Commodifying Black Latinidad in US Film and Television

Abstract

This article analyzes textual constructions of Black Latinidad and negotiations of ethnic and racial identity in the cultural commodification of Black Latina/o actors. It documents the ambivalent process of cultural commodification for producing polysemic texts of Black Latinidad that counter dominant constructions of Latinidad as “brown” and exists in tension with dominant understandings of US Black identity as static and unchanging. By expanding on research (Balaji, 2009; Saha, 2012; Watts & Orbe, 2002) that positions actors as willing participants in the production and distribution of themselves as commodities that may accumulate capital, this article situates cultural representations of Black Latinidad in mainstream film and television to articulate the conditions under which Black Latina/o actors gain value as commodities through the accumulation of racial capital.

Notes

¹This article uses the US Census panethnic term Latina/o to refer to the general population of Mexican, Latin American, and Spanish Caribbean people living in the United States. My use of the label acknowledges that each ethnic/national group has a unique and specific set of historical experiences and contemporary trajectories and at the same time recognizes the shared experiences of racialized prejudice, class oppression and linguistic discrimination. When significant to the analysis, characters, actors, and news figures are identified by using ethnic-specific labels such as Puerto Rican or Cuban. While I recognize the great diversity within each category, non-Latina/o populations in the United States will be referenced through US Census racial labels such as Black and white or ethnic labels such as Asian, African, and Italian.