White wash [Home & Away]

Home & Away and its even-more-tedious cousin Neighbours have come under fire because their casts include too many nillas and not enough of the other races. The White Australia policy is back in vogue!:

University of Queensland Aboriginal studies lecturer Sam Watson said the dramas were operating an “exclusive white family club” that didn’t reflect Australia’s true demographic.

“The producers and directors of these shows are very sadly harking back to the White Australia policy of the ’40s and ’50s,” he said. “Instead of embracing the rich diversities of our country, they are shunning it.”

To be fair to both soaps, if you venture into a typical Australian beachside town or banal middle-class suburb there are a lot of crackers about.

Seriously, though: why does anyone expect anything of Home & Away and Neighbours, two shows that have rarely included any non-white, non-hetero, non-Christian, non-able-bodied characters who aren’t sensationalised stereotypes? Even if racially diverse characters were written into the show, they’d only be forced into tedious storylines about teen pregnancies and relationship angst and pranks gone awry anyway.