Annotated Bibliography: Racial Stereotypes

Annotated Bibliography: Racial Stereotypes in Television

Introduction

As a group, we believe that popular culture does in fact perpetuates stereotypes. Television is a main source of information of popular culture. Television has forever changed how humans have interacted with another and introduce a world of diversity and knowledge. But with this profit, television has also harbored negative aspects. As a group, we studied how racial stereotypes are portrayed in television. In the history of television, different racial and ethnic groups have been widely underrepresented and television itself has been overwhelming represented by white figures. And when racial groups are presented on TV, the characters are often played in limited roles based on stereotypes. A stereotype isn’t necessarily untrue, but it is an assumption based on an incomplete and complex ideas that are oversimplified into something that isn’t what it meant to be, and it’s usually negative. For example, African Americans are often depicted as violent or involved in some kind of criminal activity. Their characters often portrays a person who is always sassy and angry or that isn’t intelligent and won’t succeed in life and inferior to whites in some manner. Asian characters are

usually all clumped together, you’re either Indian or Chinese. They’re most famous for being intelligent or genious and are types of people who only focus on academics, especially math. Finally, Asian are presented in a geeky type manner with a heavy accent. Hispanics on television are usually seen as lazy, being involved with drugs, illegal or being a maid or gardener. On the other hand, white counterparts are seen as being more realistic and viewers can actually resonate with them.

Safia Baset
Gillota, David. "'People Of Colors': Multiethnic Humor In Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle And Weeds." Journal Of Popular Culture 45.5 (2012): 960-978. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

In “People of Colors”: Multiethnic Humor in Harold and Kumar go to White Castle and Weeds”, the author discusses that in multiethnic television shows despite the diversity, they fail to represent the reality of actual minorities.In the film “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” they were able to portray how a complex variety of different ethnic groups actually are in America compared to how they are falsely stereotyped. In the series “Weeds” they portray african american stereotypes by creating their black female character as sassy and representing them as drug dealers. African Americans on this television series are displayed as violent thieves and robbers. When one of the characters moved next to the Mexican/Californian border they created an inaccurate representation of Mexican Americans by molding them into a character who smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants into the U.S. The show also went on to stereotype asian americans by depicting them as smart, and having them as tutors.

Kretsedemas, Philip. "“But She’s Not Black!”." Journal Of African American Studies 14.2 (2010): 149-170. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

In “But She’s Not Back”, Television and the media perpetuate stereotypes of black women by developing their characters as crazy, angry,sassy, bad, and inferior to whites. Whenever black characters are cast as “the boss”, they are left isolated from the rest of the characters.In shows such as “Ugly Betty” whenever a black woman had career ambitions and goals, they portrayed her as evil and manipulative. Black women with lighter skin weren’t represented as crazy, but working class darker skin women were depicted in racial stereotypes. White characters tended to resonate well with audiences because of the relatability to actual people, whereas black females added a comedic aspect by being the victims of jokes. The article interviewed people of different races to find a colorblind perspective of race, they found that negative connotations of black women and the repeated use of racial stereotypes that can be traced back to the Jim Crow era.

Maheen Pervaiz
Al-Shehab, Ali J. "Gender And Racial Representation In Children's Television Programming In Kuwait: Implications For Education."Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal 36.1 (2008): 49-63. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

The article “Gender and Racial Representation in Children’s Television Programming in Kuwait” by Ali J Al-Shehab, identifies the many different ways children’s opinions can develop due to the mindset and lack of TV.

It explains how a child’s mind can be formed by what they see on television, whether it be for the greater good, or for the worst. Children are at a young age causing their minds to be easily molded making television’s racial judgement more simple to pick up on. For example, the biased opinions and behavioral stereotypes they believe to be pursued correct at an easier doing. Television acts as a main model to shape their views and judgement on how others who are different than them should be treated and

viewed.

