Jennifer Esposito in her article on race and Ugly Betty
starts by defining races and postracial. It’s believed that the US is now a
postracial society but we can all agree that is a lie. If you don’t agree, then
you’re probably a racist. Race continues
to be a topic that many people tip toe around but as Esposito mentions, “by
pretending it is not a part of the national discourse, we do people of color
more disservice” (522). Even though people don’t always want to have
conversations about race and are uncomfortable about the topic, television is a
medium that continues to take on the issue among others. Gray notes in his
article “in order for television to produce cultural effects and meet its
economic imperatives…it has to operate on the basis of popular awareness and
general common sense about the currents adrift in the society” (58). Race is a
topic that has remained popular with society over decades.
In the new show Superstore,
starring America Ferrera, there’s an episode focused on racism at the store.
America Ferrera’s character, Amy, is asked by her boss to be the one giving out
free samples for salsa. Amy asks why she specifically is the one being asked to
give out the free samples. Her boss doesn’t directly say it’s because she’s
Latina but says, “you just have a certain natural spiciness.” It doesn’t get
more stereotypical than that when referring to Latinas. When she turns down the
assignment her boss asks the other Latina employee to do the job instead. The
icing on the cake is the person is tossed a “Mexico hat.” Finding the situation
to be racist and stereotyping, Amy works to denounce the racism
associated with Latinos and salsa through the episode. All her antics lead to
an employee conversation and company video on racism. As usual the conversation goes south when Amy tries to explain to
her boss and coworkers that she wasn’t being racist but instead trying to
explain how their comments were racist. Instead of trying to understand her
point of view Amy is made to look like a racist and the white characters that
are being racist look good. Throughout the episode, Amy is seen as the oppressor
when in reality she’s the victim. When people of color call out
racist comments they’re always portrayed as angry while whites are put in the
position of the victim. Esposito makes this same point with Marc trying to
play the victim but forgetting his whiteness gives him an advantage. People of
color are almost never seen as the victim in popular culture but always having to defend themselves while whites get to play the victim. For once
it’d be nice to see a white person actually own up to their racism and not play
the victim.
Here's the clip from Superstore when the conversation goes south
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