Racial Issues and Portrayals in Buffyverse
While perusing through a website called "All Things Philosophical About Buffy the Vampire Slayer", I came upon these interesting series of posts about racial issues and portrayals in the two Buffyverse series, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel":
"Racism again, but different: -- mrsubjunctive, 20:37:53 04/20/04 Tue
Now that everybody's completely sick of the whole racism topic, I'd like to add my two cents. (It's my way.)
I've been watching "Rose's" thread develop and grow for a while, and I think it's been missing something throughout, largely because Rose, or whoever, framed the initial post in a way that was guaranteed to get everyone all riled up and defensive. But.
My thesis here is that the question of whether or not the Jossverse or its fans are somehow implicitly racist is a valid one to ask and think about, even if one is inclined to answer in the negative. (Which, by and large, I am.)
Full disclosure: I am white, male, gay, and thirty years old. I live in a U.S. state with very few non-whites, but lived for a period in an area where a good 90% (possibly more) of the population was non-white. Just so we all know where I'm coming from.
Here we go, then:
Rose's initial challenge was, to put it charitably, inept. One does not go around accusing people of being racist these days, not in the U.S. It's bad form. And I think s/he was dreadfully wrong besides. What I've seen on this board so far is mainly a group of people who are thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent, and not easily riled (except maybe at certain networks, but that's for good reason). But there is, somewhere in his/r initial post, an actual challenge. This being, simply, the observation that vanishingly few of the main characters in any of Joss Whedon's shows are non-white.
Which there's been a tendency for people to notice this and then apologize for it. I've seen a number of Buffy scholarship-type papers on line that go through various contortions to try to prove that racial issues are in fact addressed on BtVS. Usually, this is by claiming that the vampires stand in for some racial group (Black and Jewish, in the examples I can recall specifically), and then developing a full-blown theory about what this says. Folks, this is hooey. If Whedon wanted to talk about racial issues, he's got two shows set in California, a state which last time I knew was hardly all-white, in which to do this.
So, question number one for the group: should be assume, then, that Whedon has nothing much to say about race? And if so, is this malign, benign, neglectful, or something else?
There is a noticeable change in the ethnic composition of the characters of the shows as time goes on. "Buffy" has very few Black characters, and unless I'm forgetting someone really important, no other minority characters at all. I'm sure I'm leaving out someone, but plot-driving Black characters, characters the audience is supposed to identify with and care about (one way or the other) are basically only Trick, from season 3, and Wood, from Season 7. Technically there's also the First Slayer (S4, 5, 6?, 7?), and Nikki, but neither of them seem very known or knowable. Among other problems, they're both dead when we first meet them. Rona, yes, is technically Black, and she's a living, named character, but we know next to nothing about her except that she's got a smart mouth. And Kennedy may technically have been Hispanic, though probably not with a name like "Kennedy."
Question number two: in the few cases where there are Black characters in "Buffy," their ethnicity is never commented on, it never drives the plot, it never adds to any tension, repulsion, or attraction between characters. Is this realistic? Desirable? Other?
Whedon talks, A LOT, about how when he was developing "Buffy" initially, he was deliberately crafting a series that people could really love, where they could relate to the characters and watch them struggle with problems and etc. By and large, he would seem to have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. But suppose you're black. I find it doubtful that Joss set out with the deliberate intent of alienating non-white viewers, and yet it took three seasons and a new series before his shows had a sympathetic Black character.
So question three: is it meaningful, in this context, that there are few to no non-white characters in "Buffy?" If you're inclined to give a knee-jerk answer of "no," ask yourself, as honestly as you can, whether you'd have been as apt to watch "Buffy" if all the cutesy words and turns of phrase were replaced by variations on Black slang, if you were flipping through the channels and saw an all-black cast. If Spike were throwing around Hispanic slang (vato, cholo) instead of British. Wouldn't you, maybe, have a difficult time relating? Even if the story lines were the same, even if everyone were equivelently attractive, etc.? And if you would have a tough time relating to the alternate "Buffy" I've described here, then how do you suppose Whedon expected non-whites to relate to and love his show?
Pause to note that successive series have been more inclusive. "Angel" has a smaller core cast than "Buffy" did by its end, but there is at least Gunn. Who may be sinister and insecure and strange and stereotypical at times, but he's a genuinely fleshed-out character, with a history, and motivations, and so forth. And "Firefly" had Book and Zoe, and Early, besides seeming to be more or less post-racial in the first place.
