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 for critical engagement.
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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 the institutional role
and presence of racism, racially aligns Jewishness with whiteness, and whitens
blackness. The article also examines how musical numbers and humor are 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 and dependent, active and passive, unproductive, yet all
consuming’’ (p. 188). Use of this term situates meaning within the space of Glee, with
the JAP encompassing a mix of Jewish feminized qualities, not necessarily (though often
most easily) attached to a Jewish female body an experience of marginality vis-`a-vis
whiteness, an experience of whiteness and belonging vis-`a-vis blackness the series relies
on the trope that difference 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 rights movement was no
longer needed’’
Willingness to consume entertainment featuring black actors is 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 assumption that race issues have been resolved, that racial equality
has been achieved (proof is in the display of diversity), making it difficult to focus on
race issues that might arise 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 and favorable coverage is given to
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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 postracial ethos 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 me sing 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 racism is not a reality, and as such, funny and
harmless. Viewers are invited to see the series as savvy, self-reflexive, and ironic in its
display of racism—too self-aware to be racist—making it difficult to pinpoint how the
series reinscribes racist tropes. This does important cultural work by situating a person
who criticizes the series for its treatment of race as taking things too seriously, lacking a
sense of humor, not hip to current trends.
The story about racial inequality hijacked for one about Sue’s outrageously inappropriate
behavior, making clear we are not meant to sympathize with Sue, much less take
anything with which she is aligned (race issues) seriously. There is no discussion of how
racial inequality will be addressed in glee club,… Race issues are framed in the context
of a fight between a ‘‘good’’ and well-meaning guy and a ‘‘bad’’ woman, continuing the
agenda of fusing race issues to individual character traits racism is the result of not
following one’s bliss: Happy people are not racist.
Racial oppression becomes 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 conveying
emotion that cannot be contained or expressed in another manner people of color are
made one-dimensional through the absence of these back stories (Ono, in press),
recentering white 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 them of the emotional resonances that story
and characterization bring to white musical numbers’’
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 is consistently associated with typical markers of black U.S. culture, reduced to
one purpose (Dyer, 2000, p. 25)—signifying blackness as a counterpoint to (Jewish)
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whiteness. As Winfrey (2011) notes, Mercedes is alarmingly underdeveloped as a
character, with no discussion of what her existence as a black girl in a predominantly
white high school might be like. In the pilot episode, Mercedes says she’s not ‘‘down
with background singing, I’m Beyonc´e,’’ aligning herself with one of the top black pop
stars. After hearing Finn sing in this episode, she tells him ‘‘you good, white boy, but you
better bring it.’’ Using the term ‘‘white boy’’ marks her as speaking from a black
perspective and having inside knowledge of cool (black) culture
Mercedes’s actions never develop her character beyond her blackness in Seasons 1 and 2.
In contrast, Rachel, who excessively embodies stereotypes about Jewish women and
JAPs in particular, has a fully developed character from the first episode, her Jewishness
providing access to the privileges of whiteness. Jokes abound about how overbearing,
arrogant, and narcissistic Rachel is—for instance, in ‘‘Audition’’ in Season 2 when
Rachel tells Sunshine she should join glee club because they need 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 about Mercedes’s blackness, suggesting
Rachel’s (obnoxious, narcissistic) Jewishness would not permit her to be anywhere but
center stage.
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