When I first received the blog prompt for our assignment, a particular skit, The Mad Real World (Introduction), which aired on The Chappelle Show immediately came to my mind. This skit is a spoof on MTV’s reality show, The Real World, whose cast are typically composed of a majority of white individuals with only a few African American individuals that appear every season. Instead, Chappelle inverts race relations by having an all black cast except for the one white individual, Chad. This skit explicitly portrays marked and unmarked identities in a way that reverses how identities are normally viewed in society. It is obvious that they are intentionally showing racism and stereotypes that are viewed among African American individuals today.
The typical unmarked identity, such as the white affluent male, is now portrayed as the outcast in Chappelle's skit . Chad, the outsider white male, was made fun of as soon as he stepped in the door of the house to meet his new roommates who were all black and acted very stereotypically. Remarks were made to him such as, “who ordered a pizza?” referring to the fact that African American individuals don’t normally hang out with whites, and that it was awkward that Chad was in the room. Chad is no longer shown as the ‘norm’ in society. Roles are reversed where the people of color, who are normally the marked identity, are now shown as the average individual. Since the Real World house is now full of a group of black individuals they are not seen to be deviating from the norm, but rather their identities are taken for the dominant group (Radicalizing Masculinity in the media PowerPoint). The impact of the way that marked and unmarked identities are shown in this skit illustrates prejudices that are still present and exist within American culture.
This skit relies on the idea of hegemony which refers to the fact that a particular social group holds a certain power and dominance over other social groups (Lull 61). The idea that the white race is dominant has been reflected extensively in the mass media. The Real World reality show, season to season, has had a mostly white crazy cast, but in this case, the skit satirically looks at race relations and the representation of African Americans, “Expressions of the dominant ideology are sometimes reformulated to assert alternative, often completely resistance or contradictory messages” (Lull 65). Portraying an ironic visual of Chad—the white male—as the outcast potentially has an effect on what the audience sees. In television programs today, actors or actresses tend to be white, because typically the dominant group’s interests are in the media and mainstream culture (You Think I’m Pretty Without Makeup On-Hegemonic Femininity in Pop Culture). Giving a satirical message lets the writers explicitly show the ridiculous stereotypical view of how the African American race is viewed in today’s society. For example, Chappelle plays with stereotypes as they view the African American man to be strong and tough. TyRee is shown with a cut off shirt accentuating his arm muscles while he lifts weights sitting in a chair. Throughout the skit one can notice the large amount of smoking that takes place—a stereotype that African Americans smoke excessively is a common negative label. Another stereotypical view is the scene where the group are at their job at the juice bar and the black individuals show no respect for the job by adding alcohol to the juice, slacking off, and smoking in the back. The skit even ends by acting out an extreme stereotype where the African American males are running from police sirens, a large stereotype that this race has many run-ins with the law. This skit illustrates the social construction of race. Pop culture portrays an idea to society that a dominant race exists. This skit tries to refute this idea, and to show how absurd some beliefs that people may hold of a minority race.
Works Cited
Brown, Adriane. "Racializing Masculinity in the Media." Women's Studies 230 Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Popular Culture. 04 April 2011.
Brown, Adriane. "You Think I’m Pretty Without Makeup On-Hegemonic Femininity in Pop Culture.” Women’s
Studies 230 Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Popular Culture. 12 April 2011.
Lull, James. "Hegemony." Media, Communication, Culture: A Global Approach. New York and Chichester, UK: Columbia University Press, 1995. Print.
