I'm White, Oh So White by Patty Larkin (1990) Offers Humor to Address the Representation of Whiteness

With good reason, we talk (and joke) a lot about what it means to be Black, or Native American, or Hispanic or Asian, or a member of any given historically disadvantaged racial or ethnic group in the United States. But how often do we explore what it means to be white, in humor or in social studies?

Folk singer Patty Larkin laments being "a bit uptight... on account of I'm white."

One punch line answer to that question is, “All the time,” of course, since history and popular culture in America are dominated by white privilege. However, it’s rare to call out being white as an identity with its own stereotypes, group commonalities and limiting expectations—and rarer to do it in a funny and self-deprecating way, as (white) folk singer Patty Larkin does in this 1990 live track. An analysis of this song could make an interesting opening activity for a unit on racial and ethnic identity in a high school or college media class for mostly white groups of learners as well as for mixed groups or groups with mostly one other ethnicity (perhaps a welcome change to see a white person aware, and mildly critical, of her whiteness).

Read “I'm White” by Patty Larkin on Genius

Click on highlighted lyrics above for discussion ideas, or sign in to Genius to add your own comments to the annotation.

[AFTER THE JUMP, some backstory on how this song came up recently, and a brief reflection on the importance of studying media representations of white identity]

Performing Race... A little Too Well: Nightly Show Satirizes Black Community Views on Rachel Dolezal

If you are teaching a media studies, sociology or arts course that considers theories of race, identity or performativity, and you don't take time to discuss the Rachel Dolezal NAACP fiasco in the news, well, then either your syllabus is too rigid or you are a fool. Fortunately, we suffer fools gladly at ML4ML, and have just the clip to kick you into a wisely foolish discussion of this fascinating case of a woman born of White parents, who identifies as Black, and became the Vice President of the Spokane, WA chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. As you watch the clip below, consider using the following analysis prompts:

• What are the three settings/personas selected to represent the views from the Black community, and what aspects or archetypes of Black culture do they satirize?
• How do the correspondents question or support the host's race identity/performance at the end of the clip, and what do these jokes have to say about how we judge racial authenticity?

Get More: Comedy Central,Funny Videos,Funny TV Shows

For a second viewing, consider these prompts:

• What does the Black Emergency Technician's focus on Dolezal's hair say about the performance of race?
• What are the White Amnesty Advocate's arguments for accepting the "world's first Black convert" on a "path to Black citizenship," what makes them funny, and how do they relate to real issues and views?
• How does the White-Black-Woman Hunter's claim that "this is a conspiracy that white people have been hiding for years... fake Black people are everywhere" relate to reality?

Learners are likely to have strong reactions to the Dolezal story. I suggest asking all to write down their opinions of her situation in response to a straight news clip or in depth article about the fiasco, and then to phrase their opinions in the form of a question. This can take the sting out of some inflammatory views, and sometimes turn strong reactions into curiosity [but be prepared to redirect persistent confrontational simplifications, like "Why is she so crazy?"]. Then, once everyone has a basic idea of the news story, take a look at some comedy versions, like the Daily Show and Nightly Show, to see what is funny to people and why. 

"You can’t just appropriate persecution just because it’s ‘cool...
We don’t need oppression cosplay. We need allies, not replacements.”
--Jessica Williams (left), Daily Show Correspondent 

I think it's important to privilege Black comics' views (and news sources) in this inquiry since Black identity has been subjugated historically, and dominant media representations are still ultimately controlled predominantly by wealthy white men. It's also key to consider Dolezal's own voice, and the NAACP organizational response. Then, if it suits your learning situation, it'd be great to look at this news story, and its satirical critiques, through lenses of identity theories, which I have found to be useful to learners in discussing race.

However, I'd be a bit wary in how I'd use this clip in relation to performative identity theories; I'd guess that learners might easily conflate performance with lying, or pretending, as many may see Dolezal as consciously putting on airs to deceive. To help give learners some language and concepts for discussion and analysis of the issues raised by this news story, I'd probably use a cocktail of Stuart Hall's notion of race as floating signifier and racial permutations of Judith Butler's gender performativity theory (or research like this), balanced by more pop culture and biological perspectives as explored by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s Finding Your Roots series on PBS.

How do you feel about using humor to address this issue? [Doesn't it seem inevitable?] How would you design inquiry and discussion of the Rachel Dolezal news story?

McTucky Fried High: Cartoons Create Unique Opportunities to Discuss LBGTQ Issues in MLE

Much like puppets, cartoons can offer opportunities to examine complicated and controversial issues through comedy and allegory that offer critical distance from the embodied engagement with human actors in video. McTucky Fried High is a compelling, often funny, new animated web series that uses fast food characters to portray LBGTQ issues among teens at school. Viewing this series may not fly in socially conservative educational communities, but in moderate or progressive communities, the series offers media literacy educators of teens and young adults an opportunity to laugh about and discuss the trials and tribulations around sexual identity in high school. The following Vialogue post invites discussion while modeling prompts for media literacy inquiry useful for exploring gay identity representation and for discussing how the McTucky Fried High culture relates to your learners' reality, with the following key questions:

• How do students assume gay people are oppressed at McTucky High? How are they actually oppressed? 
• How does it seem they are supported? 
• How is gay identity exploited by students? 
• How do these representations of oppression, support and exploitation compare to the reality at your school?

