COMM 458 - University of Southern California
COMM 458: Race & Ethnicity in Entertainment and the Arts
Spring 2009: Monday/Wednesday, 10-11:50 am, G-34
Professor Vincent Brook
Office Hour: Wednesday 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Office: ASC 227
Phone: 323-666-6715
Email: vbrook@
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Together we will examine the construction of race and ethnicity in American culture, focusing on popular entertainment, most particularly film and television. Cultural representations of ethno-racial groups in the United States will be examined individually (e.g., Native Americans, African Americans, Latino/a Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans) and in relation to one another. Always bearing in mind the complex interconnection between representation (text) and social conditions (context), we will pay close attention to the ways in which ethno-racial images both reflect and affect people’s lived experience.
As the above short-list of ethno-racial groups indicates, the course will emphasize marginalized or “aggrieved” ethno-racial minorities—those which have been disproportionately oppressed, exploited, and discriminated against in this country. The role of Whiteness in the formation of ethno-racial “otherness” will also be explored, however, as will be Whiteness as an ethno-racial category.
Issues of race and ethnicity invariably intersect with those of class, gender, and sexual orientation, particularly in our multicultural age. Additionally, the functions of race and ethnicity both on and behind movie/TV screens will be confronted—here, especially, in regard to the perception and reality of Jewish dominance in (to be distinguished from control of) the communication media. How power relations within the media industries impact the ability of minority groups to get a cultural “fair shake” will be another important facet of the course.
We will culminate with a discussion of David Hollinger’s notion of “postethnicity,” an emergent ethno-racial construct deriving from the discourse of multiculturalism that posits neither a denial nor a transcendence of difference but rather a coalescing and coalitioning of ethno-racial forces to achieve mutually beneficial ends.
The course will be a challenging and provocative but hopefully also an illuminating experience, broadening horizons, heightening sensitivities, and preparing all of us to become more astute observers and perhaps also progressive shapers of American culture.
REQUIRED TEXTS/READINGS:
Herman Gray, Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for Blackness
Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States from the 1960s to the 1990s
Course Reader (CR), available through Mozena Publishing: 800-444-8398
SUPPLIMENTARY TEXTS:
Angela Aleiss, Making the White Man’s Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies
Charles Ramirez Berg, Latino Images in Film
Daniel Bernardi, ed., The Birth of Whiteness: Race and the Emergence of U.S. Cinema
Donald Bogle, Blacks in American Film and Television
Donald Bogle, Prime Time Blues: African Americans on Network Television
Donald Bogle, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films
Todd Boyd, The New H.N.I.C.: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop
Vincent Brook, Something Ain’t Kosher Here: The Rise of the “Jewish” Sitcom
Louis Chude-Sokei, The Last Darky: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora
Thomas Cripps, Making Movies Black: The Hollywood Message Movie from World War II to the Civil Rights Era
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefanic, Critical Race Theory: An Introduction
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefanacic, eds., Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror
Manthia Diawara, ed., Black American Cinema
Debra J. Dickerson, The End of Blackness
Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez, eds., Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text Reader
Anna Everett, Returning the Gaze: A Genealogy of Black Film Criticism, 1909-1949
Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks
Peter Feng, ed., Screening Asian Americans
John Fiske, Media Matters: Race and Gender in U.S. Politics
Ruth Frankenberg, ed., Displacing Whiteness: Essays in Social and Cultural Criticism
