Page 477 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| Representat ons of Race

nonminority writers can expand their work to be more inclusive or less super-
ficial in writing characters of color. Casting directors have the powerful ability to
cast in creative and diverse ways; for example, even if a part does not specifically
call for a “minority” actor to play it, the casting director could intervene in the
process by suggesting or hiring an actor of color. Grey’s Anatomy’s Sandra Oh,
for instance, is an actor who has been cast in parts not originally intended as “an
Asian role.” In a visit to the University of California, Santa Cruz in May 2004, she
informed my students that one of the biggest challenges she faced as a performer
was to be allowed to audition for roles that writers, producers, and casting di-
rectors didn’t expect or see an Asian face in. Oh has taken charge of such roles
with talent and charisma, and has helped expand peoples’ expectations of who
a person of Asian descent is, what she can be like, and how she acts.
Producers and show runners also have the power to include or exclude sub-
stantive rather than stereotypical characters of color in their films and television
programs, and to lobby for a media piece that is innovative in the way that it
represents race and race relations. Ultimately, executives are the ones whose de-
cisions affect which films and programs are greenlit, which will be championed
and promoted, and which will be placed in the advantageous slots on the movie
release or television schedule.

in FronT oF ThE sCrEEn

Where does the viewer fit in this discussion of race and representation? Is
there anything that audiences can do to affect change? Network executives, ad-
vertising sponsors, studios and their investors depend on audiences to watch
their programs and to pay to see their films. Viewing practices can be gauged
through such mechanisms as the Nielsen ratings (which measure how many
people watched a certain television broadcast) to determine what programs to
develop and place on the schedule, or through focus-group surveys of soon-to-
be-released films to determine, for example, what kind of ending viewers prefer.
Executives and producers create films and programs based on what they an-
ticipate audiences will like, based on what they assess has already been popu-
lar. The primary goal in making most of mainstream film and television is not
to produce beautiful art or to stimulate critical thinking, but rather, to create
audiences (through the creation of “entertainment”). This usually maintains the
status quo, that is, idealized stories of white (upper-)middle-class families,
heroes, and heterosexual (monoracial) romances have worked in the past and
therefore, executives bank on similar fare to work in the future. When the tele-
vision programs Lost (2004–) and Grey’s Anatomy (2005–) became unexpected
hits, an industry term emerged: “multicultural casting.” Moreover, because mul-
tiracial casts were deemed popular, other networks offered new programs with
that similar concept, for example, Heroes (2006–). A somewhat racially diverse
cast existed in programs like ER (1994–), but a deliberate “rainbow coalition”
cast became a major trend only because one network tried it in two programs.
It is important to realize that these two programs had people of color employed
as writers, producers, and executives who, together, created this new television
format; but equally if not more important, it took audiences’ acceptance and