http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5G2nWP3xY&feature=related
This is a link to a couple scenes of an episode of the t.v. show Seinfeld. In this episode Elaine is dating someone and she cant figure out if he is black or not. She makes it seem as though it doesn't matter, and that she doesn't NEED to know, but it is obviously clear that she is really interested in racially categorizing him. It seems as though she does this in an effort to be more PC, but covering up the fact that race does matter to her (as it does almost everyone). She tries asking her friends' opinion. George suggests that maybe he is "mixed" and whispers it like it is something unknown, or taboo. After a while he will just say 'we shouldn't be talking about this' which shows how this is such an uncomfortable topic, and it is just easier to exercise silence rather than start a conversation.As it turns out, while she was thinking that he was black; the boyfriend was under the impression that she was Hispanic. This definitely shows how prevalent racial ambiguity is. At the end they figure out that they are just a couple of white people (pretty boring), and they loose their zest and decide to go to the Gap. This also shows how 'white' people pretty really don't ethnically identify with anything -- so they succumb to commercial, instead of cultural, endeavors.
Meredith Cotter, Post #23
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