English
中文1. As far as I would understand it, this brief focuses on images of “whiteness” in the media. This does not necessarily mean images of whiteness that are stereotyped, or obvious, or indeed racist, but the images of white people that we as both viewers and readers are bombarded with every day. This is what is referred to as “dominant discourse.” In other words the most dominant images the audience has of a white person. It is my understanding that even though the texts are referred to in a text format, they do not need to be written, as some of the strongest images of white people come from television and film. My study will cover the three images across books, film and television.
- EastEnders (BBC): Long running television soap opera
- American History X (1998: Kay)
- The Black Dahlia (Ellroy: 1998: Warner Books)
I have selected three different types of media because different formats can get away with different storylines. For example, it is unlikely that a TV soap that airs four nights a week would be as popular if the main character was a white supremacist, like the one who features heavily in American History X. My study will discuss the main aspects of whiteness in all of these examples, starting with EastEnders.
EastEnders This study will cover the fact that the dominant discourse in this soap is that the families are white, working class, aggressive and struggling to help their families. It will also focus on the fact that the characters are willing to break the law on regular occasions, and that this is the accepted stereotype of the working class man from the East End of London. But what it will also cover is the fact that some writers question if the working class white man really exists. Research will show that the working class white man in the East End of London is more of a myth than a reality, and that the dominant discourse in this popular TV soap is actually a myth.
Key Quotations and References
The key references in this part of the study will look at the ethnic statistics for London and the UK, and assess the likelihood that an area in the East End of the city would be made up of mostly white families. The key quotations will focus on the dominant discourse of the white working class family.
“The working class took up whiteness…in response to the presence of non-white Britons.” (2000:38: Feagin)
“If a person is white and low-income/lower working class its not as great as it used to be.” (2001:197: Feagin)
American History X
This film is the most obvious stereotype of white people, which is not why I have chosen it. Although it fits into a stereotype I have chosen it because it is the image of a man who is proud to be white, which is not something that people often admit to. This will be supported by writers who have had the same argument. What must be avoided in this section of the study is going into too much detail about the main character’s relationship with black people. He is put in jail because he kills a black person, and is turned around by meeting black people in jail and realizing that the white supremacists he spends time with aren’t all they are made out to be. But the treatment of black people is not what this study is about and instead it will focus on why the character has become a white supremacist and the image that gives him. It will show that he has chosen Nazism because he is not successful in life, and because his father was murdered by a black drug dealer, which ultimately makes him a victim. He is not a strong and aggressive man, but a weak one who cannot face his past. This goes against the common discourse but portrays the character as human as opposed to a violent machine.
Key Quotations and References
The main argument will reference accepted standpoints on white supremacism and the way it is portrayed to the public. It will also claim that this film is key because the white man is proud of his image and the whiteness is a featured part of the film, rather than what Hall calls an “invisible.” (1997: 306)
- “White supremacists like skinheads and Klan members present themselves as victims” (2001:199: Feagin)
- “White supremacists seem to be the only group that has articulated an explicit and highly developed ideology of whiteness.” (2001:191: Feagin)
The Black Dahlia
This text is different because it is set in a different era to the others (1940s) and the selected characters’ treatment of black people features more. Again, I must be careful not to focus too much on the victimization of the black characters, but I feel that in this case it gives the reader a dominant image of the white subject. The main character is a police officer who beats up black people to get respect from his fellow workers. Ellroy’s novel mainly features white characters of different classes, but the black people in the background are just treated as poor objects. The study will look at how the main character does not feel like he has been racist and that he essentially thinks of himself as a good person. In the end he solves the crime (the book is based on a true story and the murder was never actually solved) and is seen as the hero who lives a happy life with his white wife and child. I will argue that in the dominant discourse it is the characters bad treatment of black people that the author use to make him look like a hero in the readers eyes.
Key Quotations and References
This section will reference the author to illustrate the fact that he wants the character’s racism to be “casual.” It will also check statistics to ensure that the reader knows that even thought this racism is accepted, it is still set in America nearly 100 years after slavery was abolished. It will also give weight to the argument that the main character sees himself as a good person, and in the role of police officer, is making the streets a better place, a factor that forms part of his “heroic” discourse.
- “White People see themselves as ‘not racist’ and ‘as good people’ while enforcing black derogatory stereotypes.'” (2001: 187: Feagin)
- “Blaming African-Americans for their own poverty has been a characteristic white opinion for decades.” (2001:189: Feagin)
I will conclude that the three images are all dominant types of discourse, but that the one in EastEnders doesn’t exist, the one in American History X makes the strong subject look like a victim and The Black Dahlia character is only seen as a white hero because he can get away with treating other ethnic groups with casual violence.
