Latina Ethnoracial Ambiguity in Postracial Television Narratives

Abstract

Since the 1980s, US media audiences have been bombarded with cultural and political messages that race, ethnicity, and gender are no longer relevant. Indeed, the election of President Obama in 2008 affirmed that popular narrative by providing symbolic evidence that the United States is now in a “post-race” and “post-gender” moment where race and gender no longer matter (Enck-Wanzer 2011; Esposito 2009). A scan across the US television environment tells us a similar story. Increasingly ethnic and racial minority characters are included in ensemble casting such as Lost (2004–2010) and Grey’s Anatomy (2005-present) and more and more ambiguously coded characters such as Jessica Alba in Dark Angel (2000–2002) and Naya Rivera in Glee (2009-present) are woven into primary storylines not exclusively focused on narratives about ethnicity and race.