Lester D. Friedman, ed., Unspeakable Images: Ethnicity and the American Cinema
Ed Guerrero, Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film
Darrell Y. Hamamoto, Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the Politics of Experience
Darrell Y. Hamamoto and Sandra Lui, eds., Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism
Dick Hebdige, Subculture: The Meaning of Style
David Hollinger, Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism
Darnell Hunt, ed., Channeling Blackness: Studies on Television and Race in America
Sut Jahlly and Justin Lewis, Enlightened Racism: “The Cosby Show,” Audiences, and the Myth of the American Dream
Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America
George Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics
Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class
Lisa Lowe, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics
J. Fred MacDonald, Black and White TV: African Americans in Television since 1948
Norman Mailer, The White Negro
Gina Marchetti, Romance and the Yellow Peril: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction
Hamid Naficy, The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angeles
Chin Noriega, Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema
Chon Noriega, ed., Chicanos and Film: Representation and Resistance
Chon Noriega and Ana Lopez, eds., Ethnic Eye: Latino Media Arts
Christina Pieraccini and Douglass L. Alligood, ed., Color Television: Fifty Years of African American and Latino Images on Prime Time Television
Jesse Algeron Rhines, Black Film/White Money
Clara Rodriguez, ed., Latin Looks: Images of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S. Media
Richard Rodriquez, Brown: The Last Discovery of America
David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class
Michael Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot
Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor, eds., Hollywood’s Indians: The Portrayal of the Native American in Film
Tricia Rose, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America
Edward W. Said, Orientalism
Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media
Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television
James Snead, White Screen, Black Images: Hollywood from the Dark Side
Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity
Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
Greg Tate, Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture
Sasha Torres, ed., Living Color: Race and Television in the United States
Clint C. Wilson II, Felix Gutierrez, and Lena M. Chao, Racism, Sexism, and the Media: The Rise of Class Communication in Multicultural America
Sharon Willis, High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary American Film
Gladstone L. Yearwood, Black Film as a Signifying Practice: Cinema and the African-American Aesthetic Tradition
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
• All assignments must be completed to receive a grade for the class.
• Late papers or assignments will be graded down 1/3 grade for the first late day, and an additional 1/3 grade for every additional two late days.
• Good attendance and punctuality are expected. Absences not only affect your class participation grade but can affect your overall grade as well. Missing 10 or more classes results in an automatic Fail.
• Punctuality factors into attendance. Arriving noticeably late or leaving early (unexcused) results in 1/2 of an absence.
• Class participation is strongly encouraged, and can affect your grade positively (see Evaluation).
EVALUATION:
Final Paper Prospectus: 5%
Final Paper: 20%
Midterm Exam: 25%
Final Exam: 25%
Class Presentation and Abstract: 15%
Class Participation: 10%
GRADING:
97-100% = A+, 93-96% = A, 90-92% = A-, 87-89% = B+, etc.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SCHEDULE AND AGENDA
(Most screenings are clips rather than full films or TV shows and,
as with the listed readings, are subject to change)
WEEK 1
Mon., Jan. 12
Introduction
Screening: Rabit-Proof Fence
Wed., Jan. 14
The “Indian Question”
Reading: Noriega, “Birth of the Southwest” (CR)
Screening: Ramona
WEEK 2
Mon., Jan. 19
NO CLASS: MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
Wed., Jan. 21
The “Indian Question,” continued
Reading: Aleiss, Chs. 1, 8, and “Conclusion” (CR); Amanda J. Cobb, “What It Means to Say Smoke Signals” (CR)
