Black Best Friend in Popular Culture

The Women's Resource Center presents Dr. U. Melissa Anyiwo, professor of politics and history at Curry College (Milton, MA) as a part of our lunch and learn series. Dr. Anyiwo will be Skyping to discuss the idea of the Black Best Friend in Popular Culture.

Dr. Anyiwo will unpack one of the most common contemporary stereotypes of black women in "Beautifully Broken: True Blood's Tara Thornton as Black Best Friend". By dissecting the characteristics of this archetype, this chapter explores the meanings coded into Tara's characteristics and behavior to illustrate the ways her character retains and expands existing concepts of blackness and black sexuality. In doing so, she asks whether this beautifully broken supporting heroine offers more than a reductive stereotype of blackness, only available as the adjunct of the blond-blue-eyed heroine, or does the narrative structure of True Blood offer the chance for a complex non-white character and a fully rounded being?

Please bring you lunch and enjoy our conversation.