INTERSECTIONS OF QUEER AND IMMIGRANT IDENTITIES IN NBC’S SUPERSTORE by Emily Pollard, B.S. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in Communication Studies May 2021 Committee Members: Elizabeth K. Eger, Chair Jasmine T. Austin Josh Miller COPYRIGHT by Emily Pollard 2021 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Emily Pollard, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. DEDICATION To Parker. Thank you for being my best friend. You were there for the multiple emotional breakdowns and unrealistically confident tirades. People are boring, but you’re something else completely. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis wouldn’t have been possible without the work and labor of so many people I value in my life. In addition to my spouse, Parker, I would like to thank my sister, Natalie who was our roommate for a period of about a year. Natalie, you were cooped up in the apartment with me for the majority of this bonkers idea turned thesis so you get a space here in the acknowledgements. I also would like to thank my parents, Jim and Dena, for instilling in me a life-long love of education and learning. My advisor and mentor, Dr. Elizabeth K. Eger, is my academic shero. Thank you Dr. Eger for your constant support and advocacy for me. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Jasmine T. Austin and Dr. Josh Miller. Dr. Austin, I’m so thankful that I chose to take your Diversity Training course. That class bonded us as students and sparked some rad activism, none of which would have been possible without you. Dr. Josh, you have been so important in my journey as an activist-scholar. If I could take a course with you twice a year for the rest of my life, I would. Lastly, I would like to thank my cat Mittens. She is my world. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................1 Justification and Significance ......................................................................5 Intersectionality and Communication Studies Literature Review ...............8 Queer of color x queer immigrant perspectives ...................................15 API queer x API queer, undocumented immigrant, working-class perspectives ..........................................................................................18 Literature on Work and Media Representations of Work ..........................20 Preview of Chapters ...................................................................................23 II. METHODS ........................................................................................................25 Rhetorical Methods ....................................................................................25 Narrative Criticism .....................................................................................27 Foss’s (1989) perspective on narrative in detail ............................29 My applied method of narrative criticism ......................................33 Justification of Text ..................................................................................36 III. MATEO REIFIES AND DISRUPTS STEREOTYPES ..................................39 Mateo Initially Reifies Stereotypes ............................................................41 Mateo’s Undocumented Status Complicates His Narrative .......................45 Mateo learns he is undocumented ..................................................45 Mateo ends his relationship with Jeff ............................................48 Mateo undermines a fellow immigrant ..........................................52 Conclusion .................................................................................................54 IV. ORGANIZATIONAL VIOLENCE AGAINST MATEO ...............................56 Organizational Violence from ICE, Cloud 9, and Dan ..............................58 Cloud 9 sends ICE to store 1217 ....................................................58 Mateo’s detention ...........................................................................63 Mateo’s exploitative working conditions after he is released on bond................................................................................................64 vi Sustained Organizational Violence Impacts Mateo’s Health ....................70 Mateo is unable to accept compensation from Cloud 9 .................70 Mateo and the health Fund ..............................................................73 Conclusion .................................................................................................76 V. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................77 Theoretical Contributions ..........................................................................78 Intersectionality x immigrant queer perspectives ..........................78 API queer x API queer, undocumented immigrant, working-class perspectives ....................................................................................80 Organizational violence .................................................................83 Difference at work .........................................................................84 Media representations ....................................................................84 Methodological Contributions ...................................................................86 Mateo Introduces Intersectional Oppression to Superstore Audiences .....88 Future Studies ............................................................................................93 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................98 vii I. INTRODUCTION This poem is titled Bursting of photographs after trying to squeeze out old memories by queer migrant activist and poet, Sonia Guiñansaca. They don’t tell you this when you migrate: Old Polaroids are never enough You are left tracing the silhouette of your grandparents Or what ever is left Of them How many years has it been, 5,10, or 20? It’s been 20 20 In those 20 years you have been asked To hide your accent Sow your tongue So that no more Rrrr’s roll out Straighten up So that white Jesus accepts you So that the lawyer helps you Dig out the roots Of your home From underneath your nails Cut your trenza Pledge allegiance to the flag And when you cannot, Each thread will cut through Every inch of you To teach you, your kind was not meant 1 For this country Dad told you that they will measure your success based on how smart you could be So, you tried to be smart Books after books you chased vocabulary for value Legislation to give you meaning Yes, sir. I am a skilled worker Yes, sir. I can contribute No, sir. I haven’t committed any crimes Pinned. Against One. Another You remember that your mother almost didn’t make it through the Border Or any legislation, this time around She won’t make it into health care packages She won’t be remembered during press conferences She will be dissected, research How much she doesn’t belong will be published They don’t tell you this when you migrate (Segal, 2015) In the fight for immigration reform, DREAMers, “immigrant youths who qualify for the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act,” have been given center stage in the media (Blum, 2017; Hildreth, 2020). A subset of “undocuqueer” immigrants (at times separate from the DREAMers) have been instrumental to agitating for immigrant rights (Blum, 2017). Some undocuqueers take issue with the media’s focus on the “deserving” and “merit” of DREAMers (Blum, 2017). This narrative of exceptionalism leaves those lacking “respectability,” those who reject cisnormativity and heteronormativity, by the side of the road. Undocuqueer immigrants face unique sets of challenges in the U.S. due to their multiple marginalized identities (non-white, queer, and undocumented). They also face challenges within their communities, confronting whiteness in the LGBTQIAP+ community and heterosexism in the undocumented 2 community (Campbell, 2017). It is because of these intersecting challenges that I begin my first chapter with a poem by undocuqueer poet and activist Sonia Guiñansaca. She articulates the intersecting forms of oppression she faces targeted at her queer and undocumented identities. I examine these unique challenges within the context of work in my master’s thesis. Work is where those living in the United States spend a large percentage of their time, nearly a third of their life (Gettysburg College, 2020). Studies of work(ers) rarely focus on immigrants and even further neglect the challenges of undocumented workers. Additionally, studies of organizational diversity largely focus only on white-collar workspaces, which according to organizational communication scholar Karen