Diversity Project

Michael Omi argues about the racism in media nowadays; the racial stereotypes are still perpetuating in our popular culture, such as “Mexicans are dark and Asians look smart.” The Mad TV show “Average Asian”, portrays Asian’s stereotypes well. People are expecting Bobby Lee to be stereotypical average Asian. They think he has right answers all the time and is good at everything, but driving. People expect something from Bobby Lee, but he didn’t fit any of their stereotype.

In today’s world, the exchange of information between individuals is largely based on the media alone. Conversations are held through social media sites, the news channels become the deliverers of new waves of specifically chosen stories, and the rest of the media effects the subconscious of the society. Movies, television shows, and “general” knowledge contribute to the rest of the mass media that affects the minds of people. The subconscious of the people can form the characteristics of the young and solidify ideas within the older population. The problem of the current society is that the subconscious ideas transferred to the media is particularly in the favor of Caucasians. This excludes people of African descent, Latinos, Asians, and other recognizably new minorities such as transgender. The overall effect of this subconscious problem is not very measurably but it can have disastrous consequences within each respective culture. Among all the minorities listed, African Americans and people of African descent have a tendency to be the most often misrepresented.

Stereotypes in our society are not uncommon. We come across them every day without realizing it. It is in our human nature to create expectations of the people around us, which could be based upon their ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or other factors. Stereotypes help us categorize a vast group of people that we may not know anything about, to think that they are smaller and less intimidating. I believe that the blame for these cookie-cutter patterns can lead directly back to the media in every sense of the word. Media is all around us, and affects our opinions and ability to think for ourselves. Whether it’s the latest box office hit or the headlining news, we are getting assumptions from every point of view, which makes it

Diversity in the united states in not something new here but in fact spans back many generations. Diversity is everywhere and no one can truly get away from it, but by accepting it a person can learn how to lead a better fuller life with variety of understanding for the people that come in contact with. I feel that the biggest thing I learned in this call about diversity is not that there is diversity but that there is a lot of work to be done to farther the peace action between the groups of people knowing this make me realize that the us is not yet a unity but is trying and gives me more

As many of us try to ignore or deny, media has a substantial influence in the ideology of how we perceive gender roles, power, cultures, and in this case race. The hegemonic power media has over the American population has allowed us to view one another in a stereotypical light, and creates a sense of ignorance in our understanding of one another. Take the example of African-Americans and how they are all perceived with characteristics found to be negative and stereotypical. Dating back to earlier television, the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights found that African-American television portrayals typically depicted the following stereotypic personality characteristics: inferior, stupid, comical, immoral, and dishonest. (Punyanut-Carter, 2008).

Asian stereotypes are a product of prevailing myths propagated by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. Generally speaking, the stereotyping of Asian women often swing to extreme types: the docile, subservient sexual object, or the dragon lady. Asian Americans only make up a small percentage of the United States population and live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii. Consequently, the rest of the American population will most likely get their exposures to Asian Americans through television and movies. Popular media exposure to Asian Americans lacks one-on-one acquaintance with Asian Americans. It hinders the process

Popular culture is defined as “a composite of all the values, ideas, symbols, material goods, processes, and understandings that arise from mass media” (Atkins 131). It is well-known to the public and reinforces the way people see they world, including aspects such as race, ethnicity, and gender. According to Omi, popular culture “deals with the symbolic realm of social life, the images which it creates, represents, and disseminates contribute to the overall racial climate” (540). The individuals or groups belong to a specific race can be perceived based on their behavior portrayed by the mass media, instead of being recognized for who they truly are. Such effect created by the popular culture contributes to what is known as “racial stereotype”, which is “beliefs about differences in behavior associated with racial differences” (Jones 982).

For many years, Americans have held certain opinions concerning gender, sex, women, and sexual orientation. A definition of both gender and sex will be provided. The roles of women throughout American history will be discussed. When people think about masculinity and femininity, they have certain preconceived ideas. How these ideas contribute to the understanding gender, sex, and sexual orientation will be examined. Finally, the status of GLBT individuals will be explored. An increased understanding will be gained concerning these issues.

Asian and Latino women, are also ethnic minorities who are predominately portrayed in mainstream media as sexualized and or exotic (Brooks, 2006). Particularly in film, Asian women are frequently represented as passive characters, whose sole purpose is to be of service to men, especially White men. Asian American’s have been described as being the ‘model minority,’ and are often portrayed as nerdy or associated with technology (Mastro, 2015). Once more, the racial representations of Asian Americans influence audiences’ perceptions and can take misinformation about the group or culture as the truth (Brooks, 2006).

Based on the article, "Mindful Reflection as a Process for Developing Culturally Responsive Practices," prepare a 500-750-word reflective essay. Within your essay, address the following:

In many films and modern tv shows there are a lot of gender stereotypes, but many of the racial stereotypes are in front of our faces and we do not even notice. For example, in the movie “Caucasian Chicks” directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans most people do not notice that the main characters are trying to be a stereotypical Caucasian female. When you watch the movie for the first time, you may not notice all the racial stereotypes in the movie; you just see a comedy movie starring two African-American males. What we don’t notice is that the movie is based on the stereotypical Caucasian female and how they act, how they are more “privileged” then everyone else, and the portrayal of their beauty standards.

“Media stereotypes are inevitable, especially in the advertising, entertainment and news industries, which need as wide an audience as possible to quickly understand information. Stereotypes act like codes that give audiences a quick, common understanding of a person or group of people—usually relating to their class, ethnicity or race, gender, sexual orientation, social role or occupation.”

In modern society, media stereotypes are unavoidable,

People constantly try to gain direction and insight from their evaluations of other people. One such way they do so is through stereotypes. Stereotypes are cognitive constructs involving an individual’s half-truths and distorted realities knowledge, expectations, and beliefs about human groups. As such, racial stereotypes are constructed beliefs that all members of the same race share certain specific characteristics. In America, the media and Hollywood play an integral role in entrenching and dispelling these stereotypes. However, Hollywood and the media create characters according to stereotypes to attract an audience, from which the viewers can reflect on and laugh at the stereotypes recognizable within American society. This paper seeks to discuss the common stereotypes in American society and how the media and Hollywood promotes those stereotypes and their impacts.

Stereotypes have become a prevalent issue in our media. They, without our knowledge, prevent us from moving forward as human. In this essay, I will discuss the effects of stereotypes in media on gender roles, religion, and race.