Before CSP19 today, I was reading a book I picked up at the library last night. This book is called Girls Who Bite Back. The specific chapter I was reading was called " 'Cuz the Black Chick Always Gets It First" by Candra K. Gill. The parallels between this chapter and the discussion we had in class were amazing, in my opinion. The topic that stuck out the most was the assimilation of a black girl to the white town of Sunnydale, CA.
In the book, it is stated that "[Kendra] is a young black woman who speaks in what sounds like a Caribbean accent. ... By the time she leaves Sunnydale to return to her Watcher, she has become more like Buffy, which is presented as a positive change." Basically, Kendra has a complete personality makeover, because she was originally the exact opposite of Buffy and then one episode later, she becomes much more like Buffy than would have been believable. Kendra is representing the "Model Minority." She is black and speaks with a Caribbean accent, and thus would never be able to fully assimilate with American culture. So rater than make her a strong but different character, the show turned her into an almost Buffy. Essentially, they made her into THE model minority.
You have a legitimate point, as does the author, but as a Buffy fan myself I feel I ought to provide a bit of context for this. Everything you've said about Kendra is true, but her becoming more like Buffy was in my opinion less a matter of her Americanization and more a matter of her becoming a better Slayer and a more social person. In fact, she influences Buffy as well, to be more serious about slaying. This is up to the interpretation of the viewer of course, and I haven't watched the episodes in a while.
ReplyDeleteI have actually read another academic article before about how Buffy suggests the importance of Americanization, this one in the context of studying the show's two British characters, Giles and Wesley. However I am reluctant to give a lot of credence to it, as the author also insisted that Buffy was set in a very pre-watershed atmosphere despite the presence of a very out lesbian couple among the show's main cast.