Inequality In Tv Shows

Rhimes is often praised for her revolutionary casting and taking risks. However, after being inducted in to the National Association of Broadcasters’ Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2015, Rhimes gave a speech in which she said: diverse casting is not brave, it is human. She is proof that a successful black woman behind the scenes of multiple hit TV shows means that there can also be successful shows on television with nontraditional casts. But why doesn’t this happen with someone like a white male behind a TV show? The 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report also studied why white males might not cast a person of color as a lead. “Individual stakeholders in the industry (typically white and male) look to surround themselves with other individuals with whom they feel comfortable, with whom they feel they have the best prospects for producing a successful project,” (Hollywood Diversity Report, 54). If shows and movies with minority representation have proven to be successful when done right, then it seems strange that there is still such an over representation of nonwhites in mainstream entertainment.

Watching Family Guy, Shameless, The Kardashians, and Bob’s Burger where the main characters are played and portrayed as white people shows the domination of white people in the entertainment industry. Brooks and Hebert argument provides an understanding on how people of color are not casted into leading roles because white people have created a hierarchy of how race and gender are represented in media. The media pushes white people to dominate the leading roles and gives people of color insignificant roles. Those roles where people of color are typically antagonist or uneducated, which does not make you want to watch it. I believe it is the media fault for why I have a strong fondness for white television. They limit my desire to see other television series or movies because they created their shows in a way where the white protagonist is favored and you want them to accomplish their desire

could be chalked up to a lack of Arab actors or inherent racism in Hollywood at the time,

Over the years television has been known to be one of the major educating and socializing institution in America. Television in today’s society is able to play a powerful key through which individuals can be informed, hold forums, and voice their opinion‘s. Television is also important because it offers us glimpses into minority life and minority figures. When sociologists examine minorities in television they document how minorities are portrayed and how those portrayals have changed over the years. Through time, minorities in television have been able to make moderate gains whether they are in front of or behind cameras. However, they continue to remain significantly underrepresented as leading actors in films, as writers, and as TV show creators. Even though minorities are significantly underrepresented in today’s society the TV industry has been pushing to give an opportunity to many minority groups in succeeding in the media. Several TV shows and commercials have succeeded in the TV industry to try and change how minorities are underrepresented, however, there are also shows that reinforce stereotypes and are prejudice towards minorities.

In the Academic Journal “The Use of Social Media in Teaching Race” by Kathy Nakagawa PhD. Nakagawa says people who speak about race the most are those who don’t have authority or accurate knowledge. When we talk about different races we usually talk about what we have heard, not what we actually know. Kathryn Sorrels, the author of the book, Intercultural Communication: Globalization and Social Justice said, “Often the assumptions, stereotypes, and attitudes we hold about people from different cultures or distant countries come solely or primarily through media and popular forms such as movies, TV programs, and celebrities (Sorrels 125).” Sorrels then gets her audience to think about if it is the producers fault or the actors fault for taking the role. Sorrels later talks about the 3 areas to look at when studying popular culture. Only 2 and 3 are very important, “(2) textual analysis, where the actual product or text – the TV program or film … is analyzed for symbolic meaning and narrative content; and (3) audience analysis, where the means and interpretations that viewers/reader/listeners decode from popular from popular culture text are investigated. The information is something to consider when viewing a sitcom, how does the audience know if the information is accurate. Most viewers just believe most of what they see on

Television now is a lot different than many years ago. If you think to yourself, how has it changed over the years? Well, one thing to say is there is many more minority acting on TV than before. While watching TV, minorities are still playing stereotypical roles of their race even if they are one of the main characters. When people watch, Modern Family, The Mayor, Fresh Off The Boat, and other shows with minority, people see the stereotypes of each race play a part of the show.

