Racial/Ethnic/Cultural Stereotypes on TV

talk
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Hey everyone,
Since this forum has been dead for the past few days, I figure a new topic may be just what I need to harvest new e-mail addresses to sell to polling people. J/K!..:evil:

There were a few Italian people on the news who complained last week that a new show about John Gotti’s daughter was unfair to people of Italian origin. Another show that a few Italian groups were not happy about was the Sopranos, and they even had some brouhaha over some yearly NY parade featuring one of the Sopranos cast members.

Being in the US, a lot of minorities hold the opinion that the cop shows and sitcoms often paint a negative view of African Americans and Mexicans (and other groups also). Comedians such as Chris Rock and George Lopez often poke fun at their own ethnic backgrounds.

On the flip-side you have shows such as the Cosby Show where African Americans and other ethnic groups are portrayed as being educated, successful, and respectful to each other. Shows such as 24 had the President of the US being African American.

Anyhoo, what are your thoughts on racial/ethnic/cultural stereotypes being perpetuated on TV/Movies/etc.?

Cheers!
Kirupa :stuck_out_tongue:

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I think it’s a bunch of crap, no I really do. I’m Italian and I can tell you that the Soprano’s is a great series. I’m not touchy K-man I’m really not.

I think this is just another thing for people to complain about to be honest. This day and age everyone wants to point the finger and scream racist.

Ok for those who don’t know South Park try and follow along, because the creaters made a great point.

They made an episode, where Chef(black man) complained about about a flag that was made (by a white man). The flag showed 4 white men hanging a black man.

The kids couldn’t understand why Chef was so mad, and Chef didn’t understand they showed no remorse. The reason was they didn’t see it as 4 white men hanging 1 black man. They looked past the skin color and just seen a guy getting hung.

I may be losing myself and you guys so let me try and explain my point. I personally can honestly say I look past the color. Color, means nothing to me, and that’s the truth. And I know a lot of other people feel the same way I do. People make such a big deal about racism when it mauy not even be there.

Now I am not saying racism doesn’t exist, because it does. But sometime’s people look to much into things. Any Italian, who thinks the creaters of these shows are trying to make them look bad is just outright silly.

Look at Oz, great show, I love it. Most of the actors are black, why? Probably because statistically there are more blacks in jail. Is this is knock to black people? It shouldn’t be, but I’m sure some think it is, same thing with the Gotti show.

I mean were in the year 2004. People need to stop with all the racist crap, were all brothers in a way. We all deal with the same crap everyday, same painfull things, same joyous things.

Wow I just went on and on and on and on :lol:

edit: sry for all the spelling and gram mistakes, typing fast

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Good topic Kirupa. I was actually thinking about the same thing after seeing a preview for some computer animated movie coming out later this year where the two shark badguys have Italian accents. For me this doesn’t really bother me at all, though I do find it a bit repetitive after a while. How many bad Italians do we need? I am Italian in origin, and I usually just find the stereotypes funny.Like in the Simpsons I think Fat Tony is classic. So for me, I don’t find it offending… However, I personally have never been denied anything based on my racial origins, or treated differently because of them (Despite some minor things, like friend’s expecting me to be connected to the mob, or to be good at soccer, etc), but these have never affected me adversely. I have been called a WOP by people who wanted to insult me, but it was minor. But some people who have faced serious prejiduce in their life might see these stereotypes as making things worse for them. I know my grandmother has been hurt by people judging her because she is Sicilian, and so maybe it is different for her.

Enough for now, because I feel repetitive.

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Digitalosophy-

I may be losing myself and you guys so let me try and explain my point. I personally can honestly say I look past the color. Color, means nothing to me, and that’s the truth. And I know a lot of other people feel the same way I do. People make such a big deal about racism when it mauy not even be there.

I will come up with a nice, serious answer later, but does this mean your sites will be made in greyscale from now on? (Or have they already been?)

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lol. fun word.

the fact that everyone wants political correctness does not, imo, really help curb racism. And I have to leave, so I’ll edit later.

