Discourse & Identity III (Discussion)

Television on the study of race and ethnicity

• Group 4: Sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant reject the idea of racial essentialism and propose an approach based instead on a racial formation. Explain these concepts and compare them to the "gender identity" approach we discussed last week. Is there anything in the Girlfriends, Fresh Off the Boat, or black-ish episodes we watched that helps explain these concepts?
• Herman Gray identifies three African-American discourses in TV.
  1. Groups 5 & 1: Explain what he means by the assimilationist category and why he puts Designing Women into it. Should the Fresh Off the Boat and black-ish episodes we watched be put in this category? Why or why not?
  2. Groups 6 & 2: Explain what he means by the pluralist category and why he puts Girlfriends into it. Should the Fresh Off the Boat and black-ish episodes we watched be put in this category? Why or why not?
  3. Group 3: Explain what he means by the multiculturalist. Should the Fresh Off the Boat and black-ish episodes we watched be put in this category? Why or why not?

Beretta Smith-Shomade

Beretta Smith-Shomade (pronounced "show-ma-day") examines "four intertwined elements in [1990s] television comedy that define and give meaning to Black women's representation there: work roles, characterization, class, and identity" (48). Each group should consider one key aspect of these elements and discuss how the 21st-century sitcoms we viewed—Girlfriends (2000-2008), Fresh Off the Boat (2015-), and black-ish (2014-)—illustrate that aspect (or don't).

• Group 4: work and class
• Groups 5 & 1: identity: language
• Groups 6 & 2: identity: skin shade
• Group 3: identity: hair
• All groups: characterization (i.e., conventional roles and stereotypes). Do Girlfriends and black-ish rely on African-American stereotypes? E.g., "mammy," "sapphire," "tragic mulatto," etc. Does Fresh Off the Boat rely on Asian (specifically, Chinese) stereotypes?

Casts

Girlfriends

• William Dent (Reggie Hayes)
• Toni Childs (Jill Marie Jones)
• Maya Wilkes (Golden Brooks)
• Joan Clayton (Tracee Ellis Ross)
• Lynn Searcy (Persia White)

Fresh Off the Boat

• Eddie Huang (Hudson Yang)
• Louis Huang (Randall Park)
• Jessica Huang (Constance Wu)
• Emery Huang (Forrest Wheeler)
• Evan Huang (Ian Chen)
• Grandma Jenny Huang (Lucille Soong)

black-ish

• Andre "Dre" Johnson Sr. (Anthony Anderson)
• Dr. Rainbow "Bow" Johnson (Tracee Ellis Ross)
• Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi)
• Andre ("Junior") Johnson Jr. (Marcus Scribner)
• Jack Johnson (Miles Brown)
• Diane Johnson (Marsai Martin)
• Ruby Johnson (Jenifer Lewis)
• Earl "Pops" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne)
• Josh Oppenhol (Jeff Meacham)
• Leslie Stevens (Peter Mackenzie)

All groups

• We've looked at identity (gender and race/ethnicity) through the lenses of:
  1. Stereotyping of women, races, and ethnicities ("Images of women" and "Images of race")
  2. Gendered viewing and raced viewing
  3. Gender identity and the closely related concept of racial formation
  4. Third-wave feminism
• Which of these approaches did you find the most useful way to analyze identity? Why? Which was the least useful? Why?
  • Email your answers to jbutler@ua.edu.
  • All responses received by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, 12/11, will earn one extra credit point on the exam.
  • The three most thoughtful responses will earn two extra credit points on the exam and will be posted here.

Bibliography

1. Jeremy G. Butler, Television: Visual Storytelling and Screen Culture (NY: Routledge, 2018).
2. Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, “Laughing Out Loud: Negras Negotiating Situation Comedy,” Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002), 24-68.

External links

• Wikipedia book: Girlfriends allusions
• Girlfriends illustrations
• "Infanity: Girlfriends," tour of the Girlfriends set by Persia White, local copy