• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Copyright by Kristen Jamaya Warner 2010 The Dissertation Committee for Kristen Jamaya Warner certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Colorblind TV: Primetime Politics of Race in Television Casting Committee: __________________________ Janet Staiger, Supervisor __________________________ Beretta E. Smith-Shomade __________________________ Michael Kackman __________________________ Jennifer Fuller __________________________ Deborah Paredez Colorblind TV: Primetime Politics of Race in Television Casting by Kristen Jamaya Warner, BA, MA Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfilmment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2010 Acknowledgments It is easy to become so focused on finishing a dissertation that you forget how to say thank you to those who, well, helped you finish the dissertation. It is my hope to express my gratitude to those friends, family and mentors now. First, I want to express my most sincere thanks to my graduate advisor, Janet Staiger. From the first day I met her at a conference while I was still a lowly master’s student up until now that she knows me as a lowly doctoral student, it has been such a grand pleasure and honor to know and work with the woman who co-wrote the book we all have to read in film studies. In a word, it was Janet’s steadiness that enabled me to complete this process. Never one to push or hound, somehow she knew that I would finish in a timely fashion and never changed tactics or made me feel that she did not trust my efforts. Sitting in her office (during our scheduled appointments that I rarely made on time) and staring out her big glass window while she made copies of everything I might need to prepare for the future are some of the memories I will always treasure. In addition, I will always be grateful to Janet for taking such interest in my research and helping me understand how to make it work. Next, I want to thank my committee members, Michael Kackman, Jennifer Fuller, Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, and Deborah Paredez for delving into this project with me, cautioning me about the danger zones, and ultimately, steering me in the right direction. Somehow I earned the privilege of being under the tutelage of these great minds and I can only hope that they will see their impact on me through my future students. More specifically, I want to express gratitude to Michael Kackman for understanding how my project was supposed to develop before I did. Michael, thank you for keeping me the hell away from Laramie, Wyoming doing research. You were right: Had I gone the historical route, I would still be in an archive, crying and trying to make unnecessary connections. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To Deborah Paredez: I learned so much from you—not only through your pedagogy but through your wonderful personality. I felt so welcomed as a woman of color in your course and am so grateful to you for giving me materials that I will always use in my classroom. Also, because of you, I will always insist on students bringing food for the class to share. Jennifer Fuller, I thank you for being an amazing teacher and mentor. I will always be appreciative of how you took time to understand my work and how you invested time and lots of talking and energy into me as a student. In addition, it was those silly conversations about clubbing and weave extensions and Popeyes fried cinnamon apple pies that helped make this entire dissertation and job market process so much less painful. So, thank you for being my friend. Beretta E. Smith- Shomade, I love you! You are the best mentor a woman could ask for and I am so grateful that you chose to be mine. Your candor and wonderfully vibrant personality made me feel comfortable to be who I am in the academy. Thank you for kicking my ass in that media literacy class and for supporting me from that point on. Your words of wisdom have inspired me more than I can say. Beyond those members of my committee, I would also like to thank other faculty in the Department of Radio-Television-Film (RTF) for their unwavering faith in my abilities, namely Professor Joe Straubhaar, Professor Mary Kearney, and Professor America Rodriguez. To Professor Tom Schatz—thanks for calling me a teaching pro. I would also like to thank the RTF staff for their many years of service and help. Bert Hergistad, thank you for making sure I always had what I needed and being so quick to make things happen. iv To Stephanie Crouch, I always will appreciate you going to bat for me and for always being honest with me. To Lee Sparks, I thank you for the many hours of conversation we had and, also, for not getting on to me too often about my late rental returns. To the friends I have made here in RTF: I covet your friendship and will always be grateful for your intellectual challenging and your silly banter. Specifically, I want to thank Elissa Nelson, Tarik Elseewi, Ali Fuat-Sengal, Colin Tait, Annie Petersen, Curran Nault, Andy Scahill, Alyx Vesey, Kristin Lambert, Nikki Willis, and Bryan Sebok for their friendship and the intellectual community we established. Kevin Bozelka, thank you for making me laugh and always letting me argue with you. Matt Payne, you’re practically family. Lisa Schmidt, thank you for your wisdom, your spontaneity, and your patience. I treasure your friendship. I would also like to thank Courtney Brannon-Donoghue, not just for her wedding rehearsal dinner becoming fodder for my introduction but because she has been a very good friend, shopping buddy, lunch date, and movie partner to me. CBD, you are my kid sister in every way—even in the ways that annoy me occasionally. I also want to thank my Sharon Shahaf (and Gil and Ella, of course) for being a rock for me in the worst of times and a cheerleader for me in the best of times. Neshikot. To Peter Alilunas and Kevin Sanson—Viva La IC! Your friendship and intellectual sharpening are forever a part of me. I am so fortunate to have such strong, caretaking men in my life. I love you both. I also wish to thank my mentors and friends outside of RTF. Kevin Sandler, Daniel Bernardi, and Mary Beth Haralovich: you are the reasons I continued in academia so I want to thank you for training me to be a rigorous scholar with an axe to grind. Kathleen Kuehn Reese, David McClafferty, Nazanin Bakhsi Knudsen, Kristin Baranack, and Jennifer Jones—Viva La Media Arts. I also want to thank my new friends Hollis Griffin and Racquel Gates for their humor and intellectual rigor. Y’all are going to do big things—and I am going to help. To my new academic family, the Telecommunication and Film department at the University of Alabama, I look forward to a future of growth and connectedness. Gary Copeland, Rachel Raimist, Jeremy Butler, Adam Schwartz, Dwight Cameroon, Andy Grace, Pam Tran, Glenda Williams and Mary Lou Keating: thank you for being so welcoming! Finally, I wish to thank my family members, both immediate and extended, for supporting me through all these years of torment and uncertainty and irritability and eventually, joy. Dr. Leonor Diaz—you saved my life. Stacey Destefano, thank you for letting me solve world problems with you over every possible sandwich combination I could think of at the Jason’s Deli. Your steadiness helped me so much. Also, your love of cleaning made me feel normal. Leah Nicholson, thank you for letting me be silly. Larry and Vickey Lloyd: thank you for being the extra set of parents I always wanted. Erin Lloyd, you’re my best friend and my sister in every way. If Beaches were not such a depressing movie and Barbara Hershey did not die at the end, I would tell you you were the wind beneath my winds. As that is totally cliché (and utterly emotional), I will simply say that I am filled with gratitude that you listened and obeyed the call. May the Grace be with you. To my siblings, Robbie, Meredith and Sara—I can feel your pride and belief in me 400 miles away and I will always be grateful. To my father, thank you for not standing in the way. To my mother and my closest and oldest friend, Linda Warner, we made it. All I can say is a million didn’t make it, but I was one of the ones who did. Thank you mama for believing and being excited for me. v Preface Years ago I attended a friend’s wedding rehearsal dinner, and after noticing that save for the staff I was the only person of color attending the soiree (and understanding that the staff were practically invisible as it was and therefore did not count from the onset), I set out to be myself—just a smidge more demure. I sat with my party at a very large round table just as another group of young (er) people asked if they could join us. Welcoming the new company, we began to chat, and at some point later in the evening, one of the men confessed that his dream was to become the mayor of a large city. After first discussing the smaller cities that might embrace him as mayor, he told me about the oft-times ridiculous ordinances in small towns.

Load more

  204

Copy Link