SOC433 Fall Media Response Paper: Analysis Of Race Depiction

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Course Name: Sociology
Course No.: Soc433
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Semester: Fall
Title: Media Response Paper
1.0 Introduction
‘Breaking Bad’ is a popular film that depicts the daily struggles of a high school teacher who also doubled as a hardcore drug dealer in a frantic quest to generate extra income to support his family. Diagnosed with lung cancer, he struggles with utmost resolve to ensure that he secures a decent life and future for his family before his demise. The film has been hailed and critiqued in equal measure. The film revolves around common social ills such as guilt, forgiveness and pursuit of family and societal dominance. The relationship between the protagonist, Walter, and Skylar, his wife as well as their subsequent interaction’s represent gender stereotypes that are replete in the American society; and masculinity as depicted in most outmoded media texts. This paper will attempt to critique this drama based particularly on the manner in which it portrays race, color, class, gender and sexuality.
2.0 Analysis of Race Depiction
The race problem is depicted in the drama in different scenes and episodes. At the beginning, the Protagonist, who is white, is depicted as a super chemical mind due to his previous discovery that led to a multi-billion dollar company. This depiction of an ordinary, white chemistry teacher as the finest meth cook in the west is a clear indicates of racial supremacy, or perhaps white supremacy against black supremacy. Postmodernism is depicted in the drama through different actors who work in the service industry, notably ‘Walt who is a high school teacher (Revise Sociology, 2017).‘Breaking Bad’ also depicts consumer culture and social fragmentation within the American society. The film is full of racial connotations and in particularly in Season 4. Here Jesse Cooks for Juarez Cartel. The remarks that follow portray the underlying racial supremacy struggles within our society. These remarks are “full of supremacist glee” since “there is no competing with the only white guy in the room.”(Breaking Bad, season 4) Although Jesse lacks scientific knowledge, he is able to follow through Walt’s recipe and eventually delivers a first class product. Omi and Winant (1994) tends to cast the racial inequality portrayed in this film when they state that: “..racial ideology and social structure mutually shape the nature of racism in a complex dialectical manner”(78). In my opinion his assertion that racism like race has changed over time is flawed. Perhaps what has changed is the racial manifestation, but not racism, even though the two are inseparable. The black supremacy and white supremacy ideologies also surface in the movie. I totally agree with Omi and Winant in their assertion that both ‘white supremacy and black supremacy are both instances of racism even though the later overshadows the former (74). Thus ‘Breaking Bad’ can be classified as a ‘racist’ film based on Omi and Winants argument that a project can be termed as racists if it depicts structures of racial domination (71). Brave et al (1998) that racism continues to be perpetuated through a concept he refers to as...