“Opting out of that”: White feminism’s policing and disavowal of anti-racist critique in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe episode of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt titled “Kimmy Goes to a Play” is widely understood as Tina Fey's unapologetic response to anti-racist criticism of the show’s first season. By satirically vilifying Asian American protesters as intolerant of Titus, a Black queer man, for performing a one-person play about his former life as a geisha, the show hides problems of White American appropriation and advances the racial politics of the model minority stereotype. Using Titus as a stand-in for herself as a show creator, Fey argues for her right to unapologetically culturally appropriate in her racial humor. As such, the message of the episode is consistent with “White feminism,” which advances superficial, postracial anti-racism as an ideological shield while wielding it as a conservative rhetorical weapon to demand White women's access to the benefits of White men's privilege. This helps reveal the contradictions of White feminism that allows its adherents to believe themselves to be progressive while opting out of progressive anti-racism.