The other part of Rose's criticism, that questioning characters' judgment and actions is never simply about questioning their judgment and actions, that there must be an underlying racist motive somewhere, is pretty patently ridiculous and has been exposed as such already, time and again, with varying degrees of playfulness. I think that one of the big draws of Whedon's shows, for those people who are drawn to them, anyway, is that like us, his characters do stupid things from time to time. They get cranky. Moody. They act in fits of rage or passion or desperation or insecurity and then pay the prices for their actions, irrespective of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation. Just like we, the viewers, do from time to time (though our actions typically don't summon song-and-dance demons or start apocalypses or get people inadvertently killed: like most television, it's life, but more so.). And so it's not out of line to be critical when they're stupid, but it's not motivated by race.
In fact, since even the minority characters are for all intents and purposes white and middle-class (by ideology, aspiration, assumptions, etc.), I'd almost go so far as to say that I think criticism of the characters could well be about anything BUT race.
And one of the great things about characters who are sometimes stupid and ridiculous is that one can learn vicariously, sometimes, by watching them. One can say, for example, hey, I don't HAVE to leave my bride/groom at the altar, even if I'm nervous about getting married and having vivid daymares about how it can all go horribly wrong. Or whatever. And the shows have, collectively, covered a lot of the human universal things: death, loss, love, addiction (if ineptly), depression, money, power, heroism, and so on and so forth.
In some ways, to tip my hand a bit, I think it's admirable that the society Whedon tends to portray is more or less post-racial, where one can, as Gunn does pretty explicitly in "That Old Gang of Mine," reject racial and socioeconomic (this is at least implied) ties and ally himself with a group for ethical reasons. I think it's cool that generally morality trumps everything in the Jossverse.
But I also have to live in the realverse, where dealing with people of different ethnicity and culture is going to happen from time to time. And where, at least in the U.S., being non-white, statistically speaking, means you're more likely to be harassed by police, more likely to go to jail, less likely to get medical care, more likely to be poor, less likely to go to college, and all manner of other things. The Black (or Hispanic, or Asian, or Native American, or Jewish, or Arabic) experience in the U.S. is demonstrably unlike that for Caucasians. How should I respond to this? Whedon doesn't say.
And so it strikes me as a notable lack of emotional realism that Gunn, once he makes this decision in TOGoM, is pretty much never seen in the company of another Black person again. It seems odd that Buffy can go to college and barely even see, much less befriend, anyone who's not white. In some senses, race, by the fact that it's omitted from consideration virtually across the board, is a bigger obstacle to relationships than being a werewolf (Oz), witch (Willow), vampire (Angel, Spike), military goon (Riley), ex-demon (Anya), normal human ex-evil (Andrew, Faith), rapist (Spike again), ex-boyfriend (Angel again), from another country (Giles, Spike), gay (Willow, Tara, Andrew) or anything else anybody wants to throw out there. She did, yes, go on a date with Wood. But I could have cut the sexual tension with the fingernail on my pinkie. Nor did I much believe it when it was Wood and Faith, instead.
And this is odd upon odd for a series, actually a group of series, that has been, often, about addressing difficult and complex issues without sugarcoating or being didactic. I can't even really come up with any good examples off the top of my head where race is even addressed metaphorically, the efforts of Buffy scholarship notwithstanding.
I'm not saying that I'd want ME to throw in a Black character just for the sake of having one. [cough cough SMALLVILLE cough] I'm not saying that the characters don't already have plenty going on, most of the time, without having to worry about race besides. I'm not saying race is the only important realverse subject Joss's shows ignore in this way (there's also religion, just off the top of my head: six and a half seasons of Willow being Jewish, but not in a way that affects her decisions, morality, or worldview, plus plenty of Wicca-as-lesbian-sex-metaphor, and then we get Caleb. [cringing]). I'm not saying I think Joss goes to White Power rallies or is a member of the KKK. What I am saying is, it seems conspicuous, and at times it's bothersome.
And so. Question four. Am I alone in this? Is there some way to blame the WB for it? I'd be especially interested in hearing from anyone who's not white themselves: how do you watch these shows and find people to relate to? Is it noticeable to you? Does it matter? Is it different if you're not in the U.S.? Etc."
