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Abstract
This dissertation explores what might be gained from examining in a new way the implications of media and communication for social injustices regarding race and ethnicity. To do this, it examines in depth two cases of feature-length visual narrative and the representation of race/ethnicity in relational rather than essentialized terms. The first case study considers the possibilities of the cultural production of social inequalities of race through visual documentary. It argues that LA 92 (2017) embodies an innovative means of addressing and reproducing social inequalities of race in ways that productively enable their confrontation and reconstitution. The second case study considers the possibilities of the cultural production of social inequalities of race through the scripted feature-film drama, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). While many studies explore race and media, they have yet to adequately address how media narratives produce contradictory understandings of racial inequalities. Instead, this approach proposes the direct, empirical examination of social relations and their making. In doing so, this dissertation seeks to concretely explain the process behind what is often simply asserted.