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Being Seen and Unseen: Racial Representation and Whiteness Bias in Hollywood Cinema

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Being Seen and Unseen: Racial Representation and Whiteness Bias in Hollywood Cinema Being Seen and Unseen: Racial Representation and Whiteness Bias in Hollywood Cinema by ROSA K. LEMBCKE ____________________________________________________________________________________ A Master’s Thesis in Communications at Roskilde University Center Semester: Spring 2017 Student no.: 56325 Supervisor: Tobias Raun Characters: 170752 Number of Pages: 71 1 Danish Abstract Dette speciale beskæftiger sig med interkulturel kommunikation og visuel kommunikation som interessefelter. Følgende projekt har til formål at undersøge hvordan Hollywoods billedsprog er påvirket af vestlige idéer om raciale kategorier, og hvordan dette opleves og kommer til udtryk i Hollywood’s repræsentation af ikke-hvide subjekter; people of color. Specialet tager hensyn til intersektionalitet, hvorfor der tages udgangspunkt i et multifacetteret teoretisk apparat indeholdende hvidhedsstudier, andetgørelse, performative race- og kønskonstruktioner, poststrukturalistisk feminisme, samt (film)historiske raciale repræsentationspraksisser. Undersøgelsen er udført med udgangspunkt i 2 aktuelle filmcases, der har bidraget til racedebatten i Hollywood, samt 10 kvalitative interviews, der blev foretaget i Los Angeles med informanter, der tilhører filmbranchen på forskellig vis. Med hovedvægt på informanternes udsagn i det empiriske materiale konkluderes afslutningsvis, at Hollywoods raciale repræsentationssystem er baseret på hvidhed og maskulinitet som normsættende identitetspositioner, hvormed øvrige raciale kategorier automatisk andetgøres eller udviskes. Det konkluderes at manglende repræsentation eller misrepræsentation i form af stereotyper, biroller, whitewashing eller blackface, er problematisk. Disse faktorer kan afføde dårlige jobmuligheder for ikke-hvide i branchen, den manglende mulighed for identifikation kan føre til lavt selvværd, og potentielt kan racefremstillingerne bidrage til racisme og sexisme via diskriminerende race- og kønsdiskurser. Endvidere ses at disse forhold søges opretholdt i branchen med markedsinteresser som argument - på trods af at nyere forskning peger på det modsatte, nemlig at forbrugerne foretrækker diversitet, og at dette er mere profitabelt end Hollywoods hidtidige racerepræsentation. Hollywood må derfor muligvis anlægge et mere nuanceret racesyn i fremtiden for ikke at miste kritiske filmforbrugerne til andre medier, såsom TV-mediet, hvis repræsentationer af race ifølge informanterne tegner et væsentligt mere nutidigt, inkluderende, relaterbart og mangfoldigt billede af den almenmenneskelige erfaring i Amerika. 2 Table of Contents Danish Abstract…………………………………………………………………………p. 2 Introduction……………….……………….……………………………………………….………………p. 5 A Note on Intersectionality………….………………….………………….………………….……...........p. 6 Theoretical Foundations…………….……………………………….…………….………………….........p. 6 Racism and Colorism ………….………………….………………….…..………………...….p. 7-8 Whiteness Studies…………….……………………………….…………….………………..........p. 9-11 Brown Eyes, Blue eyes: An Exercise in Cognitive Dissonance.............................................p. 11-13 The Other and Its Representations…..…………………………….…………….......................…….p. 13-16 Racial Stereotypes.................................................................................................................................p. 17-18 Painting Faces and Racial Performances.....................................................................................p. 19-20 Defiantly Different: Oppositional Gazes as Forms of Resistance ……………..................p. 21-22 Methods…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..….........…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…..…...p. 22 Qualitative Interviews..........................................................................................................................p. 22-23 Reflexivity and Feminist Interview Techniques………….…….................…………….……p.23-27 Recruiting Informants………….………………….………………….………………..................….…p. 27-29 Conducting the Interviews………….………………….………………….…………….................…p, 29-30 Introduction to Analysis………………. ……………….………………………………….….p. 30-31 First Chapter of Analysis……………….……………….……………….……………….…………....p. 32 “Ghost in the Shell”: A Contemporary Case of Whitewashing………......………..p. 32-42 “Nina”: A Contemporary Case of Blackface……………………………….…….....…….p. 42-51 Second Chapter of Analysis…………………………………………………………………………............p. 51 Colorism and Racial Performativity……………………………………………….…p. 51-57 Ambiguity: The Benefits and Disadvantages of Being Multiracial…………...........p. 57-62 Playing the Game: Compromising and Contemplating Stereotypes……....p. 62-72 The White Gaze: Racial Bias and the Power of Visual (Non-)Representation……………….