So, we watched the show "Somebodies" today in class. It was surreal to see Little Kings used as a church and one of my friends lives in those little multi-colored houses out by North Avenue so it was a little weird; but, I was also less than impressed. I see how they wove the plot structures in at the end and I think that is what I was intended to notice but I cannot help but to comment on another aspect of the plot. Not to start a riot on the class blog but I was embarrassed and offended. How many black stereotypes can we fit into one series? I understand that I am white (granted, about as white as possible otherwise known as aryan, aryan, aryan of which I am not proud of but realize as a truth) and therefore, as much as I would like to, don't understand the cultural aspects of the intended audience that could make this acceptable. I don't know, maybe I am a bleeding heart liberal that is overly politically correct, but I really was offended.
That is why I wanted to know the class opinion. I understand my own cultural bias, I was raised in a privileged environment and watch things like Gossip Girl (again not proud) and Friends because it is something that I can relate to and laugh at because it is an exaggerated representation of what is familiar to me. It's funny. But, "Somebodies" did not seem funny to me; it seemed condescending and racist. But, now that I am thinking about it and analyzing it, wouldn't Gossip Girl be incredibly condescending to white, urban culture as it represents the white, urban teenager as incredibly materialistic and more concerned with social climbing than actual human feelings? But, this seems to be acceptable entertainment to me and "Somebodies" was not. This could be just me and my own cultural upbringing but it really bothered me. What do you all think? How did you feel?
Take a look at David's blog and my response to it.
ReplyDeleteYou raise some complicated questions in your posting, and I commend you for saying them out loud here. It matters from where we each view things -- our standpoint epistemology. Read a little Sandra Harding, if you haven't already. Or look at
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-epistemology/#standpoint
I've been in a book reading that Hadjii did at the National Book Conference, and the only folks in the room were about 50 middle-aged African-American women from around the country. They all loved Hadjii's work and praised him for "telling it like it is." His is a voice they recognize, speaking their lives fluently through humor, perhaps as you would react to a reading by the writer(s) of Gossip Girl. And that would be a good thing.
You shouldn't be defensive about who you are or where you come from or how aryan you are. We each have our own stories to tell and worlds to explore. None is more important than the other. And in each perhaps there lurks a commonality, one more profound than the shallow differences that we sometimes find difficult to comprehend.
Or something like that. Thoughts?