white privilege. However, this is a problem that the LGBTQ community has grappled for years.
Surveys show how many white men say it is their "preference" not to date black people or people of color, which affects the politics of dating on sites like Grindr, a vivid example of deeply ingrained racial bias manifesting as 'sexual preference', not based on looks or other known markers of sexual attractiveness, but rather purely based on skin color. In contrast, very few people say "no whites" on such sites.
There have also been several instances where gay bar owners have instituted policies that discriminate against their black patrons, like charging a cover on days that sees sizable black attendance, serving drinks in plastic cups instead of glassware to black patrons because they are 'prone to violence', refusing to serve Hennessy or play rap music or ban certain items of clothing because it is associated with black culture.
Black and brown men continue to face racist attacks in so-called "safe spaces" like gay bars. In cities like Atlanta, Georgia, and Philadelphia, the divisions run so deep that there are separate Black Pride celebrations. Racism has led to revisionism in popular culture representations where black and brown presence and contributions in fighting for LGBTQ rights have been systematically erased like in Roland Emmerlich's 2015 movie 'Stonewall'.
There is also the devastating realization that the fear around the AIDS epidemic, once a uniting force for the community, has ceased to matter after it became the disease that was devastating mainly to the African-American and Latinx population.
So yes, it is refreshing to see a complex character like Councilman Townsend who represents the racial prejudice of a rich white man, spewing venom against "spics" and other people of color, even as he faces oppression himself for "being different". There might be unease around seeing a gay character being a white supremacist, but it is real and human because human beings are seldom logical and very often contradictory in their impulses.
Facing oppression yourself, for one thing, doesn't automatically make you sensitive to the oppression faced by others for something else. Councilwomen Beck too might be "good" in her conviction to stop Councilman Townsend's "social engineering" through road building but she is also prejudiced against queers as this week's episode shows. 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' shows that as we point a finger at others, four fingers are pointing right back at us.
The next episode of 'Penny Dreadful: City of Angels' airs on June 21 on Showtime.