and Shag

Advertisements do not often represent reality. Much of the time advertisements represent a utopia, an ideal reality, a goal.

So while seniors who have lived before, during and after the civil-rights era may not really find themselves capable of friendship with people of other races, there is hope that perhaps they could. Or, failing that, maybe future old folks will be less inclined to notice race...

It's the Shag Discovery Center. They've been saving themselves for their interracial polygamous marriage. Oh to be a fly on that wall.

It's ok. The white guy is with the white woman and the black guy is with the black woman. Balance is maintained.

@1 do you remember a few years ago when people were shocked, SHOCKED!! that seniors were contracting STDs at an alarming ALARMING!! rate? You know, how dare grandma get horny.

"Shag" seems like a really apt name for a retirement community of horny grandparents.

Looks like an ad for a swinger's retirement community.

Charles: Please don't generalize. Some of these seniors are early baby boomers (or older) who were/are politically active and worked towards ending racial injustice.

Charles, what is your photo suggestion? Or do you love promoting smart ass attitude toward our current environment? Let's see you Senior Housing photo, full of genuine love and goodness.

yeah charles .ever been to a retirement home ? an assited living apartment ? ? a hospice ? ever play with older folks ?. i'm gonna echo the sentiments of these folks. some people.. well ..a lot of people live long enough , they learn things. they learn to see past some of their own prejudices and they learn to get along. i've seen it with my own family. they surprise you.( i've got a photo of my grandmother, 94, smiling and going over a sunday school lesson with my husband ). frankly this post might be reflective of your own prejudices - prejudices about race and aging- than theirs.

Those people don't really live there. They're models hired for some long-forgotten stock photo shoot, and have probably not seen each other since.

The Senior Housing Assistance Group is a great organization, and their apartment complexes are well-managed homes for low-income (typically fixed-income i.e. Soc Security) seniors. The ones I've visited are multi-racial/ethnic communities that don't seem at all preoccupied with racial tension.

C.M. seems to be making a statement about his own reaction to a stock photo.

that's hilarious, i love it

@12 - Right we all need to hope they stick around for our parents and ourselves.

@11 is exactly correct. This is an obvious stock photo, staged to look cheerfully multi-racial. The people in that photo probably never met before the photo or since, probably aren't real couples, and probably never heard of this facility. The photo is probably well over a decade old, and half the models might be dead by now.

But hey, it depicts a utopian vibe the center wants to project as a business, which is exactly what stock photography is for. Mission accomplished.

Charles, is this really so extraordinary to you, that folks of all colors just might be able to successfully live in the same apartment complex?

The last person I knew who was this sensitive to the color of people's skin was my (long-gone) bigoted, racist father. He'd see a commercial for, I dunno, gasoline or something, and there'd be a couple of black actors in it, and he'd shout "Do they have to get into everything?!?"

Seems like you're traveling that same circle, Charles.. he was going east, and you're going west, but you've come all the way back around to nearly that same place where he was by now..... sheesh...

Real senior complexes tend to be amiably multiracial, and I know multiple interracial couples who have been together since these stock models were children without making a big thing of it.

The space between Mudede's ears, OTOH, is fraught with fraught.

@15: SHAG is a non-profit.