LadyLavinia
Scooby
Here is an interesting passage from the essay by Naomi Alderman and Annette Seidel-Arpaci, called "Imaginary Para-Sites of the Soul: Vampires and Representations of "˜Blackness' and "˜Jewishness' in the Buffy/Angelverse" :
"Streetwise" and "authentic": Charles Gunn
(25) Many vampires, demons and monsters possess special bodily abilities, or "sensitivities" which humans don't have. Human characters on the show seem to rely much more on knowledge and abilities acquired by study or research.
(26) One of the few exceptions to that rule, and thus a representation of a human "other," is the character of Charles Gunn, who came from being a prominent member of a street gang to join Angel Investigations. Charles Gunn is, tellingly, addressed by his surname, equally tellingly, "Gunn." When Gunn is introduced, he seems, at times, to be viewed with suspicious fear and insecurity, in particular by Wesley and Cordelia. We witness the white imagination of "the black man" "“ what Judith Butler called "white paranoia" "“ in its daily normality, not stripped of its degrading power, but at least in "Judgment" (AtS, 2001) shown as "embarrassing" for Wesley and Cordelia, as they themselves seem to realise their internalised stereotypes.
(27) Charles is more than once said to be "very strong" and "dangerous," for instance by Holtz's vampire-fighters. They view Charles Gunn as a dangerous opponent, but think he might be vulnerable as they also consider him very "impulsive." In Angel Season Three Fred describes the role of each member of Angel Investigations to her parents, and here Gunn becomes "the muscle" of the team, a line which develops even further in Season 4: Charles himself bitterly acknowledges that he may not have to offer Fred the intellectuality with which Wesley is depicted, but rather indeed only "the muscle" Nevertheless "“ or therefore? - it is almost always Charles who has to give the anti-racist "speeches," hence remains a kind of "most authentic other," for instance in "Blind Date" (AtS 1021) at Wolfram & Hart:
"Did you just step on my foot? Is that my foot you just stepped on? Are you assaulting me, in this haven of justice? Somebody get me a lawyer, because my civil rights have seriously been violated. Oh, I get it. You all can cater to the demon. Cater to the dead man. But what about the black man?"
In "There"s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb" (AtS 2022) Cordelia asks Charles to explain to the Groosalugg what freedom in Pylea might look like: "˜It means saying people are free don't make "˜em free. You got races that hate each other. You got some folks getting work they don't want, others losing the little they had. You're looking at social confusion, economic depression and probably some riots. Good luck!" Gunn is regularly expected to give these explanations, because no-one else could have any idea, let alone experience, of racism, injustice or political change. This is also very obvious in "The Thin Dead Line" (AtS 2014):
Charles: "I want you to roll the camcorder, wait for the cops to hassle us."
Anne: "How do you know they will?"
Charles: "Cos we'll be the ones "˜walkin-while-black'."'
(28) Charles Gunn figures as the streetwise "black macho guy" who acts before thinking, and images of "male strength" are inscribed onto his body. As he is African-American, the "danger" and "impulsiveness" are included in these inscriptions. In the show's version of progressive gender relations, the "shell" of the macho has to be cracked. This is a process in which both Angel and Buffy tend to leave to women, but here it is, significantly, Fred the shy, fragile-seeming, "white" girl from Texas, who takes on the job. Her strengths are precisely the ones Charles allegedly lacks. While he is constructed as "authentic," someone whose knowledge and values come from a life on the street, not from books, she is the science and computer specialist of the team.
(29) Charles is only able to develop when he leaves his street fighting gang more and more behind him, as they have started to fight and kill demons only "for the fun of it." This image is typical of the portrayal of the black street gang whose violence is figured, speaking with Butler, "as "˜senseless' or "˜barbaric,' thereby mirroring "˜the racist production of the visual field.'"
(30) Angel is set in Los Angeles, the LA of racist police brutality against Rodney King and the subsequent ascription of police violence onto King himself "“ he was seen to be "dangerous." Commentators writing about Angel have pointed out that the regular references to police brutality result from these experiences. It is therefore telling that not only Charles Gunn, but also his "gang," is represented in this way. Judith Butler writes about the ascription of "aggression" and "danger" by the jury's verdict in the later trial onto Rodney King himself, that it was "the phantasmatic production of "˜intention'," that struck her most, an "intention inscribed in and read off Rodney King's frozen body on the street, his intention to do harm, to endanger. [. . .] According to this racist episteme, he is hit in exchange for theblows he never delivered, but which he is, by virtue of his blackness, always about to deliver." Boyd Tonkin notes that the "school and street gangs of above-ground LA became a trigger for national panic only when their Black and Latino variants grew conspicuously larger and tougher than the rest."
