FWIW, I too noted there was a non-white cop in the background of the arrest scene.

it's hard for me to turn off my reality-meter now it's on.

As long as they keep battling demons in their own mythology, it's not something I have a problem with.

I'm just...I'm just not an apologist. I swear to god. I have no particular fondness for the people who produce the show. It's just that I, from a politically and racially charged background, would have to work to lay an offensive template over some of the things to which people are reacting viscerally. There's a little voice in the back of my head asking "I bet those coonin' minstrelsy performers were grateful for the money too," but that's the best I can do with skepticism.

Gordon, to me, was primarily just a guy. There are things the text could have done to raise my eyebrows, but he wasn't punished by the patriarchy for sleeping with a white woman, nor prevented from eating/sitting/drinking outside of where he was allowed, nor strung up by a group of white men. He wasn't portrayed as particularly stupid (just plot-required stupid), cowardly, or lazy. He was portrayed as a guy who wasn't even going to pay for all the crimes he'd committed, probably. Just a lawbreaker arrested. Just a guy.

And, fuck it, I'm glad the actor got the gig. Go him. It's a role written without much shading, but he's working the hell out of that bitch. And I can't imagine the role was written with race in mind.

::jubilation/I'm down on my knees/I'm begging you please..::

Yeah, need to get that out of my head.

eta:

I too noted there was a non-white cop in the background of the arrest scene.

Does this affect anyone's discomfort, those of you who were bothered?

I didn't see him/her. I saw COPS. (Not the TV show.) They were uniforms and weapons, not people at all. (Really, as befits a bunch of extras acting as a plot device.)

I agree, that Gordon has the potential to be a [non-racially-significant] Guy. We've got enough backstory on him to be tantalized and speculative about his emo pain; he wears a cowboy hat; he seems very interested in Dean's approval. He's nearly to that level of personhood that the vast majority of guest-stars don't even attempt. Just that one scene freaked me out, really. It's hard for me to watch that scene and not apply reality-context.

Nothing about Gordon and the cops pinged me. I just saw Sam come up with a sensible way to get Gordon out of the way without killing him. I did wonder if Sam had tipped them of that Gordon might be the man who killed what's his name at the beginning of the episode.

I didn't see him/her. I saw COPS. (Not the TV show.) They were uniforms and weapons, not people at all. (Really, as befits a bunch of extras acting as a plot device.)

I saw it this way too. I didn't know any of the characters before last night. None of the scenes made my mind head in a race direction. Was just people. I don't know if something in the previously established relationships would have made me view them in a different light.

Nutty, in the same way as you just saw people with guns, I just saw Gordon the person being arrested.

I just saw Gordon the person being arrested.

me too. The way Gordon as a character was written was so race neutral to me that his capture didn't ping any racial reaction.

There are 2 (!) director's cuts for next week's Supernatural.

And they are both made of awesome!

t points to tag, which used to say "I've got the Jensen Ackles real bad"

GF still says this all the time but it has morphed into (whitefonted for the squeamish) cramps at that time of the month. HA!