I was especially excited to see these cartoons after reading parts of Lauren Berliner's dissertation, Making It Better: LGBT Youth and New Pedagogies of Media Production (2013), where she critiques identity-based youth media production projects like the It Gets Better Campaign for "interpellating queer youth into fixed, homogenous, subject positions" and "conflating video visibility with action, expression, and power" (p. 230). Part of her critique called my attention to the power of remaining unseen or unnamed (as gay, or what have you), which well-meaning youth media production activities may disrupt by making learners perform or embody their beliefs on video. The McTucky Fried High web series offers not only a rich media text for analysis of LGBTQ issues from a variety of points of view, which students may or may not take up at their own discretion, but it also suggests animation as a medium for youth production activities addressing identity issues.

[More after the jump on how cartoons allow learners to confront identity issues with distance from embodiment in media literacy analysis and production; and a bit on the tension in MLE around educators taking up particular political positions]

Barbie Dolls Up Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover in Time for Women's History Month

When I saw the news that Barbie would be on this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine cover, and that it wasn't a joke, my brain short circuited with the absurdity of it, to the point where I could barely put words to my feelings. Thankfully, Stephen Colbert's comedy articulates the many, many things that are wrong with having a children's toy (marketed to girls) on the cover of a mainstream sports magazine's annual portfolio of barely clothed women models in seductive poses (marketed to men and boys).

"The swimsuit issue has always been a bastion of Civil Rights, from the occasional Black model to that one girl who was under 5'10""

Of course, he does it by satirically praising the move from a sexist, hetero-normative point a view that sharpens the clarity on how harmful and insidious this use of Barbie may be (as well as the worldview that justifies and condones it). I like the idea of using this humorous introduction to the issue with high school or college media studies students because it predicts and disarms many of the sexist rationales for justifying Barbie's appearance on the SI swimsuit issue cover.

"Empowerment. Because there's nothing more empowering to a model than being replaced by a piece of plastic... In some ways she's the perfect model...She doesn't blink. She doesn't move. She's too busy being empowered to talk."

I think it's especially challenging to get people to share and develop their opinions in dialogue across genders, sexualities, and interest groups with issues like this. But making your learning space safe for debate and growth is well worth the risks, trials and errors. Maybe a satirical frame can help. Some ideas for using this clip after the jump.

Unreality of Reality TV Revealed in 90s Sitcom

The other day I came across a rerun of the "Our 15 Minutes" episode of the sitcom Mad About You (1995) that hilariously shows all the different ways cameras and the prospect of being broadcast affect our behavior--to the point where we get confused about what it even means to be real and honest.

Jamie can't get a word in to warn her sister about the cameras documenting her embarrassing behavior.

The episode presents an amazing opportunity to discuss what sort of "reality" can be represented on reality TV shows, how people act on camera (especially when they know lots of people might see them in that moment), and how we feel about living with cameras around us all the time and the possibility of others sharing moments in our lives whenever. The show plays with relationship humor around a newlywed white couple in New York City, Paul (Paul Reiser) and Jamie (Helen Hunt), a documentary filmmaker and a public relations specialist. The episode begins with Jamie returning to their apartment to find Paul setting up cameras in every room to record 15 minutes of their lives for a PBS special on ordinary New Yorkers, "Just our lives, that's all they want to see. 15 minutes...A slice of life." Needless to say, they can't just "be themselves" as comedy ensues from their efforts to be interesting, edgy, and smart while hiding the messiness and mundanity of their lives. Try keeping a list of all the ways the cameras influence the characters, and the ways that cameras make problems when characters act truthful and authentic. Got your columns set up? Okay...check it out!
 
After the jump, I'll share my list and some resources for organizing viewing (times, scenes, themes, notes) as well as discussion and activity ideas. It's amazing to think about how this episode hits on so many of the issues with authenticity in reality TV when the genre was about to blow up with popularity and prominence. "Our 15 Minutes" aired around the same time of the third season of MTV's The Real World just before its success opened the floodgates of reality shows that have become dominant in television today. It's a fascinating case to study with a media studies or English class talking about fiction/non-fiction or documentary/entertainment, especially in comparison to contemporary examples. It also makes a great text following reflection and discussion of our own feelings about how reality TV today portrays reality, and about the (omni)presence of cameras, and video-sharing, in our lives. That's where I would start with high school or college students (although frank talk about sex--mild by today's standards--ensues before the couple can warn Jamie's sister about the cameras, which may be a little racy for some high school groups--fair warning! Skip it if you must 15:30-17:30).