Does TV Reflect the Realities of Race?
What show will you watch? In one sentence, describe the show.
Summarize your research about the background of the show. Who is in control of production, direction, or writing?
In what ways are minority characters portrayed? (You may choose to focus on one or two characters or more.) Do the characters uphold certain racial or ethnic stereotypes or challenge them?
Describe at least two instances in which characters display aspects of situational or symbolic ethnicity.
How does the race or ethnicity of characters intersect with other social statuses or identities such as class, gender, or sexuality?
Describe one or two ways in which portrayals of race and ethnicity in the show reflect the real world. Describe one or two ways in which they don’t. Use the information in the “Race, Ethnicity, and Life Chances” section of this chapter for reference.
In what ways might the show help to maintain or perpetuate prejudice and discrimination? In what ways might the show help to counteract prejudice and discrimination?
3. What kind of impact did the episode have on you as a viewer? How might it shape the perceptions of other audience members with regard to race or ethnicity?
- The Show: Atlanta is a surrealist comedy-drama that follows Earnest “Earn” Marks as he attempts to manage the burgeoning rap career of his cousin, Alfred “Paper Boi” Miles, while navigating the complexities of race and poverty in Georgia.
- Production Control: The show is uniquely controlled by a Black creative team; it was created and executive produced by Donald Glover, with Hiro Murai directing many episodes and Stefani Robinson and Stephen Glover serving as lead writers.
- Research Summary: Unlike many network shows, Atlanta maintains an all-Black writing room, ensuring that the dialogue, humor, and social critiques are rooted in authentic African American cultural nuances rather than “outsider” perspectives.
- Characters: Earn (Donald Glover) and Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry).
- Stereotype Challenge: The show subverts the “thug” rapper stereotype by portraying Alfred as a deeply thoughtful, often exhausted individual who is frustrated by the performance of “hardness” required by the music industry. It challenges the “Model Minority” or “Success” myths by showing Earn as a highly intelligent Princeton dropout who is still trapped in systemic poverty.
- Situational: In the episode “The Club,” Alfred uses his “Paper Boi” persona to gain access to VIP areas and respect, shifting his vernacular and posture to fit the expected “rap star” identity to navigate the social hierarchy of the venue.
- Symbolic: In “Juneteenth,” Earn and Van attend a high-society party where a white host obsessively performs an affinity for African culture (poetry, art, and drinks); here, the host treats Blackness as a symbolic accessory to prove his “wokeness,” while the Black characters feel alienated by the commodification of their own identity.
- Class and Gender: The character Van (Zazie Beetz) represents the intersection of Black womanhood and the “working poor” class. She faces the unique pressure of being a “respectable” mother and educator while dealing with the precarity of job loss, highlighting how gender roles place a heavier burden of stability on Black women compared to their male counterparts.
- Reflects Reality: The show accurately reflects “Race and Life Chances” by depicting Environmental Racism and the Wealth Gap; the characters constantly deal with unreliable transit, predatory housing, and the “invisible tax” of being Black in professional spaces.
- Does Not Reflect Reality: The show utilizes Magical Realism (e.g., an invisible car or a Black man transforming into a white man) to exaggerate social absurdities. While the emotions are real, these literal events are surrealist metaphors for the “weirdness” of the Black experience.
- Perpetuating: By showing the characters involved in drug culture or petty crime, a biased viewer might use the show to “confirm” negative prejudices if they ignore the systemic context provided.
- Counteracting: It counteracts discrimination by “humanizing the mundane.” It forces the audience to sit with the characters in moments of boredom, fear, and intellectualism, breaking down the “Othering” effect often found in police procedurals or stereotypical sitcoms.
- Personal Impact: The episode “Teddy Perkins” left me with a profound sense of unease regarding how the pursuit of “white-standard” success can lead to the erasure of the self.
- Audience Perception: For non-Black audiences, the show may serve as an uncomfortable mirror, forcing them to recognize how “performative allyship” or “microaggressions” appear from the perspective of those being observed.
