Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized and stereotyped everyday in film, music, and etc.
The world of television can either completely hit or miss the mark when it comes to providing its audience a diverse cast/actors. "Girls" is a new HBO show about young, prosperous, and white New Yorkers in their twenties struggling to find their footing in the post-collegiate world. It is a poor example of representation of race, but the show in itself cannot be held responsible for the whole problem of racial diversity of media and popular culture. There has been a lot of controversy about the show's diversity since the first episode, seeing how it is set in the melting pot of NYC and Brooklyn, yet it is prominently white. The shocking part is that despite its meting pot nature, it is very easy to live a segregated social life in New York City, especially if you are a rich white person. The fact that the show is so white should not come off as unusual, yet it does because this generation is more willing to see that change happen in pop culture. Not everyone sees it that way and pop culture still does not represent races equally or at times even accurately. For example, when show do add in minorities they often make them extremely stereotypical to their race. The recurrence in the lack of realistic representation in the show highlights the “whiteness” of stereotypical roles that overshadows real life representation.
McIntosh explores th...
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...Latinos and European Americans that goes beyond superficial jokes? It is a contemporary and insightful exploitation of today's diversity issues, yet it does contain a noticeable exclusion. There are no black lead characters. For a show that addresses diversity issues, this is an apparent elephant in the room. I believe it is because it is easier to write affirming comedy about gays, latinos, youth, and older people, but not racial issues. It would very difficult to to make comedy of racial issues because white privilege is a very serious occurrence. The total avoidance of it, just reflects how race is still a tricky subject in the United States.
Pop culture is a backdrop of day-to-day life from television to film to Facebook to music. It has the power to influence us on how we think and what we think. So why does it still lack equal and fair racial representation?
Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the 1990s, nearly 14% of the television families were African-American (Bryant 2001). These statistics obviously show the substantial impact our American culture has had on African-American television families.
Marlon T. Riggs’ video, Color Adjustment, offers the viewer an exciting trip though the history of television, focusing on the representation, or lack thereof, of African-Americans. A perfectly chosen combination of television producers, actors, sociologists, and cultural critics join forces to offer insight and professional opinion about the status of African-Americans in television since the inception of television itself. As Color Adjustment traces the history of television shows from Amos n’ Andy and Julia to "ghetto sitcoms" and The Cosby Show, the cast of television professionals and cultural critics discuss the impacts those representations have on both the African-American community and our society as a whole. Color Adjustment continually asks the question: "Are these images positive?" This video raises the viewer’s awareness about issues of positive images for African-Americans on television.
During the semester, race is a big part of the lectures. In class, we talk about how race is distinguishing physical characteristics used to place people in different racial categories (Jensen). The biggest concern with race is racial inequality. Racial inequality is the inadequate or unfair treatment of minorities in areas like income, education, employment, health, the criminal justice system, and media. The article written by Rebecca Keegan from the Los Angeles Times newspaper discusses the inequality of race in media specifically movies. This article relates to the unfairness in films because minorities are poorly portrayed in the majority of films. More often than not, minorities are the “bad guys” in films. They are caught up in criminal activity and live in poorer neighborhoods than the majority. The article gives numerous statistics proving and exploiting that there is indeed racial inequality depicted in films. Also the Keegan touches on how minorities are underrepresented in films in the way that they usually do not have as many speaking lines compared to the white actor/actress.
It’s September, the kids are back in school, and it’s time for another new season of television. Another round of must see Felicity, Friends, and Frasier, with a side of ER and some Nash Bridges for dessert. Loads and loads of Caucasian males and females making us laugh, and cry. What you do not see are Black, Hispanic, or other minorities making us laugh, and cry. In this day and age, where everyone gets a fair shot at doing what they really love, the same can not be said for minorities in the film industry. More and more minorities are being turn away in favor of Caucasian actors. It’s not only actors that are feeling the pinch, its also writers, directors, producers, and network execs.
Woll, Allen L and Randall M Miller. Ethnic and Racial Images in American Film and Television: Historical Essays and Bibliography. n.d. Print.
... model for how the entertainment and media industries depict black people must change. Despite the progress that blacks have worked toward since the days of slavery, society continues to give in to the monetary benefits of producing self-disparaging entertainment and media. It is not only up to the directors, editors, producers and writers to establish this change, but it should also be the demand of the people, or the consumer. If the images of black people in the media are improved the outlook within the community will improve as well. Not only will positive goals and achievements become more realistic for black people if the media outlets discontinue their practice of equating blacks with aggression, lawlessness and violence, but a greater good will also result for whites, which would be represented by a true autonomy and equality in American society.
“The media serve as a tool that people use to define, measure, and understand American society” (Deo et al., 149). Thinking of the media as a tool for the American people also extends into the realm of race and ethnicity. The United States has had a long and difficult history pertaining to the racial and ethnic identities of the many different people that reside within and outside of it’s borders. That history is still being created and this country still struggles with many of the same problems that have plagued this area since before the founding of the U.S. As stated above, the popular media has a large impact on the way that race and ethnicity are understood by people, especially when considering the prevalence of segregation in the U.S.
