What does it mean to be “black” in the lenses of the media? Well, let’s talk about it.

In Herman Gray’s book, “Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for ‘Blackness,” it is argued that, “because television representations of black and people of color operate within structured material and discursive relations of power….subversive and alternative possibilities are constantly displaced, shut off, or occasionally appropriate and folded into the center (Gray, p. 8).” Furthermore, Gray provides insight into 1980s television representations of blacks to support this argument, which is broken down below:

“American television representations of blackness in the 1980s were structured by a number of complex historical, economic, technological, and cultural factors (Gray, pg. 58).”

During the mid-1980s, television representations “proliferated when the big three television networks, ABC, CBS, and NBC, experienced a decline in total viewers as a result of competition from cable programming, increased use of videocassette recorders and video games, the rise of a fourth television network, and an increase in original programming on independent stations (Butsch, 1990) (Gray, p.58).”

By the late mid-1980s, most commercial television programming acknowledged, if only minimally, the economic viability and cultural force of women and African Americans ( Gray, 61).

After reading this, you may think the “black” identity is tokenized in the media. Yet, there’s more to learn regarding commercial media and black cultural politics as we discuss “Adventures in Shondaland” with emphasis on Shonda Rhimes and her production company, Shondaland. In which, the following politics are discussed:

Auteur theory “centers around predominantly on the technical competence of the director, a director’s distinguishable personality and signature, and the interior range of meanings produced by the director’s work. It involves film auteurs, individuals whose influence and artistic control is so profound that they give a film its personal and unique stamp (Meyer & Griffin, p. 5).”
Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival concept explores literary modes that subvert or overturn dominant styles of writing, which include “an analysis of social position, ritual spectacle, and grotesque realism (Jones Jr. & Vajjala, p. 24).”

“ Multiculturalism masquerades as diversity, presenting different creeds of people while obscuring, erasing, or objectifying their differences…. This leads to multicultural colorblindness characterized by featuring people of various identities and hues minus any social, historical, or political background to construe their racial or ethnic identities ( Petermon, p.102).”

“Color-blindness, as Bonilla-Silva defines it, confines racism to individual actions and preferences, cultural practices, or instances that should be minimized or ignored rather than recognized as an institutionalized system of oppression (Washington & Harns, p.157).”

Post-racialism necessitates the contemporary erasure of race via transcendent logics; It allows “whites to oppose civil-rights remedies and advocate for race-neutral policies because society has transcended the racial movement, or civil rights era (Washington & Harns, p. 157).”

With this, we begin to understand the barriers that limit “black” representation. Yet, as an auteur, Rhimes’s success with shows like Murder, Grey’s Anatomy, and Scandal, made her “positionality as a black woman unique because auteurs are mostly white men (Jones Jr. & Vajjala, p.27).”

From a fan’s perspective, I interviewed Ta’lissa King-Furniss, an interim research manager and specialist. As a fan of Grey’s Anatomy (also referred to as Grey’s), King-Furniss was exposed to love, lust, and interworking. Knowing this, I wanted to get her reaction to some of the information from Adventures in Shondaland.

A portion of my interview with Ta'lissa is shown below:

Interviewer : “According to Rhimes’s interviews, the success of Shondaland as an industry model for other shows is rooted in casting practices. This process is referred to as open or blind casting, meaning the characters are not written with an ethnicity in mind and are open to all auditioning actors.; Although Rhimes favors this strategy, she still believes diversity is necessary (p. 160).”

King-Furniss: “I didn’t know this was her process for casting people, but after hearing it, I think it makes it organic.”

Interviewer : “On Grey’s, we don’t have the black character who is the ‘black character.’ He has issues way beyond being, ‘the black character’,” from Adventures in Shondaland.

Interviewer : “What do you think being the “black character” means?”

King- Furniss: “ I think it means making ‘ black’ their entire identity in terms of it being overly emphasized, especially when they’re put onto a platform with a lot of other races,” said Ta’lissa. “‘Black’ is presented as your identity before you’re presented as a person.”

*End of Interview*

In contrast, as a Scandal fan, she satisfied her hopeless romantic-ness yet would’ve preferred that “ the relationship wasn’t Olivia’s identity”. In other words, she felt as though Olivia’s relationship with the president, Fitz, was Olivia’s story rather than Olivia’s story emphasizing her career, personality, and upbringing.

Based on these statements and King-Furniss’s responses, it is clear that the “black” identity, in the media’s perception, consists of intimacy, relationships( of all kinds), along with ethnicity/race being the forefront of what represents us rather than it being us as individuals. Additionally, the “black” identity can be tokenized as well as “displaced and shut off” (Gray, p. 8) in the lenses of the media.

With that said, I would like to hear your thoughts so please feel free to leave a comment below.