Screening: Smoke Signals
WEEK 3
Mon., Jan. 26
Blackface, White Noise
Reading: Chude-Sokei, Intro, Ch. 3 (CR)
Screening: The Jazz Singer
Wed., Jan. 28
Racism in Early American Cinema
Reading: Bogel, Ch. 1; Taylor, “The Re-Birth of the Aesthetic in Cinema” (CR); Campbell and Oakes, “The Invention of Race: Rereading White Over Black”
Screening: D.W. Griffith documentary
WEEK 4
Mon., Feb. 2
Racism in Early American Cinema, continued
Reading: Omi and Winant, Ch. 4-5; Bowser and Spence, “Identity and Betrayal” (CR)
Screening: Midnight Ramble
Wed., Feb. 4
Blacks in Film after The Birth of a Nation
Reading: Omi and Winant, Ch. 6-7; Guerrero, Chs. 1, 3 (CR)
Screening: Mandingo
WEEK 5
Mon., Feb. 9
Black Television
Reading: Gray, Ch. 1-3
Screening: Color Adjustment (Part 1)
Wed., Feb. 11
Black Sitcoms: Separate But Equal, Assimilationist
Reading: Gray, Ch. 4-5; Bodrogkhozy, “Is This What You Mean by Color TV?” (CR)
Screening: Color Adjustment (Part 2)
WEEK 6
Mon., Feb. 16
NO CLASS: PRESIDENT’S DAY
Wed., Feb. 18
Black Sitcoms: Multicultural
Reading: Gray, Ch. 6-8
Screening: Frank’s Place
WEEK 7
Mon., Feb. 23
Black TV Now
Reading: Gray, Ch. 9-10; Zook, “The Fox Network and the Revolution in Black Television”
Screening: The Dave Chappelle Show
Wed., Feb. 25
Black Female Representation
Reading: (CR); Banet-Weiser, “Bodies of Difference” (CR); Gates, “Always a Partner in Crime” (CR)
Screening: School Daze, Jungle Fever
WEEK 8
Mon., Mar. 2
FBlack Female Representation, continued
Reading: Reeves, “Re-Covering Racism: Crack Mothers, Reganism, and the Network News”
(CR); Zook, “Living Single and the ‘Fight for Mr. Right’” (CR)
Screening: Daughters of the Dust
Wed., Mar. 4
Review for Midterm
WEEK 9
Mon., Mar. 9
FIRST MIDTERM EXAM
Wed., Mar. 11
Brown-ness, Introduction
Reading: Perea, “Los Olvidados: On the Making of an Invisible People” (CR)
Screening: The Bronze Screen (Part 1)
WEEK 10
Mon., Mar. 16
NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK
Wed., Mar. 18
NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK
WEEK 11
Mon., Mar. 23
Brown-ness, continued
Reading: Ramirez-Berg, Ch. 3 (CR)
Screening: The Bronze Screen (Part 2)
Wed., Mar. 25
The Semiotics of Stereotyping
Reading: Ramirez-Berg, Ch. 1-2 (CR)
Screening: Falling Down
WEEK 12
Mon., Mar. 30
Latina Representation
Reading: Kim, “The Latina Maid on Network Television” (CR)
Screening: Salt of the Earth: Part 1
Wed., April 1
The Cases of Nancy Kwan and Linda Liu
Reading: Chyng Feng Sun, “Ling Woo in Historical Context: The New Face of Asian American Stereotypes on Television” (CR)
Screening: Charlotte Sometimes; Cooleyville
WEEK 13
Mon., April 6
Gay Latina/o Representation
Reading: Esteban Munoz, “Pedro Zamora’s Real World of Counter-publicity” (CR)
Screening: Salt of the Earth: Part 2
TERM PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE!
Wed., April 8
Asian-ness and the Case of Sessue Hayakawa
Reading: Higashi, “Ethnicity, Class, and Gender in Film: De Mille’s The Cheat”
Screening: The Cheat
WEEK 14
Mon., April 13
The Case of Anna Mae Wong
Reading: Liu, “When Dragon Ladies Die, Do They Come Back as Butterflies? Re- Imagining Anna Mae Wong” (CR)
Screening: Slaying the Dragon
Wed., April 15
The Cases of Charlie Chan, Judge Ito, and Kung Fu
Reading: Locke, “Here Comes the Judge: The Dancing Itos and the Televisual Construction of the Enemy Asian Male” (CR); Minh-Ha T. Pham, “The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood” (CR)
Screening: Charlie Chan film and Better Luck Tomorrow
WEEK 15
Mon., April 20
The White Negro
Reading: Mailer, The White Negro (CR); Rux, “Eminem: The New White Negro” (CR)
Screening: Peggy Sue Got Married; Bamboozled; Eight Mile; Whoopi
TERM PAPER DUE!
Wed., April 22
Shades of Whiteness
Reading: Mahoney, “The Social Construction of Whiteness” (CR); Barrett and Roediger, “How White People Became White” (CR); Gallagher, “White Racial Formation in the Twenty-First Century” (CR); Graham “The End of the Great White Male” (CR)
Screening: TBA
WEEK 16
Mon., April 27
How the Jews Became White Folks
Reading: Brook, “Virtual Ethnicity: Incorporation, Diversity, and the Contemporary ‘Jewish’ Sitcom” (CR)
Screening: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sarah Silverman
Wed., April 29
SECOND MIDTERM EXAM
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