Chaney, Michael A. "Representations of Race and Place in Static Shock, King of the Hill, and South Park." Journal of Popular Film & Television(n.d.): 167-75. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

In “Representations of Race and Place in Static Shock, King of the Hill, and South Park” by Michael A. Chaney, explains the many wrong doings a person follows that becomes looked upon as racism. It shows how stereotypical racism is met in these TV shows by blackface acts. Blackface acts come to play when a task can not be performed by a white and is solemly dedicated to a man of color. It stereotypes the average black males lack of ability to do things that are “designed for them” coming from a racial human eye. Another topic the article covers is the women and how their feminized for their ability to do things. Women are placed to the side and looked down upon because they aren’t capable as the same thing men are perceived to be.

Imtiaz Rashid
Graves, Sherryl Browne. "Television And Prejudice Reduction: When Does Television As A Vicarious Experience Make A Difference." Journal Of Social Issues 55.4 (1999): 707-727. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

The scholarly article “Television and Prejudice Reduction: When Does Television as a Vicarious Experience Make a Difference” by Sherryl Graves discusses how television fosters stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination of racial groups among children. It also shows how racial and ethnic groups are played a limited role and interaction and what role does television play into it by using theoretical models. The articles also discusses what effects of television can arise in altering the stereotypes. Television itself is overwhelmingly white, where racial groups are underrepresented, and when they are represented, they only appear in secondary or supporting roles in a neutral or negative manner and their character is limited by stereotypes such as being criminals, limited occupational roles, how they interact and etc. Racial groups are isolated and are overgeneralized in physical, emotional and intellectual characteristics. This source can help my argument because it shows how television becomes a social reality for the viewer. Viewers who become exposed to stereotypes on television becomes distorted in their sense of the racial groups portrayed. Television is influential on viewers that it set their minds with assumptions of different races and cognitions which helps them understand how racially diverse people act.

Mastro, Dana, et al. "The Influence Of Exposure To Depictions Of Race And Crime In TV News On Viewer's Social Judgments."Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 53.4 (2009): 615-635. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

The scholarly article “Influence of Exposure to Depictions of Race and Crime in TV News On Viewer’s Social Judgements” by Dana Mastro explains the investigation of the relationship between how television news portrayal affects the viewer’s judgment of race with violent crime. From some prior research, it has been found out that racial prejudice is persistent among whites where blacks are seen violent, leading to the racial distortion of blacks always being criminals and whites always being victims of crime. From this, two studies were conducted where three news stories about sexual assault were produced, all identical except the race of the suspect and an audience of white college students who were randomly assigned one of the videos followed by a questionnaire. From the data, it was revealed that blacks and no race suspects were more guilty than whites for committing the same crime; results slightly varied based on the viewer’s genders where women were more unsympathetic than men. This source can help my argument because it accurately displays how television can perpetuate racial stereotype by leading viewers to be prejudiced and biased when making racial evaluations that are based on misconceptions.

Nathan Ulbik
Barry, Thomas E., and Richard W. Hansen. "How Race Affects Children's TV Commercials." Journal Of Advertising Research 13.5 (1973): 63-67. Business Source Complete. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.

This article strengthens the point of our consensus that pop culture perpetuates stereotypes especially in tv. It shows this by showing that even back in the early 1970’s race was a problem in tv commercials for children, pointing to a chart that shows Black children prefered the product that was being sold or talked about by Black actors. This shows that the presence of black actors or even one greatly influences’ the decisions of the children wanting the cereal. The point made in this article can be directly correlated in today's world to the decision to mostly have a couple of black actors in all tv shows and commercials as a lead, like “lego friends” or “Power Rangers” or even old shows like “boy meets world” used to sell to the black community.

Rada, James A., and K. Tim Wulfemeyer. "Color Coded: Racial Descriptors In Television Coverage Of Intercollegiate Sports."Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.1 (2005): 65-85. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.

This article talks about how African Americans are racially stereotyped in sports on television by announcers of creating the distinction of the player being athlete and the player being a person. But in the history of the television, African Americans have been underrepresented in negative roles, but at the same time, this has been contradicted by the performance of African Americans in sports. The article claims how television is a perfect medium to coverage sports and how it uses theatrical elements to make the player’s performance more exaggerated than it actually is in order to suit the audience. But the stereotype, that African Americans have incredible athletic skills but not seen as intelligent, has been repeated many times over and when fans are exposed to it, they see this as general knowledge and can have racial misconceptions of African American athletes and even all African Americans.