I remember on LucyTalk some member had said that someone at her school asked her why she liked Lucy---they said that they had heard she was a racist. I don't think that is true. I don't recall her ever being specifically mean or insulting to anyone. I think it was because there weren't that many African Americans in movies and TV. I think that it was just the way is was back then. What are your thoughts?

Well, Lucy had a black maid, so that didn't help i'm sure. She was listening to the radio and this woman asked for a job and Lucy hired her sight unseen, they became very close, but one incident i remember went like this. Lucy was screaming that she could not find her afghan and she yelled where's my go****** afghan and the lady heard African instead and left in tears until it was explained to her what Lucy had really said, now doesn't that sound like a Lucy show? Lucy insisted her maid come with her everywhere, including te FRONT door of hotels where they stayed, when they banned her once, Lucy threatened to leave unless the policy was changed. Neither Lucy or Desi had a bigoted bone in their bodies, at least NOT towards black people. Grandpa Hunt was even concerned about Desi being so dark when he met him though. On the Dean Martin roast, Nipsey Russell jokes about it and Lucy is not happy about it, you see America was prejudiced even if Lucy wasn't. The deep South never allowed shows to have black leads or even characters on them, Lucy and Andy Griffith and all other shows from that era had to follow the norms of the times, it wasn't until the sixties that black characters appeared in major roles on TV, Diahann Carrol in Julia for instance and the Desilu filmed I Spy with Bill Cosby, knowing how Bill Cosby is regarding this issue, i doubt he would have handed Lucy her Emmy in '67 if she HAD been racist. Lucy appeared with Sammy Davis and John Bubbles and Pearl Bailey and Flip Wilson and many other black performers once the rigidity of the infant tv medium grew up in the sixties but yes it's true that the sponsors could dictate that black performers be excluded from early tv shows because of the fact that they would not play in the Southern states. I remember the scandal when Petula Clark TOUCHED Harry Belefonte on a variety show one time, what a scandal, made Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction look like nothing.