……………………………….…………………...p. 72-80 3 Oppositional Gazes, Spaces for Agency and Possibilities for Future Change………………………….………………………………….…………….p. 80-88 Conclusion……………….………………………………………....…………………………….…….……p. 89-90 Reference list……………………………….……………………..………….…….…………...p. 91-93 Web Sources……………….……………………………….……...…………...………..….………...p. 94-96 List of Figures……………….……………………………….…..…………..…………....…………p. 96-98 Appendix 1: Danish Communication Article………...……………….………………….…p. 99-101 Appendix 2: Danish Communication Plan…………...…………….………………….….…p. 101-102 Appendix 3: Interview Transcripts………….……..……….………………….……………...p. 102-186 Appendix 4: Log of Ethnographic Notes……...………………….………………….………..p. 187 4 Introduction After Barack Obama was elected the first black president of the United States in 2008, many Americans took his accomplishment as a sign of a new post-racial era in American society (Faegin 2010, Bush 2011). The election of Obama did indeed mark a historical moment, and while the opportunities for people of color in America may have improved, racial discrimination, prejudice and inequality have not disappeared. Racial tension still plagues America, and subjects of equality, race and racial representation are still discussed, perhaps even more so, now that Donald Trump has been elected president. This paper attempts to disprove the idea of a post-racial America and shed light on the ways in which racial imagery is formed and continue to influence lives in American society by investigating how and to what effect race is represented and communicated by America’s perhaps most influential channel of visual production - Hollywood cinema. Thus, a basic assumption throughout this paper is the belief that representational images in film and popular culture are not sites of neutrality. Dyer wrote that ‘Racial imagery is central to the organisation of the modern world’ (Dyer 2005: 9), and Dirks & Mueller also point to the powerful, pedagogical influence of the mainstream: The power of popular culture lies in its ability to distort, shape, and produce reality, dictating the ways in which we think, feel, and operate in the social world. (Dirks & Mueller 2007: 116) Adopting a similar mindset, I proceed with the following problem statement for my thesis: In which ways is the contemporary visual media landscape of Hollywood influenced by Western notions of racial differences, and how does this affect the representation and experiences of people of color? 5 A Note on Intersectionality In her research on the role of intersectionality in violence committed against women of color, critical race scholar Kimberle Crenshaw notes that: ‘[...] the experiences of women of color are frequently the product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism’ (Crenshaw 1991: 1243). She asserts that intersectionality is often forgotten in attempts to politicize either racism or sexism alone, leading people to believe that experiences of discrimination towards race or gender are mutually exclusive: Although racism and sexism readily intersect in the lives of real people, they seldom do in feminist and antiracist practices. And so, when the practices expound identity as woman or person of color as an either/or proposition, they relegate the identity of women of color to a location that resists telling (Crenshaw 1991: 1241). Though this paper is focused mainly on race, I will strive to keep in mind the intersecting aspects of identity when interviewing and analyzing the statements of the informants. Theoretical Foundations The following sections are meant to foreshadow most of the terms and concepts that will be unfolded an interplayed throughout the analysis. Since the project takes intersectionality into account, theoretical works regarding gender and performativity will intertwine with those on racial relations and representation. Thus, rather than a long-winded theoretical chapter followed by a redundant analysis, this section of theory will function as a meta chapter instead, briefly presenting the key concepts that will shape my analysis before putting them to work. 6 Racism and Colorism Before venturing into topics of racism and racial categories, I want to stress what is implied by the term ’race’. While ‘races’ do not exist as biologically different human species, notions of race are real as these invisible structures have real-life impact on people’s lives: Although ideas about race are in their rawest forms fictions of our collective imagination, they have real and meaningful consequences - economic, psychological and otherwise (Dirks & Mueller 2007: 2) Race, then, is henceforth understood as a socially constructed phenomenon rather than a biological phenomenon (Hirschman 2004, Andreassen et. al 2008, Myong 2009). Sociologist Margaret Hunter describes an often ignored, but important aspect of racial relations in America. The term, ‘colorism’, is ‘[...] the process
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