New(s) Racism with reference to New(s) Racism: a discourse analytical approach by Teun A. van Dijk.

New(s) Racism with reference to New(s) Racism: a discourse analytical approach by Teun A. van Dijk.

A modern and strong example of race in the media is American Horror Story, Coven. The 'good' witches all appear to be white, minus Queenie, however she does spend some time on the 'evil' side. The positive witches live in a manor house, and use many forms of traditional magic with reference to Salem, as where the Dark witches live in a hairdressers, and practise voodoo magic by sacrificing several animals and manipulating corpses into zombies. This basic description provokes ideas of subliminal racist messages in the show, however this is not the case. This idea is combatted by an underlining plot throughout the series between Madam Delphine LaLaurie and Queenie. Madam LaLaurie is a character from New Orleans in the 1800's, who is dug up after a voodoo curse in modern day. Her flash back scenes all contain racism which would have be accurate for the time as well as torture performed on slaves. Queenie makes it her mission to introduce Delphine to the courtesy's of modern day by encouraging her to watch roots as well as Fiona Goode (The supreme white witch), forcing her to become Queenies slave as karma for the mistreatment of her ancestors.

The discussion of slavery is prominent throughout the series, and is regularly brought up by Marie Laveau and Delphine, as their history began during the slave trade. Although the representation of these characters could be perceived as racism, I believe the creators of the show were merely trying to create historically accurate plot lines. This is an example of Dijk's argument that racism in the media is subtle in order to appear "democratic and respectable"2. The subtle aspects are not the plot lines, however are more through the imagery of the Black witches being surrounded by dark lighting and the murder of animals, and the white witches uniting the protect each other.

On the other hand, all though the practise of voodoo is presented throughout history as being 'black magic', its culture originates from Africa, therefore to presume this was intended to purely show black women in a negative light would be "ignoring native symbolism"3.

To summarise AHS Coven is a strong example of not only the present divide between races but also a historical one. I do not believe it was intended by producers to convey a racist message, however subtle technical elements do suggest this.

2 News racism: A discourse analytical approach by Teun A. Van Dijk

3 Picturing afgan women: A content analysis of AP wire photographs during the Taliban regime and after the fall of the Taliban regime by Shahira Fahmy