Recent Representations of Race in Film and Television

Photo courtesy of TV Insider, The cast of Abbott Elementary on set

The last few weeks we have read and spoke in depth about the process of racial formation. In particular, we have talked about how racial formation is present in the media. As we have read, one of the many points made in “The ‘War on Terror’ as Racial Crisis, Homeland Security, Obama and Racial (Trans)Formations” is the idea of a “post-racial America,” as epitomized by the discourse around the Obama administration and, as pointed out by Omi and Winant, neoconservative “color-blindness”. Despite these narratives, race is still a social construct “which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of bodies” (Omi and Winant 55). Reality Checks disrupt the representation of race in mainstream discourse and media by presenting a traumatic reality for racial and ethnic groups and confronting us with the many injustices perpetrated toward racialized persons.

Beyond Reality Checks, performance, art, and popular culture are also responsible for disrupting racial representation. “Mixing it Up: Enacting Whiteness in the Comedic World of Dave Chappelle'' by Faedra Chatard Carpenter analyzes the way in which comedian Dave Chapelle challenges mainstream conception of race in two of his sketches from Chappelle's Show. Carpenter uses the sketches “Clayton Bigsby” and “Racial Draft” to highlight the performativity of race, as demonstrated by black individuals who are perceived to “perform” whiteness either in their personality (in the case of “Clayton Bigsby” and the white delegate in “Racial Draft”) or in their politics (demonstrated by the figures of Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell in “The Racial Draft”). Additionally, Chappelle challenges conceptions of racial purity and mixedness by mixing the black body and the anti-black mind in “Clayton Bigsby” and the erasure of mixedness in assigning mixed bodies to “pure” racial categories in “The Racial Draft.” Chappelle's work in the 2000s disrupted the status quo for mainstream media in confronting the representation of race in popular culture and mainstream consciousness, and his newer comedy specials maintain the same energy, as his material still plays with ideas of race, blackness, and whiteness.

Representation is a necessary step toward racial equity and justice in the U.S. and abroad, but as we have analyzed the past few weeks the quality of representation is of utmost importance to avoid the perpetuation of stereotyping and injustice towards black and brown persons. Chappelle's work is just one of many that has contributed to a new wave of representation in media.

Stephanie Troutman Robbins, a scholar of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Arizona, has recently published Race in American Television Voices and Visions That Shaped a Nation which explores how race is represented in U.S. television and the effects of racial representation. In an interview with Lori Harwood, Robbins explains that television is "a primary source of America's racial education." In reflecting on my own educational experience as a white child growing up in very rural and white New Hampshire, I can attest that TV and film were my primary exposures to racialized identities and cultures. In a 2008 study by Narissa M. Punyanunt-Carter, Professor of Communications at Texas Tech, young adults believe that television realistically presents black identity and culture. Both Robbins and Punyanunt-Carter highlight the way in which racial representation in television informs public consciousness, which as Robbins points out can be dangerous if that representation is not thoughtful or authentic.

Robbins points out a few reasons that the media has historically misrepresented black stories, despite some good intentions. One of which being the prevalence of “color-blind” casting, in which the races of characters are not assigned and can therefore be cast by a member of any racial group. Robbins points out that while this strategy does increase visual representation and diversity, the storyline features very little content around the racial identity, culture, or reality of the racially marked character. This diversity, therefore, isn´t meaningful or realistic. The most glaring incumbent to realistic representation has been the prevalence of white writers narrating nonwhite stories and characters. TV and film, she points out, are institutions, and as such are privy to systematic racism and exclusion of non-white individuals. Recently, the streaming revolution has given non-white creatives larger access to producing, writing, and directing content and has blossomed a diversity of stories that center nonwhite stories and characters in thoughtful authentic ways.

Jordan Peele's work is of particular interest. Like Chappelle, Peele began as a comedian on Comedy Central. But his recent turn into horror, a white dominated genre, has offered critical reflections about racism and the complexities of black identity. While, Get Out launches a seething critique of the legacies of slavery and segregation and the reality of racism and violence in the United States, his most recent work, Nope instead centers a family of black ranchers, of which the U.S. has erased a long history of, in the horror film. Though Peele does tackle racism and violence against black bodies, he also is a black creative putting black characters at the forefront of his work, disrupting the whiteness of the horror genre in a meaningful way.

