Copyright by Adolfo Rafael Mora 2017
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Copyright by Adolfo Rafael Mora 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Adolfo Rafael Mora Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: SEEING COLOR AND TELEVISION: WHAT DO MILLENNIALS’ TELEVISION PRACTICES TELL US ABOUT POST-RACIALITY? Committee: Joseph D. Straubhaar, Supervisor Mary C. Beltrán Wenhong Chen Kevin Cokley Viviana del Carmen Rojas SEEING COLOR AND TELEVISION: WHAT DO MILLENNIALS’ TELEVISION PRACTICES TELL US ABOUT POST-RACIALITY? by Adolfo Rafael Mora Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2017 Dedication Para mi pequeña familia, both the nuclear and fictive one! Acknowledgements This research project was truly the result of creative collaboration and unconditional support of mi familia, which of course includes my PhD one. First, I must extend my gratitude to my mentors. Thank you Professor Straubhaar for all the talks about academia and life in general. I always felt welcomed and secure in your office. Dr. Wenhong Chen, I appreciate that you continuously made me question my methodology. The idea for this dissertation came from various lectures that Dr. Mary Beltrán carried about media and racelessness. Not only am I incredibly thankful for inspiring my scholarship but also for your theoretical guidance that tremendously shaped this dissertation. Professor Cokley, your literature suggestions helped me clarify what color, ethnicity, and race are. The best for last, right Dr. Viviana Rojas? It was you that created the opportunity for me to join the community at the University of Texas at Austin. Moving on to my dearest, graduate student friends. Please know that the following order by no means indicate your impact on me. To the chingona Vittoria Rodriguez, for challenging me methodologically and theoretically! To the always-wise Ramna Walia, for being that person who I could rely on! To my roomie Lizette Barrera, for our time together and those chats about the place of minorities in the filmmaking/television industry. To my oneesan Emiko-chan, because of your immense wisdom that I still take advantage of! To Gejun Huang, for being my original compadre! To Xiaoqian Li, for being my secret competitor! Thank you Juan De Dios Mora—mi hermano—for your hospitality before and after defending this dissertation. To Angel Lopez, for lending me your ear so I could test ideas. ¡Para mis padres Amalio and Petra, por llevarme hasta aquí con su ejemplo de la lucha – gracias! v SEEING COLOR AND TELEVISION: WHAT DO MILLENNIALS’ TELEVISION PRACTICES TELL US ABOUT POST-RACIALITY? Adolfo Rafael Mora, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Supervisor: Joseph D. Straubhaar The demographic composition of Millennials is the most ethnoracially diverse generation so far, and with it, a discursive construction of them being colorblind. Colorblindness is also taken as reality with cultural texts that feature color, therefore one- step closer of achieving a post-racial society: a socio-cultural environment where race and racism are no longer limiting factors. This dissertation was interested in examining the relationship between orientations of seeing color and the television practices of Millennials. To do so, two grand research questions were answered using survey methodology: One paid close attention to color-blindness while the other focused on color-consciousness. The first research question was interested in the socializing effect of television on two color-blind attitudes: color-evasion and power-evasion. On one hand, it analyzed television programming that featured various types of color diversity: multicultural (heterogeneous in color), minority leading (homogeneous in color, favoring ethnoracial vi minorities), and White-dominant (homogeneous in color, favoring the ethnoracial majority). On the other, it also analyzed respectable portrayals—representations embodying the values of mainstream culture—for four ethnoracial groups: Whites, Latin@s, Blacks, and Asians. Statistical results (N = 535) show that these predictors had no statistical significance on color-evasive but did for power-evasive racial blindness. The second research question was interested in how being color-conscious across two orientations (color-awareness and power-awareness) predicted noticing the perceived sexuality, criminality, and secondary narrative treatment of ethnoracial groups on television – conceptualized as onscreen marginality. Statistical results suggest that power-awareness is more successful in predicting onscreen marginality and in manners consistent with its framework than its counterpart orientation. Both research questions examined opposite and competing ideologies of seeing color, and their findings offer support to think of Millennials as a colorblind generation but not exclusively. This dissertation suggests that color-blind texts prompt colorblindness, and when television misrepresents ethnoracial groups, color- consciousness dominates. Eventually, the Millennial generation is still sorting out the contradictions about the place of race(ism) in society, and even if television appears neutral in its inclusion of color, there are subtle differences in how Millennials interpreted ethnoracial groups onscreen. vii Table of Contents List of Tables ......................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ....................................................................................................... xii Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 Research Rationale and Theoretical Framework .......................8 Color as race/ethnicity and television ...........................................................10 Defining post-race and post-raciality ............................................................12 Defining post-racialism .................................................................................17 Color-blindness: What is it? ..........................................................................19 Color-conciousness: What is it? ....................................................................23 Color-blind or color-conciousness: Where do Millennials stand? ................26 Millennials, television, and post-raciality .....................................................30 CHAPTER 2 Color-blind TV content: Does it contribute to color-blidness?34 Millnnials and television: Consumption patterns .........................................36 Millnnials and television: Color-blind readings ...........................................37 Defining color-blind TV content: Programs and representations .................41 Research questions ........................................................................................43 Methods.........................................................................................................45 Methodological rationale .....................................................................45 Data collection .....................................................................................47 Measures ..............................................................................................49 Dependent variables ....................................................................49 Independent variables .................................................................50 Control variables .........................................................................57 Results ...........................................................................................................61 RQ1: Color-blind television programming on color-blindness ...........65 RQ2: Respectable television programming on color-blidness .............67 Other relevannt factors on color-blindness ..........................................69 viii Discussion .....................................................................................................71 Watching television, onscreen divesity, and color-blindness ..............72 Respectable color and color-blindness .................................................74 CHAPTER 3 Color-conciousness and symbolic color differences: Seeing onscreen marginality .................................................................................77 Television presence of ethnoracial gorups: A glance ...................................78 Defining onscreen ethnoracial marginality ...................................................80 What is prototypicality, and why does it matter on media audiences ...........81 The media prototypicality of ethnoracial groups ..........................................83 Research questions ........................................................................................86 Methods.........................................................................................................88 Measues ................................................................................................88 Dependent variables ....................................................................88 Independent variables .................................................................93 Control variables .........................................................................94 Results ...........................................................................................................96