Misrepresentation Of Ethnicity In The Media

     Nowadays when we view our main platform for communication and entertainment , the media , we see lots of misrepresentations of certain ethnics . Examples of these misrepresentations are the daily life of Mexicans , African-Americans , and Chinese ethnics . The media would usually display a stereotypical image of that certain ethnic in movies , books , and also TV shows .

    We can see many movies and TV shows display "black people" in the USA as the typical criminals or thugs . Examples of these are from shows such as “The Wire” and “Training Day.” This is because there’s no shortage of black male actors playing drug dealers, pimps, con-artists and other forms of criminals . The disproportionate amount of African Americans playing criminals in Hollywood fuels the racial stereotype that black men are dangerous and drawn to illicit activities .

Often these films and television shows provide little social context for why more black men than others are likely to end up in the criminal justice system .

They overlook how racial and economic injustice make it more difficult for young black men to evade a prison term or how policies such as stop-and-frisk and racial profiling make black men targets of the authorities . They fail to ask whether black men are inherently more likely to be criminals than anyone else or if society plays a role in creating the cradle-to-prison pipeline for African American men . 

   Black people stereotyping in the media began roughly during the mid 80's in the news in USA as stated by political activist and one-time presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson .

In film, black people are also shown in a stereotypical manner that promotes notions of moral inferiority. In terms of female movie characters shown by race:

• Using vulgar profanity: black people 89 percent, white people 17 percent
• Being physically violent: black people 56 percent, white people 11 percent
• Lacking self-control: black people 55 percent, white people 6 percent

  There's also a certain trend in internet about how black people always die first in movies (mostly in the horror genre) . 

The main reasons for this is because that :

• Most horror film writers were White males and they didn't know how to "write" Black characters - They then made Black character expendable so that they didn't have to attempt to flesh out someone who they didn't understand.

• Most horror films contain a romantic element of sorts - What is unspoken in Hollywood is that interracial Black male/White female relationships are not "popular." The writers created a Black character, but then they didn't give that character a romantic partner and that made them expendable.

• Racism sells films - To be blunt, there are areas of the United States and the world where the death of a Black character would not be mourned. An unspoken writing rule was that killing off the Black character had little downside with certain audiences.

• Someone has to die - The Black character was almost never the protagonist, meaning that if a choice had to be made, then he/she represented that choice.

Characters in these images are Janek [ Prometheus (2012) ] , Parker [ Alien (1979) ] , Bubba [ Forrest Gump (1994) ] , Boggs [ The Hunger Games - Mocking Jay Part 2 (2015) ] , respectively from top to bottom . 

CONSEQUENCES OF MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

⦁ Racial discrimination (inequality and injustice)

Often used interchangeably, race is a way of classifying individuals and groups on the basis of physical characteristics, particularly one’s skin color. They not only get used as descriptors, but also as markers of broader concepts and relationships. These markers not only designate one's skin color or cultural background but also function in a larger system and in relation to other racial and ethnic identities. In this system, certain groups may have more power and privileges than others.

Many of our Western or American ideas about race and ethnicity come from specific moments in history marked by colonialism, immigration and other tides that shifted populations and demographics. With such changes and the intermixing of different races and ethnicities, dominant groups rose to power and exerted influence over others by occupying and controlling the landscape, language, culture, and rituals. In these varied historical examples, the white group attained dominance, while the subordinate groups (e.g. people of color) were relegated to the social, political and economic margins. This means that the subordinate group historically has had very little or no power, and individuals in that group were often denied the rights and opportunities afforded to the dominant group. Years ago during the colonialism, white people were the capitalists and the black people were forced to work as their slaves.

This discrimination can be found in institutions such as school and workplace in modern industrial society. In some school, children of the white people are more prioritized and praised. They are thought as students who can achieve more educationally and bring the name of the school to rise so they are given higher level or quality of education. While the black children are given lower level or education because they are seen to have less rights and privileges than the white. Also in workplaces, the boss or the people who hold higher authority in the office are usually white people.

⦁ Assault or prejudice

For some, race and ethnicity can play a very prominent role in everyday life. Race and ethnicity can also play a more subtle role in your everyday life, not overtly impacting your freedoms or opportunities. You may have felt isolated or alone, or been the only one of your race and ethnicity in the room. You may not see people who look like you prominently or accurately represented in media, in stories, in school curriculum. You may have been complimented on how articulate or professional you are or praised as a credit to your race. You may be admired for being “exotic” or people may assume you like certain music or food simply because of your race or ethnicity.

⦁ Underestimation towards a certain race

Underestimation towards black people are visible in our everyday lives. Black people are not being given as much opportunities as the white people because the media influences the society's view on black people. Due to misrepresentations, people think that black people have less ability and therefore do not have as much chance as the white people to be successful. This underestimations lead to the limitation of the black people's life chances because more of it are being offered to the white.

REASONS FOR CHANGES IN REPRESENTATIONS

⦁ More employment us available in the media so that, for example, members of the ethnic minorities are employed in the media and their presence may change the attitude of editors, producers and others towards these groups. They may also be in a position to decide media content

⦁ Changes to the law or government policy have taken place. For example, laws against discrimination in employment can increase the number of members of ethnic minorities working in the media

⦁ The purchasing power of social groups has been recognized. For example, minority ethnic groups are now seen as significant markets for the media and for advertisers using the media to promote products

⦁ The media have become increasingly diverse. The growth in the media has provided opportunities for groups to provide their own media if they are dissatisfied with mainstream media.

The representations of ethnicity made by media are not accurate because I believe that ethnicity does not define a person's personality and attitude. For example, in Hollywood movies the character of the villain are always played by people with black race and although you may find a black criminal in real life, it does not mean that all black people are bad. This representation made by the media does not justify the things that happened in off-screen because there are actually a lot of black people who are good and kind.

This misrepresentations have their consequences and this may just lead to tension between one ethnic and another. Black people should not have been the victim of slavery and other ethnic minorities should not have to go through discrimination or underestimation just because they come from different ethnic compared to the majority. Everyone, no matter what their races are, deserve the same opportunities to pursue educational and professional goals in life.

Blog Made By : Albie & Nadila 10C

Sources:

• https;//www.google.com
• https;//www.wikipedia.org
• http://www.criticalmediaproject.org/cml/topicbackground/race-ethnicity/