Disney Does Race: Black BFFs in the New Racial Moment

Abstract

The 2008 election of Barack Obama signalled the arrival of what social scientists and liberals alike have labelled a new racial moment in America that suggests the end of racism and instead signals the beginning of an idealised “we are all the same” racial discourse referred to as colourblind racism. No where is this colourblind approach more evident than on contemporary television programming in the foregrounding of diverse casts and characters. If television acts as the major discursive site for struggles over both the question and the meaning of racial representation, then what are the cultural implications of the overwhelming presence of black female characters in the secondary or supportive role to white female leads? Utilising the theoretical lens of colour-blind racism, this article will consider why the paradigm of the interracial buddy film has shifted from the legacy of male to female and will explore the possible interpretations of race as represented on television today.