Comments on: F.ix E.verything M.y A.ss

By: Julia Leyda

Julia Leyda — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 03:49:31 +0000

But y’all, Davis’s character is SUPPOSED to be annoying and offensive. Moreover, I don’t think you can portray New Orleans culture in any semblance of authenticity without a white character who exploits and appropriates African American creativity and cultural production. They’ve been there from day one, haven’t they?

I think Davis is a contemporary avatar of the exploiter / connoisseur / record producer who has been a leech on black New Orleans culture from way back. And the audience disdain for him suggests that we now know that is wrong. The scene where he’s trying to get Lil Calliope to listen to Woody Guthrie was the ultimate absurd example of that–and the guy’s reaction was perfect. I don’t get the sense that the show is unaware of what an ass Davis can be; quite the contrary–he is a buffoon much of the time, but not just to annoy us.

That the show paints Davis as a sometime good guy in addition to being annoying and offensive seems, well, authentic. Not all white people who rip(ped) off black artists are evil; some of them truly adore the art and don’t realize the problems inherent in what they’re doing. But it also shows his lack of self-awareness in other areas of his life, and even making a bit of progress in the girlfriend and neighbor relationships. I think of the complexity in Simon’s other “bad” characters–who seem to be placed in the story for us to hate or be annoyed by–such as Hidalgo, and from other shows like Generation Kill and The Wire too.

Davis is also a catalyst for white viewers to comfort ourselves that we are superior to him: more sensitive, more attuned to race and power hierarchies, not as dorky. But I suspect most white folks, at least who grew up in New Orleans, secretly fear that we are actually like Davis, and like him, don’t mean to be and don’t realize it. White New Orleanians’ identity, which is in part defined by our immersion in black culture, is a tricky business.

I remember going to Benny’s Bar on Valence a lot in the mid-80s to see Charmaine Neville, J.D. and the Jammers, the Uptown All-Stars, with other high school kids who were not black. My sense at the time–years before I read bell hooks or did any serious thinking about racism and whiteness–was that I was transgressing into somebody else’s space, where I may or may not be welcome. Behaving with respect, not calling undue attention to ourselves (we were also underage), we felt nothing but contempt for the drunk New York (or New Jersey?) Tulane students who started showing up there more and more. They were exactly what we didn’t want to be: loud, rude, seemingly ignorant of the complexities of the space they were entering and transforming by their entry. So in our disavowal of the arrogant white people, we tried (not entirely successfully) to reassure ourselves that we were not that bad.

This whole comment has been heavily influenced by a dialogue with anthropologist Helen Regis that (yes, it’s true) began at a second line back in March, and continues electronically. She’s got a great article in progress on Davis’s character, which I hope will be published soon.

By: Jolie

Jolie — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:35:06 +0000

LaDonna and her husband do reflect the difference between working-class Black New Orleans and middle-class Black-Creole New Orleans. Antoine (LaDonna’s ex-husband)and Desiree are also working-class Black New Orleanians. Davis is a white, native New Orleanian who, partially through his music, moves between a mostly white Uptown N.O. and various sects of Black New Orleans. He brings humor to the series. He also shows the interactions of New Orleanians across race and class (although they are less frequently across class than race in reality), often in the context of the music scene in his case, and the complexities therein. The fact is, in New Orleans, there is an openness that crosses race, and to a lesser extent class, to a greater degree than it does in most places in the U.S. That openness leads to sometimes uncomfortable interactions, sometimes humorous and enlightening, sometimes offensive, sometimes violent. I don’t see how any of this lies outside of the “real” New Orleans. The real New Orleans includes all of this and more. True, it focuses largely on the artistic workers in the city. That is part of the point of the show. But it does also show LaDonna’s entrepreneurialism (owning a bar is not exactly art), and the working-class, informal artwork of the Mardi Gras Indians. This is not “high” art. So I don’t quite understand the criticisms expressed here. I am from New Orleans, and live here now, and I think that the series does show many everyday struggles of a variety of people since Katrina – waiting for money to renovate a gutted-out house that someone is camping out in, working in sweaty kitchens of restaurants, scrambling for gigs, trying to represent underdog clients as a lawyer while raising your daughter alone after her father’s suicide. Frankly, I feel the show portrays an impressive variety of people and situations, across race, class, and various interests. It can’t show everything, and would be the worse for trying.

By: L Thomas

L Thomas — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 20:00:46 +0000

I just had to amen the assessment of the Davis McAlary storyline as “annoying at best, distracting and offensive at worst” (and I certainly weigh in on the “at worst” end). While I agree with Julia about the importance of understanding race and class in the city, I see Davis’ character as undermining this understanding, not promoting it. I can think of countless examples when Davis’ character usurps black characters’ agency or expertise (or rage, in the case of episode 6 when he is trying to cultivate political rage in black musicians) that I find self-righteous and condescending.

By: Julia Leyda

Julia Leyda — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 23:05:41 +0000

I agree that the show hasn’t shown much going on in Gentilly, but we saw the condition of Albert’s house there. Similarly, I’d love to see more of Ladonna’s husband’s family, which we learned is, in her words, a snobby 7th ward creole world that looks down on her and her family “from around the way.” But their home in New Orleans East is a tear-down, so the show doesn’t focus on that neighborhood except by its absence. Yet in those two characters and their families it does look to me like there are variations of racial and class identities that could be more developed.

Too bad you feel that way about Davis! I think his character is extremely important to understanding race and class in the city.

By: Ade

Ade — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:18:40 +0000

An excellent critique of the series, especially the very disturbing rape of LaDonna. While it is understood that the series has to be tailored to attract a larger audience not living in New Orleans, the producers must also not assume that this larger audience is not interested in understanding New Orleans beyond the music and the food. People everywhere, including New Orleanians, live regular lives beyond entertainment and its attendant complexities. With that said, I remain hopeful that by the end of series, the producers would have tried (or at least attempted) to capture some aspects of everyday living for the average New Orleans resident.

By: vicki

vicki — Wed, 25 May 2011 21:49:25 +0000

I concur with your critique about missing the larger lives of Black New Orleanians. It perhaps also should be directed at the near absence of the Black middle class in the series– the generations who live Uptown and Gentilly. This is a group that can afford HBO and still is relatively invisible to the ‘struggling’ African American musicians and entertainment industry folks.