"Streetwise" and "authentic": Charles Gunn
(25) Many vampires, demons and monsters possess special bodily abilities, or "sensitivities" which humans don't have. Human characters on the show seem to rely much more on knowledge and abilities acquired by study or research.
(26) One of the few exceptions to that rule, and thus a representation of a human "other," is the character of Charles Gunn, who came from being a prominent member of a street gang to join Angel Investigations. Charles Gunn is, tellingly, addressed by his surname, equally tellingly, "Gunn." When Gunn is introduced, he seems, at times, to be viewed with suspicious fear and insecurity, in particular by Wesley and Cordelia. We witness the white imagination of "the black man" "“ what Judith Butler called "white paranoia" "“ in its daily normality, not stripped of its degrading power, but at least in "Judgment" (AtS, 2001) shown as "embarrassing" for Wesley and Cordelia, as they themselves seem to realise their internalised stereotypes.
(27) Charles is more than once said to be "very strong" and "dangerous," for instance by Holtz's vampire-fighters. They view Charles Gunn as a dangerous opponent, but think he might be vulnerable as they also consider him very "impulsive." In Angel Season Three Fred describes the role of each member of Angel Investigations to her parents, and here Gunn becomes "the muscle" of the team, a line which develops even further in Season 4: Charles himself bitterly acknowledges that he may not have to offer Fred the intellectuality with which Wesley is depicted, but rather indeed only "the muscle" Nevertheless "“ or therefore? - it is almost always Charles who has to give the anti-racist "speeches," hence remains a kind of "most authentic other," for instance in "Blind Date" (AtS 1021) at Wolfram & Hart:
"Did you just step on my foot? Is that my foot you just stepped on? Are you assaulting me, in this haven of justice? Somebody get me a lawyer, because my civil rights have seriously been violated. Oh, I get it. You all can cater to the demon. Cater to the dead man. But what about the black man?"
In "There"s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb" (AtS 2022) Cordelia asks Charles to explain to the Groosalugg what freedom in Pylea might look like: "˜It means saying people are free don't make "˜em free. You got races that hate each other. You got some folks getting work they don't want, others losing the little they had. You're looking at social confusion, economic depression and probably some riots. Good luck!" Gunn is regularly expected to give these explanations, because no-one else could have any idea, let alone experience, of racism, injustice or political change. This is also very obvious in "The Thin Dead Line" (AtS 2014):
Charles: "I want you to roll the camcorder, wait for the cops to hassle us."
Anne: "How do you know they will?"
Charles: "Cos we'll be the ones "˜walkin-while-black'."'
(28) Charles Gunn figures as the streetwise "black macho guy" who acts before thinking, and images of "male strength" are inscribed onto his body. As he is African-American, the "danger" and "impulsiveness" are included in these inscriptions. In the show's version of progressive gender relations, the "shell" of the macho has to be cracked. This is a process in which both Angel and Buffy tend to leave to women, but here it is, significantly, Fred the shy, fragile-seeming, "white" girl from Texas, who takes on the job. Her strengths are precisely the ones Charles allegedly lacks. While he is constructed as "authentic," someone whose knowledge and values come from a life on the street, not from books, she is the science and computer specialist of the team.
(29) Charles is only able to develop when he leaves his street fighting gang more and more behind him, as they have started to fight and kill demons only "for the fun of it." This image is typical of the portrayal of the black street gang whose violence is figured, speaking with Butler, "as "˜senseless' or "˜barbaric,' thereby mirroring "˜the racist production of the visual field.'"
(30) Angel is set in Los Angeles, the LA of racist police brutality against Rodney King and the subsequent ascription of police violence onto King himself "“ he was seen to be "dangerous." Commentators writing about Angel have pointed out that the regular references to police brutality result from these experiences. It is therefore telling that not only Charles Gunn, but also his "gang," is represented in this way. Judith Butler writes about the ascription of "aggression" and "danger" by the jury's verdict in the later trial onto Rodney King himself, that it was "the phantasmatic production of "˜intention'," that struck her most, an "intention inscribed in and read off Rodney King's frozen body on the street, his intention to do harm, to endanger. [. . .] According to this racist episteme, he is hit in exchange for theblows he never delivered, but which he is, by virtue of his blackness, always about to deliver." Boyd Tonkin notes that the "school and street gangs of above-ground LA became a trigger for national panic only when their Black and Latino variants grew conspicuously larger and tougher than the rest."