Like Peele's work, recent shows like Black-ish, Atlanta, and Pose all interrogate and explore what it means to be black. Shows like Fresh off the Boat and Ramy explore the themes of racial identity in the The Asian-American and Egyptian-American contexts. But a show need not explicitly discuss race in order to contribute to positive representation.

Abbott Elementary, a show created, written, and spearheaded by Quinta Brunson, has also gained popularity in the past year. The sitcom is about the lives of teachers, staff, and students who work and learn at an elementary school in Philadelphia. Authentic to many of the neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Abbott Elementary School is situated in a predominantly black neighborhood and is served by a predominantly black staff. The show has been praised for the way it depicts the realities faced by students and staff in underfunded schools, which are often schools that serve minority populations. However, Brunson isn't interested in exploring black identity as she has indicated. Though the plot of the show centers many of the academic realities experienced by minority communities, Brunson doesn't explicitly tackle racism and deeper themes related to black identity. However, like I have said, a show does not have to confront racism in order to present meaningful representation. Abbott is at it's heart a workplace comedy that shows authentic black characters written by black writers in their everyday lives. Centering black stories, without depending on the trauma of racism of a storyline, represents the quotidian nuanced and realistic existence of black people as well-rounded complex persons and not just victims of racism.

While I have spoken about the importance of quality nonwhite representation in adult media, Robbins points out that due to the ways in which children learn about the world through media, more strides need to be made in racial representation through children's programming. She shares, “As adults, we know that representation isn't enough; it has to be meaningful and intentional. But when you're little and before you're critically developed to that extent, just the representation alone is a big deal.” The recent wave of films that feature wider representation such as, Moana, Encanto, Coco, The Little Mermaid (2022) (not yet released) Black Panther, Static Shock (In production) are steps forward toward diversifying representation, but there is always more progress to be made. In diversifying representation for children, white children are better exposed to other identities, but most importantly nonwhite children's identities are validated and honored, just as every child deserves.

In Abbott and the children´s works I have highlighted above, quality representation in and off itself is powerful. Ecstatic reactions of black children to Halle Bailey as Ariel, the Little Mermaid are a testament to the importance and impact of inclusion. Media such as these also highlight experiences that are not inherently tied to race--joy, sadness, laughter, careers, fantasy, etc. While shows that explore injustice, racism, and cultural identity in profound ways are important ways of expressing and transmitting life experiences. It is also important that representation extends beyond racial injustices and struggles, so as to not paint a monolithic understanding of the minority experience as victims. I think especially in white mainstream culture, the minority stories that find popular traction tend to be ones that depict suffering, which is a great reflective tool to think about social and political histories and realities and spark social change. But, I fear that the prevalence of these sort of “trauma narratives” of racialized groups in white culture perpetuate the pitying and victimization of entire racial and ethnic groups by the white hegemony, which is dangerous. Instead, it's important that the media reflects a large variety of stories and voices that can speak to the diverse set of experiences and aspirations of individuals and groups, as I have tried to highlight in my selection of films and programs.

While some media like Chappelle's Show interrogates and disrupts racial performances and monolithic constructions of racial identity, other works focus on important exploration of what it means to be black, latino, asian, indigenous, etc. However, works do not need to dedicate themselves to a racial identity or combatting racial injustices in order to properly present proper representation of race. Representation in the writers´ room, stronger diversity in the entire creative process, and thoughtful narrative can still present meaningful representation of race in film and television. Most of all, when we think of the informative role media plays in children's cultural competency, it is even more important that quality representation is common.

Works Cited

Harwood, Lori. “The Evolution of Black Representation on Television.” University of Arizona News, University of Arizona, 9 Mar. 2022, https://news.arizona.edu/story/evolution-black-representation-television.

HoSang, Daniel, et al. “‘The ‘War on Terror’ as Racial Crisis, Homeland Security, Obama and Racial (Trans)Formations.’” Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2012.

Omi, Michael, and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the New Millennium. Routledge, 2008.

Punyanunt-Carter, Narissra M. “The Perceived Realism of African American Portrayals on Television.” Howard Journal of Communications, vol. 19, no. 3, 2008, pp. 241–257., https://doi.org/10.1080/10646170802218263.