Anti-racist TV narratives can still endorse the suspicion they supposedly rebut

Evidence

Simplified complex representations are strategies used by television producers, writers, and directors to give the impression that the representations they are producing are complex. While I focus on television, film uses these strategies as well. Below I lay out what I have found to be the most common ways that writers and producers of television dramas have depicted Arab and Muslim characters after 9/11. While some of these were used more frequently (and to greater narrative success) than others, they all help to shape the many layers of simplified complexity. I argue that simplified complex representations are the representational mode of the so-called post-race era, signifying a new era of racial representation. These representations appear to challenge or complicate former stereotypes and contribute to a multicultural or post-race illusion. Yet at the same time, most of the programs that employ simplified complex representational strategies promote logics that legitimize racist policies and practices, such as torturing Arabs and Muslims. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 134 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sympathetic multicultural TV portrayals can still legitimate racist counterterrorism policies.; Liberal multicultural TV can legitimate the security state as much as overtly racist shows; TV dramas legitimize racism by framing it as a temporary crisis response (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Seemingly progressive TV diversity can legitimize racist policies and torture #corroborates (0.94) — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 134
• Seemingly anti-stereotypical TV portrayals legitimize racist policies #corroborates (0.93)
• Narrative can dislodge prejudice more effectively than polemics and polls #complicates (0.75)
• Anti-racist perception requires disciplined attention that refuses categorical collapse #complicates (0.74)