Community's subtle racial commentary
May. 12th, 2013 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pktechgirlbackupThis is the opener from Season 3 of Community. Pay particular attention starting at 0:30.
For those of you who haven't watched Community in the past: the black woman in the purple sparkly dress is named Shirley, the bald man in the same outfit is The Dean. Wearing women's clothing, or more properly women's costume's, is The Dean's thing. This clip works on so many levels I can't even contain it all in my brain.
First, it has one of the most outwardly weird characters saying "we're gonna seem like a mainstream dream", while doing one of the thing that makes him the weirdest. Followed by the weirdest character saying "and be appealing to all mankind." It is the biggest possible fuck you to everyone who said the show was too weird* in a song where the lead character is wishing they would be less weird
But it's also a subtle racial critique of... I dunno, someone. The characters? The audience? TV execs? No one thought it was weird that, in a dance number full of people in their normal clothes singing show tunes, there was a black woman in sparkly show choir gear singing gospel. It only seemed weird when the white guy did it. And yes, some of that is because he's a man, but that is bonus social commentary: why is it more offputting for him to be weird than for Shirley to be weird?
It's especially apropo in light of Glee, where the fat black girl has complained multiple times in universe she only gets brought in to sing long, high, loud closing notes despite being a better singer than the white(ish) female lead**, been demonstrated to be in-universe correct every time, and yet is still passed over for lead singer. The in-show explanation is that she's lazy where the other girl works her ass off, which does not really make me feel better about Glee's attitude towards black people. I would love to know what Glee is thinking on this. Does Ryan Murphy not realize one of his writers is calling him racist? Is it confirmation of my theory that the narrative is being rewritten by the glee club director to make himself look good?. The show runners couldn't possibly think that pointing out racism is sufficient to make themselves not-racist, right?
I'd also like to talk about S2E1 of Girls, which brings on Community's Donald Glover to play Hannah's Black Republican Boyfriend. This character was clearly written in response to criticism of Girls as ignoring people of color, and I cannot tell if it is a commentary on that criticism or proof it is justified. The only thing we ever learn about Glover's character is that he's a Republican. Other characters intimate that he's against gay marriage, but he never confirms that, much less explains his position. Nor does he say if he thinks the GOP is less racially problematic than the Democrats, or that they are more problematic but their strengths on other priorities trump that. I can't tell if this is Girls completely failing in an attempt to prove they're not racist, or embedding Hannah's self-absorption in the medium.
Anyways, Community once again succeeds where Glee fails, in that they're multilayered self references both make sense and point in a not-racist direction
*Followed, unfortunately, by a season that I felt overdid the weirdness. Much like Family Guy, the things that made the show wonderful didn't work in large doses, and the creators didn't realize that just because the other bits weren't mentioned in the reviews didn't mean they weren't critical.
**to be fair to Glee, the actress playing the female lead is Sephardic Jewish and the character doesn't know if her biological father was black or ethnic Jewish. She would not have been allowed in most country clubs in the 70s. She is nonetheless waaaay whiter than Mercedes.
For those of you who haven't watched Community in the past: the black woman in the purple sparkly dress is named Shirley, the bald man in the same outfit is The Dean. Wearing women's clothing, or more properly women's costume's, is The Dean's thing. This clip works on so many levels I can't even contain it all in my brain.
First, it has one of the most outwardly weird characters saying "we're gonna seem like a mainstream dream", while doing one of the thing that makes him the weirdest. Followed by the weirdest character saying "and be appealing to all mankind." It is the biggest possible fuck you to everyone who said the show was too weird* in a song where the lead character is wishing they would be less weird
But it's also a subtle racial critique of... I dunno, someone. The characters? The audience? TV execs? No one thought it was weird that, in a dance number full of people in their normal clothes singing show tunes, there was a black woman in sparkly show choir gear singing gospel. It only seemed weird when the white guy did it. And yes, some of that is because he's a man, but that is bonus social commentary: why is it more offputting for him to be weird than for Shirley to be weird?
It's especially apropo in light of Glee, where the fat black girl has complained multiple times in universe she only gets brought in to sing long, high, loud closing notes despite being a better singer than the white(ish) female lead**, been demonstrated to be in-universe correct every time, and yet is still passed over for lead singer. The in-show explanation is that she's lazy where the other girl works her ass off, which does not really make me feel better about Glee's attitude towards black people. I would love to know what Glee is thinking on this. Does Ryan Murphy not realize one of his writers is calling him racist? Is it confirmation of my theory that the narrative is being rewritten by the glee club director to make himself look good?. The show runners couldn't possibly think that pointing out racism is sufficient to make themselves not-racist, right?
I'd also like to talk about S2E1 of Girls, which brings on Community's Donald Glover to play Hannah's Black Republican Boyfriend. This character was clearly written in response to criticism of Girls as ignoring people of color, and I cannot tell if it is a commentary on that criticism or proof it is justified. The only thing we ever learn about Glover's character is that he's a Republican. Other characters intimate that he's against gay marriage, but he never confirms that, much less explains his position. Nor does he say if he thinks the GOP is less racially problematic than the Democrats, or that they are more problematic but their strengths on other priorities trump that. I can't tell if this is Girls completely failing in an attempt to prove they're not racist, or embedding Hannah's self-absorption in the medium.
Anyways, Community once again succeeds where Glee fails, in that they're multilayered self references both make sense and point in a not-racist direction
*Followed, unfortunately, by a season that I felt overdid the weirdness. Much like Family Guy, the things that made the show wonderful didn't work in large doses, and the creators didn't realize that just because the other bits weren't mentioned in the reviews didn't mean they weren't critical.
**to be fair to Glee, the actress playing the female lead is Sephardic Jewish and the character doesn't know if her biological father was black or ethnic Jewish. She would not have been allowed in most country clubs in the 70s. She is nonetheless waaaay whiter than Mercedes.
