Allison Hargreeves' adventure in 1963 Texas- a myriad of racism and misogyny. But what would Paul Gilroy say about season two of The Umbrella Academy?
The Umbrella Academy is a story of 7 superpowered siblings learning to control their powers, mend their estranged relationship, and recover from their childhood trauma- all whilst trying to save the world from an apocalypse. Allison Hargreeves is the third sibling (number 3- referred to by Reginald Hargreeves, their father) and has the power to control people when she speaks.
Season two of the show specifically deals with Allison learning to cope with the racial and gender based tension of 1960's Texas, dealing with segregation and discrimination- Allison gets involved with sit ins protesting against segregation.
Paul Gilroy states two main arguments for his theory:
- that colonial discourses inform modern attitudes to race and ethnicity in a post-colonial era
- that civilisationism constructs both binary oppositions and racial heirarchies based on notions of 'otherness'
this season of umbrella academy proves Gilroy's second point beyond a doubt. Allison experiences racial discrimination and segregation based on the notion that people of colour are 'other' or 'seperate but equal' which is never really applied in practice. the ten episodes show the clearly defined racial heirarchy within 1960's texas. the aggression shown towards allison defines black people at the bottom of the heirarchy, with her white aggressors being defined at the top.
Gilroy's first point can also be made through this media text. though the fact that Allison is a time traveler from 2019 means that the 1960's arent considered modern, they would have been temporarily for Allison, and as such we can look at the post civil war treatment of people of colour in the southern states. The southern states (primarily texas) are often stereotyped as extreme racists (though this definately has some basis in fact) due to both their participation on the side of the confederates during the American civil war, and their extreme resistance to positive change for civil rights afterwards. Texas was part of the confederecy during the American Civil War, and was heavily dependent on slave labour to produce its economy- this likely still has holdovers in 1960's Texan society in accordance with Paul Gilroys ideas.
Comments