Article Journal of Communication Inquiry 2017, Vol. 41(1) 22–41 Othering and Fear: ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Cultural Values and DOI: 10.1177/0196859916656836 Hiro’s Race in Thomas jci.sagepub.com & Friends’ Hero of the Rails Maggie Griffith Williams1 and Jenny Korn2 Abstract Television is a significant socialization tool for children to learn about their social worlds. The children’s brand, Thomas & Friends, targets preschool audiences with manifest messages about friendship and utility as well as troubling, latent messages about race, ethnicity, and difference. Through critical visual and verbal discursive analyses of the film, Hero of the Rails, we expose Thomas & Friends’ investment in racial hierarchies despite its broader message of friendship. We identify four ways that Hiro is ‘‘othered’’ in the film: (1) his glamorized description as ‘‘strange,’’ (2) his consistently heavily accented voice, (3) his Japanese origin story, and (4) his pigmentation and powerlessness. Using theories of ‘‘othering,’’ we argue that the representation of cultural difference to the preschooler audience is fearful and propagates racist discourses of yellow peril and Orientalism. Keywords children’s television, race, othering, power, critical discourse analysis 1Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA 2University of Illinois-Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Corresponding Author: Maggie Griffith Williams, Northeastern University, 204 Lake Hall, 360 Huntington, Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Email:
[email protected] Williams and Korn 23 Introduction Have you ever seen a child sitting in front of the television, watching an ani- mated feature? Lacking the critical faculties of an adult, the preschooler is more likely to absorb manifest and latent messages contained in mass media (Pettigrew, Rosenberg, Ferguson, Houghton, & Wood, 2013).