The Relentless Tide of Whiteness in the Media

We must be critical about the things we watch

Hollywood has a well-known addiction problem that continues to perpetuate itself in media. What’s the addiction of choice? Whiteness, of course. Year after year, Hollywood continues to bombard the public with a disproportionate vast sea of whiteness. A sea so perniciously unrelenting it continues to crash against the weathered shores of our minds.

Now, I admit, I am an avid fan of media in general, and I love film and television in particular. I am also a super geek when it comes to Marvel and D.C. movies. My favorite comic book character is Superman. He’s my superhero of choice, and it has nothing to do with me being gay, nor his chiseled chest, thick biceps, and glutes for days. None whatsoever. *Wink* Though I try not to make it a habit to watch movies and shows that center whiteness, it’s honestly difficult. Like virtually all of our American institutions, whiteness is the media, and the media is whiteness.

Still, as antiracist viewers and viewers in general, we must be critical about our media diet and thoughtful about everything we consume.

What is Whiteness?

Whiteness is ubiquitous. If you watch film and television, you are likely watching content made by white people for white people. According to Racial Equity Tools, they define whiteness as the following:

“Whiteness itself refers to the specific dimensions of racism that serve to elevate white people over people of color…[its] conceptualized as a constellation of processes and practices rather than as a discrete entity (i.e., skin color alone). Whiteness is dynamic, relational, and operating at all times and on myriad levels. These processes and practices include basic rights, values, beliefs, perspectives, and experiences purported to be commonly shared by all but which are actually only consistently afforded to white people.”

I also think of whiteness in the media as a toxic, fearful, and narcissistic partner. It’s harmful because it has a deep need to assert itself as a dominant frame at all times; it dreads the idea of loosening its grip for fear of losing power and is dangerously self-centered as though the world revolves around no one else. Whiteness justifies the disproportionate portrayal of white lives over Black, Indigenous, and People of color (B.I.P.O.C.) and does so by maintaining white people in front of and behind the camera.

I continually think of the late great Toni Morrison, who talked about whiteness in literature and articulated it as the white gaze. In an interview with Charlie Rose, she explained that it tries to eradicate the experiences and validity of voices of color and Black voices in particular. Morrison eloquently stated:

“As though our lives have no meaning and no depth without the white gaze. And I have spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant one in any of my books.”

She was poetic throughout the interview, brilliant in her challenge of whiteness, and I believe she would agree that whiteness is broadly toxic, fearful, and narcissistic.

Seeing Whiteness Operate Perniciously in Television

One of my favorite T.V. shows on Netflix from 2020 is Never Have I Ever. If you haven’t watched it, stop reading this article and turn on the T.V. so you can ‘Netflix and chill’ — just kidding, please keep reading and chill afterward. The show is about Devi Vishwakumar, an Indian-American high schooler who tries to evade unprocessed feelings surrounding her father’s passing. Consequently, Devi melodramatically places all of her energy into upping her social status at school. Click here for the trailer.

Never have I ever loved a show as much as this one. But, whiteness still managed to drift its way into this fantastic series.

Now, I’m not knocking the show’s on-screen diversity strides by any means. I also think there were significant efforts to be inclusive. However, diversity and inclusion will always fall short of equity. The show still had prominent white undertones — or overtones if we think about it — including:

· The half-white half-Asian Paxton Hall Yoshita.

· Paxton’s Anglo-white sister.

· Devi’s best friend Fabiola is a light skin half-black, “half-Mexican” woman. F.Y.I., Mexican is not a race.

· *Spoiler alert* One of Devi’s love interests is her mortal enemy named Ben Gross, a white-Jewish guy.

· And the subtlest way whiteness operates on-screen is by having John McEnroe, an older Anglo-white guy, narrate the show.

Finally, the subtlest way whiteness operates within this series is behind the camera. Though the crew behind the scenes had some “diversity,” it was virtually an all-white crew. I wonder how less white and different the show would’ve been without the omnipresence of whiteness.

To paraphrase Morrison, it’s as though the implication is that B.I.P.O.C. people, and dark skin B.I.P.O.C. in particular, can’t have meaningful lives outside of whiteness. That proximity to whiteness enriches the lives of all “others.”

Resist Everyday Whiteness on the Silver Screen

As I mentioned earlier, I too love film and T.V., and I hold the nuance that my favorite superhero (Superman) was born out of whiteness. He is also historically and continually displayed as a white man. To add a cherry on top, he is the world’s white savior. I understand all of that and can hold the complexities. After all, we live in the world we live in, so there are bound to be some contradictions.

The following is nowhere near intersectional enough; however, here’s a non-exhaustive list of tips/rhetorical questions to help us move forward critically as we inevitably engage with whiteness in the media:

· Who wrote the film/show you are watching?

· What is the racial demographic of the crew behind the scenes?

· Which race(s) are seen on-screen? And what color are they (i.e., light skin; dark skin)?

· What roles are B.I.P.O.C. people portraying? What about white people?

· How else is whiteness perniciously flowing throughout the film/show?

I encourage all of us to resist the conditioning of whiteness and to be critical at all times because whiteness, like the sea, is unrelenting.

Joey Pierre is a race & class researcher, scholar, writer, and an amateur astronomer. He is evolving before your eyes, one article at a time. You can follow him here on Instagram.