Only got to One Q in class

Williams' argument throughout Playing the Race Card is that melodrama has been a critical component in the perpetuation of race relations in America, and Marx uses melodrama as a mode through which to organize a political revolution.  Because of the "good vs. evil" inherent in melodrama, do you think that it is possible for it to promote peace or solidarity?  Or do you believe that melodrama is most effective in pitting people against each other?

  Williams notes that ‘realism’ can be added into melodrama to create a modern, functional mode to tell a story that is both realistic (applicable to promoting peace) and melodramatic. Williams makes it clear that the Anti-Tom groups used melodrama expertly to rewrite history for their own benefit, but it was also used to show the plight of slaves in the original Tom shows. Just because something can be used as a weapon, does not mean that it also cannot be a catalyst of ‘good’. Williams foreshadows the use of melodrama in attempts to further racial hierarchies and end racial injustice; it is used as a weapon of evil, and a tool for the common good.Melodrama can be used to promote peace and solidarity, though, it often is not. There are times in life when we are faced with an ‘enemy’ that does possess some true, inherent, evil. However, it must be recognized that there are underpinnings of humanity in all events and that completely demonizing an enemy is extremely dangerous.