“The commodification of Otherness has been so successful because it is offered as a new delight, more intense, more satisfying than normal ways of doing and feeling. Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture” Hooks 308
In the quote above, Hooks claims that white culture has chosen to objectify Otherness because it brings something new and exciting to the table that white culture longs for. Rather than respecting those different ethnicities, white culture takes advantage of them and contorts them in order to fit them into their own culture, simultaneously dulling the very real ethnicities and using them to spice up their own. A prime example of this is when predominantly white television shows have one "token black character" in order to make the show appear more diverse and inclusive. Rather than actually having a diverse cast of actors, many shows include the token black friend in a show and believe that it is sufficient to spice up the show and bring in some comedic relief. Typically this black character embodies whatever stereotypes that white culture carries about black culture and perpetuates them. This is such a common occurrence in the media that you can go to Netflix, scroll through shows and almost every show will have a token person of color in the cast.
In the quote above, Hooks claims that white culture has chosen to objectify Otherness because it brings something new and exciting to the table that white culture longs for. Rather than respecting those different ethnicities, white culture takes advantage of them and contorts them in order to fit them into their own culture, simultaneously dulling the very real ethnicities and using them to spice up their own. A prime example of this is when predominantly white television shows have one "token black character" in order to make the show appear more diverse and inclusive. Rather than actually having a diverse cast of actors, many shows include the token black friend in a show and believe that it is sufficient to spice up the show and bring in some comedic relief. Typically this black character embodies whatever stereotypes that white culture carries about black culture and perpetuates them. This is such a common occurrence in the media that you can go to Netflix, scroll through shows and almost every show will have a token person of color in the cast.
In the show New Girl, Coach (second from the left in the above photo) is quite clearly a token black character. He is hyper-masculine, he is characterized by being incredibly athletic, he yells a lot, he is rather aggressive and he is attracts a lot of women. It is clear that creators of the show thought that including a character like coach would bring some culture into the show when in reality all they have done is perpetuated stereotypes about black men that are incredibly damaging to black culture. Thus, as Hooks would argue, they have used his ethnicity to liven up the mainstream white show while effectively diluting true black culture and treating it as an instrument to be used for their benefit rather than a culture to be respected.
I agree with your take on this. A lot of times, "progressive" media doesn't actually serve its purpose. I am a huge fan of the Ghostbusters reboot, but it still plays off of the original movie's token black character. Patty is the only one without a doctoral degree, and she's very city-smart. Sure, this could be played off by the fact that it's playing homage to the original movie, but if it's supposed to be a more progressive version of the original, then why include this trope too?
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