CMNS 486June 1 2009

Rosalinda ThorleifsonTristan Taylor

Privileged white middle-class audiences are the ideal viewers.

Shows in the past depicted African Americans in situation comedies and family settings.

Black writers, directors, and producers in TV must still negotiate a system structured by race and gender.

But their success, although limited, has helped enrich the themes, characters and stories of Black representation on TV.

Treats the social and political issues of blacks and racism as individual problems (oversimplification).

Assimilation takes these issues and brings it to an individual level (specifying the tension between two characters, not two races).

  It is in danger of marginalizing their social and

cultural differences in favor of focus on shared and universal similarities.

Such programs consistently erase the history of conquest, slavery, isolation and conflicts

  These shows acknowledge

cultural conflicts based on race, but frame it in a way that promotes racial invisibility and colorblindness

Unique individual black characters seemed to demonstrate the principle of racial exception

Situate minority characters in domestically centered minority worlds and circumstances that essentially parallel those of whites.

What makes these shows pluralist and therefore different from the assimliationism shows is their explicit recognition of race as the basis of cultural difference.

Contemporary black-oriented shows and the representations they offer is still marked by their relationship to the hegemonic order.

Combining pluralism and assimilation appeases some since it reflects what America’s official construction of representation is meant to be. What is obscured in the process though is the impact and responses to structured social inequality and hierarchies.

While The Cosby Show is a TV show that marked a turn away from Assimilationist and pluralist practices, key elements continued to structure and organize aspects of the show.

Cosby operated in a multicultural world (largely black) that paralleled the whites.

Cosby also constructed black Americans as the authors of, and participants in their own notion of America and what it means to be American.

A better example Frank’s Place had explicit construction and positioning of African American culture at the very center of its social and cultural universe.

Shows based on the diversity model often encounter complex, even contradictory, perspectives and representations of black life in America.

Engages in cultural politics of difference within the sign of blackness, black life and culture are constantly made, remade, modified and extended.

Is there greater diversity on television today then there was in the 80’s and 90’s? How has this representation changed since the decline of sitcom popularity?

Are there shows on television now that would not fit into one of Gray’s three categories? • Assimilation/Invisibility• Pluralist/Equal• Multicultural/Diversity

National Latino Media Council

Asian Pacific American Media Coalition

American Indians in Film and TV

NBC B C+ C-

FOX B- C+ F

ABC A- C D

CBS B+ C D

The lack of diverse broad range programming on major networks has to do with the fear of alienating a young white audience.

This is due to a greater audience generating more advertising revenue in the most desired demographic.

As Gray puts it : “The issue of diverse programming based on racial and ethnic differences poses a conflict between the political economic interests and representational responsibility.”

There has been a major shift in the way that television is produced and distributed. For the first 50 years, there were three main networks that controlled all of the content on TV.

Today there are hundreds of channels and more specific niche channels that are tailored to a certain audience

Channels like BET and the AZN network are made specifically for a minority demographic.

"It's television that speaks to you, by you, for you. It's AZN prime, redefined. Prime-time programming in English, you know, your

language.”

Television holds a powerful political appeal for many as the site most desirable for struggles over the representation of difference.

While there is an entirely new system in place , major commercial networks continue to hold meaning culturally and symbolically.

The new TV landscape is restructuring the national identity through the recognition and embrace of difference, as opposed to its elimination, repression, or incorporation.

“The problem is neither that people of color are absent on television nor that television continues to press toward the representation of the national imaginary as white and homogenous. It is the structural and representational logic of difference around which television is structured itself. Making it the site least able to construct and hold a coherent view of a national imaginary like the one that network programming presented in its golden age”

Herman Gray

Are either of these an accurate representation of black ‘ghetto’ culture? What role has television played in our perceptions of stereotypes about black people since this show has been off the air?

How much influence do specialty channels like BET and the AZN network have on people’s views about race? Are these channels a good thing? To what extent do they promote the embrace of difference and therefore create segregation?

Some feel that ‘real life’ and real life politics play a role on racial representation on TV.

Since Obama’s election, it has been speculated that we are possibly entering a post-race society.

  Some speculate that with the

influence of Obama’s presidency, more minorities will be able to land roles in lead dramatic roles.

Others think that this is already where television was headed, Obama’s election just helped expedite the process.

With programs like The Cosby Show, “Enlightened racism” led

many white viewers to feel confident enough in their own racial morality to support a conservative, “colorblind” agenda that sought to undermine progressive racial policies like affirmative action.

Black families that failed to achieve like the Huxtables (or the Obama’s—to a lesser degree), these viewers reasoned, had only themselves to blame.

This is the same danger that falls upon society today, with the inauguration of Obama, when in truth, a lot of work must be done before anybody could claim to be part of a post race society.

Racial minorities still do not have many shows in which they play the lead title character• Ugly Betty• CSI Laurence Fishburne• Off Duty

There has been an increase in shows with ensemble casts with a variety of races/multicultural• Grey’s Anatomy• Lost• Dexter• Reality Shows

Would you consider "Little Mosque on the Prairie" to be a fair and accurate representation of Muslims? What about it's portrayal of the white characters? What effect do you think the characterization of both types has on its viewers, and what is the message it sends?