Interracial Intimacy: Hegemonic Construction of Asian and Black Relationships on Television

• In Event: Deconstructing Myths: Analyses of Mass Mediated Images of Minority Identities

Abstract

Through analysis of interracial relationships on prime-time dramas, this paper offers a critical examination of the representations of Blacks and Asians. The findings offer a counter against post-racial claims and color-blind rhetoric used as evidence of progress. Racial triangulation and compulsory heterosexuality highlight how these portrayals are stereotypical and mostly negative. Additionally, these representations do the work of re-centering whiteness by drawing attention away from how the underlying structure has remained unchanged.

Author

• Myra Washington, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign