Racism In American Horror Story

Darkness is often associated with evil, monsters, violence and the ugliness that exists in the world; this is problematic when it becomes linked to the representation of black individuals in pop culture. When looking at American Horror Story from a distance it is about a dysfunctional white family who moved into a place referred to as the Murder House, where the previous 20 white residents were murdered and live as ghosts. This becomes a problem with the portrayal of the security guard Luke, who happens to be black because it has deep roots in systemic racism and perpetuates the stereotype that all black men are criminals all while remaining the hierarchical structural idea that white people are superior to black people. This can be seen with

This is significant because it is not an accurate representation of the percentage of black people that live in L.A which is where the series takes place. To explain how problematic this is one has to explain that "Representation is important because it is an active process of creating meanings." (Milestone & Meyer, 2012). The lack of black characters being represented in the show influences the perceptions of individuals to believe that black people are few and far between and the vast majority of people in existence are white. Furthermore, this stems from systemic racism which "includes the policies and practices entrenched in established institutions, which result in the exclusion or promotion of designated groups." (Henry & Tator, 2006). The lasting consequences of slavery are what create the conditions for this racism to exist today because “By the 19th century it was widely taken for granted that the human race was divided into superior whites and inferior others.” (Storey, 2009). Hollywood favours white actors and plots that centre on white people because racism is imbedded in the industry. While the industry says that they are trying to improve representation results are yet to be seen as like in American Horror Story most media consists of a white dominated cast and a “token” black character. This can have detrimental consequences in terms of how black children will see themselves and perceive that their skin tone