"Racism again, but different: -- mrsubjunctive, 20:37:53 04/20/04 Tue
Now that everybody's completely sick of the whole racism topic, I'd like to add my two cents. (It's my way.)
I've been watching "Rose's" thread develop and grow for a while, and I think it's been missing something throughout, largely because Rose, or whoever, framed the initial post in a way that was guaranteed to get everyone all riled up and defensive. But.
My thesis here is that the question of whether or not the Jossverse or its fans are somehow implicitly racist is a valid one to ask and think about, even if one is inclined to answer in the negative. (Which, by and large, I am.)
Full disclosure: I am white, male, gay, and thirty years old. I live in a U.S. state with very few non-whites, but lived for a period in an area where a good 90% (possibly more) of the population was non-white. Just so we all know where I'm coming from.
Here we go, then:
Rose's initial challenge was, to put it charitably, inept. One does not go around accusing people of being racist these days, not in the U.S. It's bad form. And I think s/he was dreadfully wrong besides. What I've seen on this board so far is mainly a group of people who are thoughtful, sensitive, intelligent, and not easily riled (except maybe at certain networks, but that's for good reason). But there is, somewhere in his/r initial post, an actual challenge. This being, simply, the observation that vanishingly few of the main characters in any of Joss Whedon's shows are non-white.
Which there's been a tendency for people to notice this and then apologize for it. I've seen a number of Buffy scholarship-type papers on line that go through various contortions to try to prove that racial issues are in fact addressed on BtVS. Usually, this is by claiming that the vampires stand in for some racial group (Black and Jewish, in the examples I can recall specifically), and then developing a full-blown theory about what this says. Folks, this is hooey. If Whedon wanted to talk about racial issues, he's got two shows set in California, a state which last time I knew was hardly all-white, in which to do this.
So, question number one for the group: should be assume, then, that Whedon has nothing much to say about race? And if so, is this malign, benign, neglectful, or something else?
There is a noticeable change in the ethnic composition of the characters of the shows as time goes on. "Buffy" has very few Black characters, and unless I'm forgetting someone really important, no other minority characters at all. I'm sure I'm leaving out someone, but plot-driving Black characters, characters the audience is supposed to identify with and care about (one way or the other) are basically only Trick, from season 3, and Wood, from Season 7. Technically there's also the First Slayer (S4, 5, 6?, 7?), and Nikki, but neither of them seem very known or knowable. Among other problems, they're both dead when we first meet them. Rona, yes, is technically Black, and she's a living, named character, but we know next to nothing about her except that she's got a smart mouth. And Kennedy may technically have been Hispanic, though probably not with a name like "Kennedy."
Question number two: in the few cases where there are Black characters in "Buffy," their ethnicity is never commented on, it never drives the plot, it never adds to any tension, repulsion, or attraction between characters. Is this realistic? Desirable? Other?
Whedon talks, A LOT, about how when he was developing "Buffy" initially, he was deliberately crafting a series that people could really love, where they could relate to the characters and watch them struggle with problems and etc. By and large, he would seem to have succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. But suppose you're black. I find it doubtful that Joss set out with the deliberate intent of alienating non-white viewers, and yet it took three seasons and a new series before his shows had a sympathetic Black character.
So question three: is it meaningful, in this context, that there are few to no non-white characters in "Buffy?" If you're inclined to give a knee-jerk answer of "no," ask yourself, as honestly as you can, whether you'd have been as apt to watch "Buffy" if all the cutesy words and turns of phrase were replaced by variations on Black slang, if you were flipping through the channels and saw an all-black cast. If Spike were throwing around Hispanic slang (vato, cholo) instead of British. Wouldn't you, maybe, have a difficult time relating? Even if the story lines were the same, even if everyone were equivelently attractive, etc.? And if you would have a tough time relating to the alternate "Buffy" I've described here, then how do you suppose Whedon expected non-whites to relate to and love his show?
Pause to note that successive series have been more inclusive. "Angel" has a smaller core cast than "Buffy" did by its end, but there is at least Gunn. Who may be sinister and insecure and strange and stereotypical at times, but he's a genuinely fleshed-out character, with a history, and motivations, and so forth. And "Firefly" had Book and Zoe, and Early, besides seeming to be more or less post-racial in the first place.