For decades now, popular culture has been tainted by the perpetual use of racial stereotypes that come to us through music, television, and film. These reactionary stereotypes are often unaddressed and often permeate the minds of those too young to understand what a stereotype is. Therefore the effects of these conventionalized ideas continue to prevail throughout our society as they are repeatedly swept under the rug. However, although seemingly less common, there are also forms of media with goals of bringing attention to toxic stereotypes while still entertaining their audiences. African-Americans, Arabs, and Latin@’s are three of the most prevalent minority groups represented in the media and by analyzing the films Aladdin, Django Unchained, and the television show Devious Maids, one can become much more aware of the racial stereotypes that they are calling attention to.
Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous, making it hard for the average African American woman to relate to. Black television has done well with having different shapes and sizes for women of color to relate to, but that only includes one or two channels on all of television. For example, even though BET was founded by Robert Johnson, a black man, BET is now predominantly owned by white people. “"Day after day, in all forms of media -- print, radio, and television -- we see, hear, and read the perspectives of non-Black women and women of color who are not actively involved in the struggles of Black women -- especially on so-called 'women's issues'.”(Women’s Health Weekly, 546) Large television networks must choose to show things that will not only keep ratings up but also keep people interested in watching their shows. Unfortunately in today’s age and day drama and negativity is what most Americans look to watch. Even though many people feel that these negative things are wrong, we still find ourselves watching and reading about it. The...
Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...
Popular Culture has changed drastically over the decades with the biggest question being whether or not popular culture is a positive or negative expression of our ideas and reflections. American Pop Culture has an extremely important role that influences the United States and around the world. There are countless topics that make up pop culture and it is nearly impossible to name all of them. Some of the topics are Television, Music, Religion, Politics, Arts, Economy, Education, Family roles and structures. Three of the cultures that I believe has changed the most and seems to cause the most controversy are television, music and religion.
There are many racial stereotypes that many people are familiar with but would see it as inappropriate to address due to racial stereotypes being a controversial issue. As mentioned in the movie, Bamboozled, Dunwitty also known as the Vice President of the CNS, a large television network, states “… I want you to create something that people want to see…You know and I know "niggers" set the trend, set the styles. This is a golden opportunity now. These idiots have to be led to the water.” Which expresses how much the media cares more about the people viewing their shows instead of what the show is really about. Since many media outlets care more about receiving views from their audiences they usually don’t think about what kind of shows they are projecting to the public as long as they are getting views.
If POC had greater representation is the media we wouldn’t be ashamed of our culture. And I’m not just talking about having a Black person in a show full of white people. We NEED people who don’t stereotype their own culture. We don’t need someone who doesn’t accept their own culture out there on a show that’s suppose to be representing us, but they stereotype their own people. We see this too often in media with our beautiful people of color. The stereotypical “diverse”, show is there’s the “ghetto” Black person, “nerdy” Asian, and the “sassy” Latina. These people who plays these roles are honestly not someone to support. How the stereotypes of POC in the media affected our author, Lisa Ko, is she decided to make her protagonist someone that looks like her going through a relatable misfortune. POC never are protagonists and have good storylines, Ko totally broke that with “The Leavers” with Deming Guo as the protagonist with a completely relatable and interesting situation. Ms. Lisa grew up making almost all her protagonist white because-especially at that time- there was little to no good representation for POC. But, she made a whole vow to start making her protagonists Asian/POC BECAUSE she saw other colored authors making their protagonists people of color. One author that inspired Lisa Ko to create these characters with such personalities was Bette Bao Lord, the author of “In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson”. Ms. Bette
All to often racial minorities or queer characters are “Given secondary or tertiary storylines that can be thrown away” (Butler), this is because of the possibility of the viewers negatively reacting to characters that do not fit the norm. However, the creation of characters that do not fit in mold of being white, straight, or the stereotypical man or woman, are progressive and can challenge the different roles of society. Having a diverse cast, or a lead minority character allows for the better representation of minority and queer groups of people, which further enables the breakdown of the damaging roles that society
The Hurst book discusses in Chapter 8, that “whiteness is invisible to most whites,” this could be a reason that there is not a lot of diversity in Hollywood, but it could also be racism, and discrimination toward people of different ethnicities as well (Hurst, 183). According, to Hurst racism is “embedded in the structure and institutions, and defining racism individualistically rather than in structural terms, has allowed our attention to be defected from White privilege” (Hurst, 184). White privilege is present in Hollywood, everything is ran by white people, and it is the white writers and directors, they decided who they will cast in the show or movie. Racial and ethnic diversity in TV programming should not be a problem in the 21st century, this is a problem of the past and should not still be going on. The NPR article discusses the shift of more series with “non-white actors, and a more non-white cast, but that still is on 30% of all TV shows” that is a major improvement but there still needs to be more