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I’m in the same boat with Digitalosophy. I’m also Italian, and I think that the Soprano’s is a great show. Now, that Gotti series I can live without, but still. Crying rascist is becoming too common place. African Americans saying the NJ State Police pulled more of them over because they’re “Black” is rediculous!! If you’re speeding or doing something illegal, you get pulled over, and you get a ticket. Screw race/color/title whatever.

[ot] :gm: hahahahaah nice smilie [/ot]

I’m sick of all these ethnic groups ccrying out that they’re being “oppressed” by everyone. They simply are NOT! A few people out there are oppressing you, and thats simply because politics sucks alot. The only viable instance where I can see crying rascist is valid is in the event that someone is preventing you from getting the rights granted to you in the Bill of Rights because of your race/ethnicity/sex whatever. Even still, people bend those rights into such loose meanings that we might as well change the whole thing into “Welcome. You have the right to b*tch and moan all you want and tie up our Supreme Courts in silly little matters over parking tickets when our President it doing something horrible bad, like genocide.”

Bah, I’ve had my rant. I mean this is no offense to anyone, so if I have, lemme know, and I’ll apologize for it.

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Identity and representation in the media go hand in hand with the perpetuation of stereotypes in our culture, regardless of whether or not you as an individual buy into the stereotype. Women are much more likely to be depicted as victims, black and latino men are much more likely to be depicted as villains or miscreants than their white counterparts, etc, etc. in today’s television programming (this by the way is NOT limited to fictional shows, NEWS shows are brutal for falling in line with these unbalanced projections).

I don’t think the issue at hand is racism or oppressions, at least not in a direct “let’s paint [insert ethnicity here] as violent, evil people” by those who write/produce the shows our culture watches. The whole problem with perpetuation of ANY ideology is that everyone is affected. Even if you don’t believe the stereotypes, you know them. Its easy for producers to use the sterotypes because they know their viewers can instantly grab onto and understand stereotyped concepts by relating what they see to things they already know, concepts that have been hardwired into their understanding. The producers have the same hardwiring, yknow?

No, the real problem is how it affects our perception of real life. When we see someone who resembles that gangsta thug whos sellin crack to school children on one of those horrible cop shows, its impossible not to draw up the stereotype in your own mind. Now, that’s not to say that you as an individual cannot reject the stereotype, ‘this guy is NOT that guy on the TV show,’ but just the fact that the mental picture/connection is made is where the problem lies.
A good analogy is something known as the ‘mean world syndrome.’ People who watch a lot of news programs (often hyping up violence/mishaps -if it bleeds it leads) are much more likely to believe that they are in danger when they go outside than people who do not watch lots of news. There’s even a positive coefficient thing goin on with it, the more news you watch, the more threatened you feel.

Removing the stereotypes from the mediated culture - or replacing them with ones that are less harmful, a la Cosby - won’t make them go away from the minds of people, at least not for a very long time. But, perhaps if we weren’t inundated with stereotype reinforcement everytime we turned around, the connection between the things we see in real life and the things we see in the media may not be so strong, and maybe it would be easier to reject the sterotypes for everybody.

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This was in the news a while ago, where Arnold Swarzenager(man his name is hard to spell! :)) mentioned “girlie men.” Supposedly this ticked off some gays and they said that the governator was homophobic… He was refering to a SNL skit about him… but certain “girlie men” homosexuals were offended… now thats a stereotype blown out of porportion, not more than any other i guess, but real crazy… not all homosexuals are like that… just there are a few that ruin it for the others… this is prevelent in all demographics…
By the way… i’m a southern white boy who is a republican, southern baptist, and gay.

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[ot]Here is the thread regarding Arnold’s comment: http://www.kirupaforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63474 :)[/ot]

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I just think its weird how in every commercial they have to have a white kid a black kid, hispanic, asian, etc. I mean its just kinda weird, sure its politcally correct. but even when things are that way they just dont fit into everyday life. They should base the commercials on whats real, not on whats correct.

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but that wouldn’t sell as much now, would it. Welcome to the marketing department!