Introduction
Most cultural artefacts, particularly those in some way linked to the media, can be looked at from different angles and can be explained with the use of a variety of interesting concepts or ideas. In this essay, I will focus on the pilot episode, The Fresh Prince Project, of the popular American television show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which the main characters are introduced along with the setting, and apply the notions of representation and cultural identity to analyse the show from a different perspective.
The Concepts
The notion of cultural identity is a topic that scholars have debated for decades. Although it is frequently labelled as the self-identification of people with a group that has a shared system of symbols and meanings (Collier & Thomas, 1988), the main view of this concept is that it is constructed through difference, as most notably described by key cultural theorist Stuart Hall. In his book Questions of Cultural Identity, he discusses the thinking that “culture” is a system of differences, meaning you are something because you are not something else (Hall & du Gay, 1996). ‘People’s judgments about whether they or others belong to a cultural group can be influenced by physical appearance, ancestral origin or personal behavior’ (Cultural Identity Theory, 2010) though factors such as sexuality, language, region and class can also be a marker of cultural identity. Therefore, culture is regularly seen as the situation in which identity is created. According to Hall’s suggestion of identity being defined through binary distinctions, if a person is not gay, this means they identify as a straight person, or if we look at race, there is a clear contrast between the cultures of those who are black and those who are white. However, cultural identity should not be thought of as a “neutral” term that solely describes the differences between groups of people. Instead, it is important that we understand that cultural identities can be created by hierarchies and hence some cultural identities are valued more than others, which links to the idea of representation on a political form. To sum up his thoughts on cultural identity, Stuart Hall described it as ‘what we might become, how we have been represented and how that bears on how we might represent ourselves’ (Hall, 1996) and moreover said: ‘we should always think of identity as production, which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation’ (Hall, 1990) which implies that cultural identity is always evolving and leads us onto the concept of representation.
Representation is another term frequently discussed by Hall, amongst others. He believed in the role that culture plays in identity in terms of making distinctions between labels of people that are represented and also described representation as a problematic term ‘understood both in its everyday sense of “political representation” and in the structuralist sense of a distortive “ideological” representation of a pre-existent real’ (Morley & Chen, 1995). A clear association is often made between power and representation, though usually in the case of “political representation”. When a particular group dominates a society, they monopolise the right to represent and hence unequal power relationships are created. This notion of inferiority is evident in the idea of “blackness” as often talked about by Stuart Hall; another idea constructed by elites. Blackness is ‘generally a consciousness that is the product of being Black; it is an attitude and approach to life’ (Foster, 2014) which links back to the idea of cultural identities being a shared system of rules and norms in a group (Collier & Thomas, 1988). The first reference to blackness came in the times of slave migration from Africa and the Caribbean, being established by powerful white rulers in order to systematically represent blacks in a negative way by comparing them to the likes of gorillas and orangutans (Lott, 1999). Realistically, this would now be viewed as a form of racial discrimination. Over time, however, this representation of blackness has changed, especially with blacks in the USA as attitudes towards different races have, overall, become more liberal. Though, the fact that blackness has its roots in slavery provides a history of the idea. To truly understand the notion of representation, we must recognise that all representations are, in effect, interpretations of the reality. As discussed by Hall, we are unable to capture reality as it really is, resulting in us inventing things about reality which become representations or stereotypes. Thus, representation is a productive force as it creates images and objects while trying to reflect the subject. This can be a very negative thing in society as it tends to alter the groups with whom we associate ourselves and relate with.
Relating the concepts to the context
In order to appreciate what is happening in the episode, it is vital that we focus on the way in which meanings are conveyed by cultural artefacts. The linguist Ferdinand de Saussure came up with the idea of the linguistic sign which consisted of two components: the “signifier”, which referred to a certain image or sound; and the “signified”, the concept transmitted by it (Pearce, 2012). Hence, in the case of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the “signifier” would refer to a certain action or image of a character, while the “signified” would denote what is implied by the image in relation to the concepts of cultural identity and representation.
If we look towards the idea of blackness, since the latter part of the 20th century, the representation of blacks in America has predominantly been associated with the idea of troublemaking and violence, wherein the media has displayed riots taking place with an emphasis on the involvement of black people. One example of this portrayal, though not actually constructed by elites or those in power, is the music video for Straight Outta Compton by the group N.W.A. In the clip, the group portray themselves as criminals and they use this against the political representation of blacks in America at the time by satirically displaying what the government think (Straight Outta Compton, 1988); even today we still see evidence in the media of white police suspecting black people of criminal activity. To apply Hall’s view of representation, N.W.A. act as subalterns retaliating against the dominant groups by creating their own image. This is a common theme with representation – the issue of who is representing whom.
