Dubrofsky (2013) (excerpts)

What is the author’s thesis and how does she argue about the show’s role in terms of racism. antisemitism?

Rachel is only granted access to the privileges of whiteness when whitened.

Ironic and self-conscious humor and the trope of the musical number are integral to understanding racism in the show

The show frames race in society as postracial humour or equality that made racism a past phenomenon, foreclosing possibilities forcritical engagement.

  • Diversity of its characters, with many people of color and more: Jewish characters, a paraplegic boy, a gay boy, a lesbian, and a bisexual girl.
  • I argue Glee is a conflicted postracial text defining itself explicitly as not racist,but that it perpetuates racism and relies on racist tropes.
  • The problematic ways that Glee downplays racism, avoids theinstitutional role and presence of racism, racially aligns Jewishness with whiteness,and whitens blackness. The article also examines how musical numbers and humorare used to obfuscate troubling racial dynamics.

What do white and JAP represent as analyzed through a racial framework?

Whiteness functions as both a preferred and a normalized state of being. the JAP representation is ‘‘powerful anddependent, active and passive, unproductive, yet all consuming’’ (p. 188). Use of thisterm situates meaning within the space of Glee, with the JAP encompassing a mix ofJewish feminized qualities, not necessarily (though often most easily) attached to aJewish female bodyan experience of marginality vis-`a-vis whiteness, an experience of whiteness andbelonging vis-`a-vis blacknessthe series relies on the trope thatdifference is ubiquitous, with the JAP stereotype functioning as the ‘‘difference

Why are they not to be regarded as post-racist era shows?

Scholars trace postracism to the late 1980s, when The Cosby Show hit primetime,ushering ‘‘in ‘postracial’ politics that mark our present-day media texts. Reagan cited the popularity of the show with whites as indicating that the civil rightsmovement was no longer needed’’

Willingness to consume entertainment featuring black actorsis equated with social and economic equality for black people in the United States,suggesting ‘‘we are living out our lives on a level playing field’’

The danger is in the assumptionthat race issues have been resolved, that racial equality has been achieved (proof isin the display of diversity), making it difficult to focus on race issues that mightarise as part of the construction of these displays…

What is the difference between overt and inferential racism? Explain with examples from Glee?

‘‘Overt racism’’ as ‘‘those many occasions when open andfavorable coverage is given to arguments, positions, and spokespersons who are inthe business of elaborating an openly racist argument or advancing a racist policy orview’’ (p. 91) and ‘‘inferential racism’’ as ‘‘naturalized representations of events andsituations relating to race, whether ‘factual’ or ‘fictional,’ which have racist premisesand propositions inscribed in them as a set of unquestioned assumptions. This kind of racism is rooted in a postracialethos suggesting issues of racial inequality have been resolved, underlying which isthe assumption that since we (the characters? viewers? the producers of the series?)are not racist, we can safely laugh about racism.‘‘black girl from glee club whose name I can’t remember,’’ referencing racism(when white people cannot distinguish between different people of color‘‘Oh, you don’t speak English. You like me sing. You like mesing very much.’’

How is racism treated as one of the many human condition of life? Why or why not?

Overt racism allows for the inference that racismis not a reality, and as such, funny and harmless. Viewers are invited to see theseries as savvy, self-reflexive, and ironic in its display of racism—too self-aware to beracist—making it difficult to pinpoint how the series reinscribes racist tropes. Thisdoes important cultural work by situating a person who criticizes the series for itstreatment of race as taking things too seriously, lacking a sense of humor, not hip tocurrent trends.

The story about racial inequality hijacked for one about Sue’s outrageouslyinappropriate behavior, making clear we are not meant to sympathize with Sue,much less take anything with which she is aligned (race issues) seriously. There isno discussion of how racial inequality will be addressed in glee club,… Race issues are framed in thecontext of a fight between a ‘‘good’’ and well-meaning guy and a ‘‘bad’’ woman,continuing the agenda of fusing race issues to individual character traitsracism is the resultof not following one’s bliss: Happy people are not racist.

Racial oppressionbecomes one factor in a long list of things that make a teenager’s life difficult.

What is the role of the musical numbers?

… Define the purpose of the ‘‘money shot’’ in television shows: pivotal in conveyingemotion that cannot be contained or expressed in another mannerpeople of color are made one-dimensionalthrough the absence of these back stories (Ono, in press), recenteringwhite characters(Giroux, 1997) who are more fully fleshed out. … through the absence of starring roles for characters of color in the numbers, … No such wider life is given the black characters . . . depriving themof the emotional resonances that story and characterization bring to white musicalnumbers’’

If Mercedes is presented as having the talent and appropriate voice for a solo,

she is portrayed as lacking the drive or the ability to tame her emotions to claim

center stage, reproducing stereotypes of the angry black woman (Ahmed, 2008) who

is her own worst enemy

Mercedes isconsistently associated with typical markers of black U.S. culture, reduced to onepurpose (Dyer, 2000, p. 25)—signifying blackness as a counterpoint to (Jewish)whiteness. As Winfrey (2011) notes, Mercedes is alarmingly underdeveloped as acharacter, with no discussion of what her existence as a black girl in a predominantlywhite high school might be like. In the pilot episode, Mercedes says she’s not ‘‘downwith background singing, I’m Beyonc´e,’’ aligning herself with one of the top blackpop stars. After hearing Finn sing in this episode, she tells him ‘‘you good, whiteboy, but you better bring it.’’ Using the term ‘‘white boy’’ marks her as speakingfrom a black perspective and having inside knowledge of cool (black) culture

Mercedes’s actions never develop her character beyond her blackness in Seasons1 and 2. In contrast, Rachel, who excessively embodies stereotypes about Jewishwomen and JAPs in particular, has a fully developed character from the first episode,her Jewishness providing access to the privileges of whiteness. Jokes abound abouthow overbearing, arrogant, and narcissistic Rachel is—for instance, in ‘‘Audition’’in Season 2 when Rachel tells Sunshine she should join glee club because theyneed more people to stand behind her (Rachel) with wet eyes while she sings solos.These reminders of Rachel’s Jewish qualities function differently than ones aboutMercedes’s blackness, suggesting Rachel’s (obnoxious, narcissistic) Jewishness wouldnot permit her to be anywhere but center stage.

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