Core Response #2- Rojeen

     In this week’s readings, I enjoyed Esposito’s piece on Ugly Betty for how it articulated the ways race is constructed and also neutralized through “colorblind” rhetoric, especially in the age of multiculturalism. With more representations on screen, there are still strategic ways in which white Western hegemony is upheld through TV, this episode being one of them. Esposito points out that this episode doesn’t interrogate Marc’s whiteness, but rather spotlights “what it means for Betty to be a Latina,” (530). Not only is the concept of whiteness and white privilege not explored, but the white savior trope is even offered as the equalizer for Betty’s success in the end of the episode. I guess it’s still hard to accept the concept of TV as a public forum or cultural forum when the nuanced issues presented are never fully explored or justly resolved. Esposito’s piece reminded me a lot of Hendershot’s analysis of Parks and Rec, where she argues that Parks and Rec isn’t balanced with a liberal and a conservative perspective as much as “it shows how opposing factions can communicate and collaborate," (Hendershot 208). Granted, I understand that the lack of taking an official stance is often a result of viewership and the network’s politics. But, my issue with presenting opposing factions when it comes to politicized issues is that these opposing factions, whether in Parks and Rec or Ugly Betty, often serve to maintain hegemonic powers. And, isn’t it because they aren’t fully explored or there isn’t a clear tilt towards a just or progressive aim, that hegemony is able to be maintained? So, in that case, don’t these episodes do little to challenge the order and instead preserve it? What good is representation if it doesn’t justly serve the interests of the communities it intends on representing? I also think there is some irony with Esposito’s mention of Obama to introduce the “post-racial” conversation, yet she doesn’t touch on his tenure in which he continued US imperialist/capitalist power. The ability to have a public or cultural forum without fully interrogating and resolving the issues at hand only reinforces that identity politics, whether in politics or within TV, rarely combat existing stereotypes or issues that impact marginalized communities, but rather serve to uphold the status quo.