Ranging across television genres, historical periods, and racial formations, Living Color -- as it positions race as a key element of television's cultural influence -- moves the discussion out of a black-and-white binary and illustrates how class, gender, and sexuality interact with images of race. In addition to essays on representations of "Oriental" performers and African Americans in the early years of television, this collection also examines how the celebrity of the late MTV star Pedro Zamora countered racist and homophobic discourses; reveals how news coverage on drug use shifted from the white middle-class cocaine user in the early 1980s to the black "crack mother" of the 1990s; and takes on TV coverage of the Rodney King beating and the subsequent unrest in L.A. In considering O.J. Simpson's murder trial, contributors compare television's treatment of Simpson to that of Michael Jackson, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Clarence Thomas and look at the racism directed at Asian Americans by the recurring "Dancing Itos" on Jay Leno's Tonight Show.

Pushing the existing boundaries of television scholarship in new directions, Living Color makes explicit the centrality of race and ethnicity to American life -- as revealed in the apparatus, formal organization, and representational modes of television. It will engage readersinterested in television studies, race studies, cultural studies, and communications history.