Television, media in general, is not merely a source of entertainment it also shapes and reflects our social views. More importantly, television blatantly shows the hierarchical structures that dominate our era (Kellner 8). It does this by the way characters are portrayed, the social position they have, and how they are represented. This system makes it quite obvious which are the dominant social group in any discourse while simultaneously undervaluing minorities. Consequently, the hegemonic and oppressive ideologies on gender, race, sexuality, etc. continue to be prominent, resulting in that the dominant groups stay dominant whilst the oppressed minority groups stay subordinates. On a subconscious level we are affected by this power struggle
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Feldman states that the main problem with the post-racial discourse is that “the post-racial ‘rejects (or at least avoids any mention of) the notion that racism is rooted in asymmetric group hierarchy’” (295). Antiracism, on the other hand, “requires historical memory, recalling the conditions of racial degradation and relating contemporary to historical and local to global conditions” (295). In the post-racial discourse racism becomes reduced from a global level to a person’s private sphere, believed to only affect certain individuals. The post-racial therefore, quite naively, dismisses the past and fails to recognize that racism still exist on a global level and probably will until it is properly …show more content…
Jeff introduces the viewer to a character who might not have had such a large part in another TV show. Kuechenmeister boldly states that, “in order to understand Community, one must first understand Abed” (130). The statement rings true. As stated earlier, Community relies heavily on pop culture references and Abed lives and breathes everything popular culture. His Aspergers makes it hard for him to understand others so instead he makes sense of the world by comparing it to movies or TV-series that he has seen. In S01E21 the group takes over the distribution of the much sought after chicken fingers in the school cafeteria, with Abed as the fry-cook. The plot quickly turns into a homage to popular mafia movies such as Goodfellas (1990), American Gangster (2007) and The Godfather (1972) as Abed’s voiceover says, “as far back as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be in a mafia movie”. What is notable with this episode is that there is a significant decline in pop culture references, at least from Abed. When everyone is in the mafia realm Abed does not need references to make sense of his surroundings. The episode revolves around a topic he understands – chicken distribution. Usually Abed’s explicit explaining of the reference serves as further explanation to the viewer who is less read in pop culture. Abed thus becomes the show’s “parodic
Feldman states that the main problem with the post-racial discourse is that “the post-racial ‘rejects (or at least avoids any mention of) the notion that racism is rooted in asymmetric group hierarchy’” (295). Antiracism, on the other hand, “requires historical memory, recalling the conditions of racial degradation and relating contemporary to historical and local to global conditions” (295). In the post-racial discourse racism becomes reduced from a global level to a person’s private sphere, believed to only affect certain individuals. The post-racial therefore, quite naively, dismisses the past and fails to recognize that racism still exist on a global level and probably will until it is properly …show more content…
Jeff introduces the viewer to a character who might not have had such a large part in another TV show. Kuechenmeister boldly states that, “in order to understand Community, one must first understand Abed” (130). The statement rings true. As stated earlier, Community relies heavily on pop culture references and Abed lives and breathes everything popular culture. His Aspergers makes it hard for him to understand others so instead he makes sense of the world by comparing it to movies or TV-series that he has seen. In S01E21 the group takes over the distribution of the much sought after chicken fingers in the school cafeteria, with Abed as the fry-cook. The plot quickly turns into a homage to popular mafia movies such as Goodfellas (1990), American Gangster (2007) and The Godfather (1972) as Abed’s voiceover says, “as far back as I can remember I’ve always wanted to be in a mafia movie”. What is notable with this episode is that there is a significant decline in pop culture references, at least from Abed. When everyone is in the mafia realm Abed does not need references to make sense of his surroundings. The episode revolves around a topic he understands – chicken distribution. Usually Abed’s explicit explaining of the reference serves as further explanation to the viewer who is less read in pop culture. Abed thus becomes the show’s “parodic