Employees get hold of employer's racist reality series pitch.

[Liberal_in_LA]

Reality Beauty School TV Pitch Triggers Ugly Response

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- The image pitched for a TV show centered on an Alameda beauty school turned ugly Thursday night with protesting students claiming the proposed plot had little to do with their reality.

Students at the school got a hold of the document Thursday. It is a pitch for a reality television show the school's owners -- Roger and Tracy Becker -- said they wrote. The couple also said the pitch is being taken out of context.

The students said the concept of the show was exploitative.

Students gathered outside the Alameda Beauty College Thursday, angry about the TV show pitch that featured their school and them.

'That's a big issue of privacy,” said student Christina Baker. “A really big issue."

The document is a four-page pitch for a reality series about the college. The Beckers have registered the pitch with the Writers Guild of America.

A former employee apparently obtained and distributed it to students. Some said elements of it are racist and it exploits students and staff.

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The document described the proposed show saying: "The students are mostly inner-city, unwed mothers taking advantage of government subsidies for a better life. The instructors can't find any other job that offers ‘bennies’ . The new owners are white, naive suburbanites bleeding cash and trying to keep it all under control."

The pitch also outlines proposed episodes which mention specific people's names. Some episodes detailed student successes, but others described students and employees as thieves, prostitutes, “ghetto” or foul-mouthed people.

"I'm just disgusted,” said student Tajma Myles.” And I just really want to know what she plans to make this better for us."

Inside the salon Thursday, Tracy Becker said a disgruntled former employee secretly took the document from a private file.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/22179571/detail.html

[patrice]

1. And don't you just bet these exploiters/owners complain regularly about exploitation

by regulations and "big government" programs that try to take care of people.

[joeybee12]

2. My first thought was that this was that couple from VA who crashed the State Dinner! n/t

[ThatPoetGuy]

3. This is hideous.

"The students are mostly inner-city, unwed mothers taking advantage of government subsidies for a better life. The instructors can't find any other job that offers ‘bennies’ . The new owners are white, naive suburbanites bleeding cash and trying to keep it all under control."

According to the Beckers, the "reality" of the situation is that a pair of noble white suburbanites have started a school, where their naivete is abused by instructors who are pathetic enough that they "can't find any other job" and are using the noble whites for "bennies." Then they have to tolerate the further abuse of a student population made up of social leeches "taking advantage" of government subsidies.

The "reality" of the situation could easily be turned this way: young women face difficult situations as they try to learn skills that will help them support their families better. They have to work minimum-wage jobs and navigate a frustrating bureaucracy in order to pay their instructors, who are struggling in their own lives, and much of the money winds up in the hands of the school's well-fed owners, who look down on the students and resent the instructors they have to pay.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. Thank you!