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The Myth of Colorblindness

Race and Ethnicity in American Cinema

  • Book
  • © 2019

Overview

Editors:
  1. Sarah E. Turner

    1. Department of English, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA

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  2. Sarah Nilsen

    1. Film and Television Studies, Department of English, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA

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  • Analyzes the ways that racial and ethnic representations in Hollywood films have both challenged and supported a colorblind ideology during the Obama and Trump eras
  • Addresses dominant theories of critical race studies within contemporary American cinema
  • Combines close readings with industrial and political methods

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
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  2. Introduction

    • Sarah E. Turner, Sarah Nilsen
    Pages 1-9

  3. Colorblindness

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11
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    2. Colorblindness: The Lens That Distorts

      • Ashley (“Woody”) Doane
      Pages 13-33

    3. Why Hollywood Remains “SoWhite” and a Note on How to Change It

      • Isabel Molina-Guzmán
      Pages 35-57

  5. Intersections Between Race, Ethnicity, and Gender and Colorblind Racism in Hollywood

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 193-193
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    2. Zombies, Muslims, and Politics: Racism Without Race in Contemporary America

      • Tarik Ahmed Elseewi
      Pages 195-213

    3. Latinas/os in Hollywood: Contemporary Representations in Black and White

      • Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo
      Pages 215-236

    4. Tonto and The Lone Ranger: Nostalgic Kitsch or Post-racial Backlash?

      • Sarah E. Turner
      Pages 237-256

    5. Cyborg Woman: Ex Machina and Racial Otherness

      • Tony Magistrale
      Pages 257-281

    6. The End of the World, Hollywood, and the Endurance of Military Violence: Elysium and World War Z

      • Mary K. Bloodsworth-Lugo, Carmen R. Lugo-Lugo
      Pages 283-297

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 299-304
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores representations of race and ethnicity in contemporary cinema and the ways in which these depictions all too often promulgate an important racial ideology: the myth of colorblindness.  Colorblindness is a discursive framework employed by mainstream, neoliberal media to celebrate a multicultural society while simultaneously disregarding its systemic and institutionalized racism. This collection is unique in its examination of such films as Ex Machina, The Lone Ranger, The Blind Side, Zootopia, The Fast and the Furious franchise, and Dope, which celebrate the myth of colorblindness, yet perpetuate and entrench the racism and racial inequities that persist in contemporary society.  While the #OscarsSoWhite movement has been essential to bringing about structural changes to media industries and offers the opportunity for a wide diversity of voices to alter and transform the dominant, colorblind narratives continue to proliferate.  As this book demonstrates, Hollywood still has a long way to go.



Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of English, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA

    Sarah E. Turner

  • Film and Television Studies, Department of English, University of Vermont, Burlington, USA

    Sarah Nilsen

About the editors

Sarah E. Turner is a Senior Lecturer of English at the University of Vermont, USA. She is the co-editor of The Colorblind Screen: Television in Post-Racial America (2014). Her work has appeared in a variety of critical texts including MELUS, Diversity in Disney Films, The Films of Stephen King, and Networking Knowledge: Girls in Popular Culture.


Sarah Nilsen is an Associate Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Vermont, USA. She is the author of Projecting America: Film and Cultural Diplomacy at the Brussels World’s Fair of 1958 (2011) and co-editor of The Colorblind Screen: Television in Post-Racial America (2014). Other publications include essays on critical race theory, Disney studies, and Cold War culture. 


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