Thursday, December 18, 2008

Racism/Stereotypes in Television by: Jay Patel

Beginning with the first television program ever broadcasted lasting up to the most recent program, racism has been an issue within television programs.  Stereotypes have been pushed to the point where they are hurtful and it doesn’t help that directors are carefully selecting ethnicities in role casting. Children are being exposed to this at an early age and seeing how it impacts society. T.V. shows such as “From G’s To Gent’s”,  “The George Lopez Show”, “The Parkers”, “Family Guy”. All these shows show bits and pieces of stereotypes, which threaten to influence our children.

When you think of Downtown Detroit, you think of gangbangers, thugs, criminals, etc. When you think of Chicago, you think the exact same thing. Many cities within the United States are portrayed as dangerous cities to live in because of thuggish African Americans, Caucasian Americans, etc. Well the show “From G’s To Gent’s” does not help this stereotype. The show is about thugs and gangsters from poor cities in the United States who come on the show in order to improve their lives. While this may be a noble cause, the contestants are all the same. All heavily tattooed, have lisps when they speak, act very touch and use vulgar words. Each contestant also is either poor, dimwitted, or in a gang. Through out the show, many contestants get into fights with one another and throw out threats like “Ima kill ya!” in turn also using many slang words. This shows children that what they are hearing of these cities is true; when the truth is that there are different sides to the cities. Detroit has the DIA museum right up near uptown/midtown Detroit. If these kids portray Detroit to be violent, they will never go to experience the fine art that is inside the DIA.

“The George Lopez Show” is another good example of stereotypes of certain ethnicities. This show is about George Lopez, a Mexican American, and his family who are establishing their lives in Los Angeles, California. George has two kids, a daughter and a son, who are both very lazy and “dumb”. George also has his mother who is an alcoholic and treated George poorly as a child. The stereotypes in the show start off with the Lopez’s living in California. This is a stereotype because many believe that when illegal immigrants come from Mexico, they usually reside in California. The stereotype of Mexican-Americans being lazy is also portrayed. George’s kids’ being lazy is a prime example of this because his kids in the show refuse to get jobs in order to pay for their own clothes and wait until last minute or until yelled at to do their chores. The children being portrayed as dumb is another prime example of stereotypes of Mexican- Americans because many Mexicans in the United States speak broken English with their Spanish language. So many people assume that they are just naturally dumb because of their lack of English. These stereotypes will cause kids to look at Mexican Americans and assume they are not intelligent and will wonder why they should bother even speaking to them.

Whenever stereotypes are shown in shows, the main one is usually about African Americans. Many shows portray them, however I feel that “The Parkers” portrays it the most. This show is about an African American mom who lives wit her daughter. Both of them go to a community college, where the mother studies to be a lawyer and the daughter studies to be a fashion designer. The daughter is not sharpest crayon in the box to say the least. The daughter is portrayed as dimwitted and says “HEEYYYY!” a lot, in a very loud obnoxious voice. The racism portrayed is that African Americans are “dumb”. This is show when the daughter is asked what a stereotype is and she reply’s by saying it is some sort of disease. This bit of racism can be hurtful to some African Americans who feel that being portrayed this “dumb” is a shortcoming of their accomplishments. Also the show portrays many stereotypes, for example; The Parkers love grape juice. Grape Juice is a main stereotype among African Americans, many believing that African Americans love to drink that and only that. Another stereotype they portray is that The Parkers are very religious, screaming the songs in church rather than singing them. This can very hurtful to African Americans because it makes all African Americans look like loud, obnoxious, over the top church going folks when truth is that they aren’t all like that. 

Stereotypes and racism do not only come from live television shows, they also can come from cartoons. “Family Guy” is a prime example of this. This show is about a white suburban family living Quahog, Rhode Island. The family consists of Peter, the father, his wife Lois, daughter Meg, Sons Chris and Stewie, and dog Brian. The father is very naïve individual who does not realize when he says something offensive. The show has episodes that make fun of paraplegics, African Americans, etc. The episode that is against paraplegics is about how Peter wont allow a large group of paraplegics to eat at his restaurant because he finds it “weird”. This can be hurtful to paraplegics because I am sure that there have been times where they have been judged by the way they look or how they must transport themselves around. In another episode, an African American dies and is sent to heaven. However when he gets there he is asked to show I.D. in order to gain access to heaven. The black guy then says that they guy in front of him was allowed without showing I.D., why does he have to show it. This can be hurtful to African Americans because the episode is saying that even god does not trust them and must prove their loyalty to him.

The racism and stereotypes being shown on TV must be stopped if we want to keep future generations from making the same mistakes the past has. If we eliminate the racism and stereotypes, then we can move forward as a unit of different ethnicities, creating a world that no longer makes mistakes that once caused wars, conflict, prejudice, and pain.

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