There is a clear link between this and that of the characters introduced in The Fresh Prince Project. The episode follows a young black American, Will, from a rough neighbourhood in West Philadelphia, who is involved in an altercation and forced by his mother to live with his auntie and uncle in an affluent area of Los Angeles. The characters soon find they have been living different lives and the results can be interpreted using the concepts. Firstly, if we look at the contrast between Will and his cousin Carlton, we can see huge differences in their cultural identities, backing up Hall’s idea of identities spanning from binary distinctions. From the moment that Will enters the Banks’ residence, he comes across as rowdy and mischievous and instantly clashes with the family. Carlton, however, is an interesting character. As the Banks family are particularly well-off, Carlton is educated in a high-ranking school and effectively represented as the complete opposite to his cousin. The appearances of the two are very unlike; Will sports brightly coloured clothes and a cap pointing backwards which fits into the cultural identity of young blacks in his area who are often represented with distinct appearances, while Carlton, almost comically, appears to sport the clothing that a “traditional” white person would be represented with. Moreover, the difference in the way that both characters speak adds to the effect. Will tends to rely on slang terms to get his point across, while Carlton seems to converse like a true intellectual (‘The Fresh Prince Project’, 1990). Through applying the concepts of cultural identity and representation we can appreciate what is meant by this contrast. Will, evidently, is represented with the cultural identity of his region, which is predominantly a black neighbourhood. This representation seems to link heavily to the idea of blackness that Hall frequently makes reference to. Similarly to the N.W.A. clip, here Will is represented as being a troublesome member of society. This is what the general view of blackness has become over the years and still is today in certain parts of the United States and the rest of the world. The notion of cultural difference is again clear as Will portrays the opposite of what the ‘traditional’ white American is supposed to behave like. Yet Carlton seems to possess the complete opposite to the cultural identity of Will and assumes the role of a white American, though he and the Banks family are not. This contrast is evidence of a cultural difference which has occurred due to the region in which the family live. On the other hand, at the beginning, Carlton’s sister Ashley appears to have a similar cultural identity to that of her brother but later begins to associate more with Will, which agrees with the idea of Hall that cultural identity is ‘the constantly shifting understanding of one’s identity in relation to others’ (Cultural Identity Theory, 2010). Additionally, Will’s aunt Vivian and his uncle Philip are represented in conflicting ways. Firstly, Vivian acts as a supportive mother-figure when Will clashes with the rest of the family, allowing him to live at the house and become part of the family. On the other hand, Philip appears to be constantly disappointed in Will. With Carlton being the complete opposite and more like himself (‘The Fresh Prince Project’, 1990), Phil has incredibly high standards for his nephew and this can be looked at using the concept of representation as it is in contrast to current and past media thoughts upon blacks that they could never achieve the same things as white people in America and throughout the world. Carlton is the perfect contrast to the traditional idea of blackness from times of slavery when blacks were politically represented as mentally inadequate while the television network here has represented him as a genius and comically wearing the clothes of a white person.
In order to analyse the show as a whole, we must also consider who is doing the representing. The producers of the episode, television network NBC (IMDb, 2017), try to portray the characters in an unconventional way, possibly in an effort to appeal to viewers and improve the perception of blacks in America. The general premise of the show is the adaptation of a black American from a different background into a society completely foreign to him, which acts as the “signifier” while what is “signified” is that the culture of black people even from the roughest places can change, even if they are represented as different to our own cultures. The view that representation is a series of stereotypes constructed by powerful whites is not particularly evident in the episode or show as a whole, as it is not a “political representation” of black people nor is it a retaliation from the group being represented. The show simply explains that there is not always a huge difference between the cultural identity of this black family and that of a white American family, suggesting that representation, in particular media and political representation, is often false and unjust. Overall, it informs us that the idea of blackness is an invention rather than being the definition of a social category.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these two cultural concepts are dynamic through the episode and help us to see that representation is an invention rather than the reality with the portrayal of blacks in this programme illustrating the contrasting perceptions of different races. In addition, cultural identity helps us to understand the background of the characters and why they act in the way in which they do. It is important that we think of culture when interpreting contexts as it can explain what is real and what is not in terms of a person’s character or can help us to look at media such as news reports from a different angle.