The other part of Rose's criticism, that questioning characters' judgment and actions is never simply about questioning their judgment and actions, that there must be an underlying racist motive somewhere, is pretty patently ridiculous and has been exposed as such already, time and again, with varying degrees of playfulness. I think that one of the big draws of Whedon's shows, for those people who are drawn to them, anyway, is that like us, his characters do stupid things from time to time. They get cranky. Moody. They act in fits of rage or passion or desperation or insecurity and then pay the prices for their actions, irrespective of race, creed, gender, or sexual orientation. Just like we, the viewers, do from time to time (though our actions typically don't summon song-and-dance demons or start apocalypses or get people inadvertently killed: like most television, it's life, but more so.). And so it's not out of line to be critical when they're stupid, but it's not motivated by race.
In fact, since even the minority characters are for all intents and purposes white and middle-class (by ideology, aspiration, assumptions, etc.), I'd almost go so far as to say that I think criticism of the characters could well be about anything BUT race.
And one of the great things about characters who are sometimes stupid and ridiculous is that one can learn vicariously, sometimes, by watching them. One can say, for example, hey, I don't HAVE to leave my bride/groom at the altar, even if I'm nervous about getting married and having vivid daymares about how it can all go horribly wrong. Or whatever. And the shows have, collectively, covered a lot of the human universal things: death, loss, love, addiction (if ineptly), depression, money, power, heroism, and so on and so forth.
In some ways, to tip my hand a bit, I think it's admirable that the society Whedon tends to portray is more or less post-racial, where one can, as Gunn does pretty explicitly in "That Old Gang of Mine," reject racial and socioeconomic (this is at least implied) ties and ally himself with a group for ethical reasons. I think it's cool that generally morality trumps everything in the Jossverse.
But I also have to live in the realverse, where dealing with people of different ethnicity and culture is going to happen from time to time. And where, at least in the U.S., being non-white, statistically speaking, means you're more likely to be harassed by police, more likely to go to jail, less likely to get medical care, more likely to be poor, less likely to go to college, and all manner of other things. The Black (or Hispanic, or Asian, or Native American, or Jewish, or Arabic) experience in the U.S. is demonstrably unlike that for Caucasians. How should I respond to this? Whedon doesn't say.
And so it strikes me as a notable lack of emotional realism that Gunn, once he makes this decision in TOGoM, is pretty much never seen in the company of another Black person again. It seems odd that Buffy can go to college and barely even see, much less befriend, anyone who's not white. In some senses, race, by the fact that it's omitted from consideration virtually across the board, is a bigger obstacle to relationships than being a werewolf (Oz), witch (Willow), vampire (Angel, Spike), military goon (Riley), ex-demon (Anya), normal human ex-evil (Andrew, Faith), rapist (Spike again), ex-boyfriend (Angel again), from another country (Giles, Spike), gay (Willow, Tara, Andrew) or anything else anybody wants to throw out there. She did, yes, go on a date with Wood. But I could have cut the sexual tension with the fingernail on my pinkie. Nor did I much believe it when it was Wood and Faith, instead.
And this is odd upon odd for a series, actually a group of series, that has been, often, about addressing difficult and complex issues without sugarcoating or being didactic. I can't even really come up with any good examples off the top of my head where race is even addressed metaphorically, the efforts of Buffy scholarship notwithstanding.
I'm not saying that I'd want ME to throw in a Black character just for the sake of having one. [cough cough SMALLVILLE cough] I'm not saying that the characters don't already have plenty going on, most of the time, without having to worry about race besides. I'm not saying race is the only important realverse subject Joss's shows ignore in this way (there's also religion, just off the top of my head: six and a half seasons of Willow being Jewish, but not in a way that affects her decisions, morality, or worldview, plus plenty of Wicca-as-lesbian-sex-metaphor, and then we get Caleb. [cringing]). I'm not saying I think Joss goes to White Power rallies or is a member of the KKK. What I am saying is, it seems conspicuous, and at times it's bothersome.
And so. Question four. Am I alone in this? Is there some way to blame the WB for it? I'd be especially interested in hearing from anyone who's not white themselves: how do you watch these shows and find people to relate to? Is it noticeable to you? Does it matter? Is it different if you're not in the U.S.? Etc."