There are many things I want to learn and get to the bottom of while researching this topic. My main question is, “Why is this happening?” Honestly, I cannot even believe this topic is actually still an issue. When thinking of movie directors, producers, etc. I would assume them to be a group of progressive and inclusive people because the artist community generally is. So, how have these people let this happen? I would also like to look in to how this misrepresentation affects the minorities of America. There could possibly be underlying psychological turmoil in minorities which causes them to feel less capable. This brings me to wonder if there is any underlying racial bias in everyone because of who is glorified in in movies and shows. In order to answer such questions, I will research to find if any psychologist have done any studies on the effects of television and film on our subconscious in terms of the representation of minorities. I am also curious how other diverse countries such as Canada’s television and film look. I will compare the United States to these diverse counties in my research in order to provide a more global view.

Television has been around since 1925 and likely will not go away anytime soon. Back when it was new, white people were the only ones working behind the scenes creating shows, starring in films and dramas, or working in Hollywood. Sadly, in today’s world much of these barriers in the television and film industry still stand. If multiculturalism

African American women have not had the opportunity to land career changing roles in many years. Most roles that are offered are small roles where they are seen and not really heard. There has been a shift in the past few years where African American women have increased in their appearance in television shows. Minorities have been underrepresented in television shows in the years, however in recent years there has been a trend of more minorities entering to the realm of broadcasted television shows. The Hollywood DIversity Report states,“ Minority talent claimed 16.8 percent of lead roles on cable reality and other shows during the 2012-13 season, up 3.6 percentage points from the 13.2 percent share the group claimed in 2011-12” (pg. 17). African American women roles in television have developed into two categories: the hypersexualization theme and the angry black woman theme.

During the process of producing a television series, the demand for the producers to introduce their characters with only their highlighted traits make it impossible for viewers to gain a deep understanding of the community that the characters represent. One of the stereotypic traits that is usually seen on movies and television shows is societal difference that each race is placed into. Michael Omi in his article In Living Color: Race and American Culture stated that “in contemporary television and film, there is a tendency to present and equate racial minority groups and individuals with specific social problems” (546). There are many films and television shows found today that ground racial minorities into a specific social problems that are related to the color of their skin. It can be inferred from the current popular culture that this stereotype still persists.

I agree completely with Monika’s claim that lack of representation, whitewashing, and stereotypes are the issues in American media. I think the media don’t understand the importance of diversity and how it positively impact society. In fact the author’s stated that absence of minorities in shows where set in cities that have high present of minorities population which means that there are a race better than others and that’s what is going in the media displaying white race as more intelligent, affection and other races can’t survive without the white race .In the article the one the issues with whitewashing was replacing minority roles to white actors. However, The media argues that representing the minorities as mine characters may lead to

consisting of all black actors could still be a very popular movie. Even though it revolved around

In the first place, films and television are forms of media that not only entertain and make people laugh but plays a big role in how the world looks at African Americans. “Collectively, these films and television shows primarily written and diversified by Black entertainment excluding Monster Ball and Deceptions are dupli casual representations of black women” (Jefferies). Consider the case of Sally, a young caucasian girl that lives in the suburbs of Nevada. She never met a black person. Because of the

To illustrate, shows like Black-ish and Empire, with their predominantly African-American casts, would not be able to tell the unique stories being told with a cast of all Caucasian actors. Another excellent show that uses diversity correctly is Master of None, a Netflix original series. Master of None is a relationship comedy that takes place in New York City; Aziz Ansari, an Indian-American comedian, plays the lead, Dev. What makes this show noteworthy, however, is the fact that unlike most television series, Dev is not an exaggerated stereotype. Lavanya Ramanathan, a reporter for the Washington Post, said it best when she stated, “What’s extraordinary about Master of None is that its protagonist is a person of color who’s simply, normal” (Ramanathan). He is able to provide a new perspective, but at the same time he does not make himself seem unrelatable; furthermore, the show addresses this topic by reminding the audience that viewers are able to relate to anthropomorphic animals; thus, the audience surely can relate to people of

According to Wilkerson, “From the beginning, television, the image mill for the mainstream has not known what to do with black characters. It has struggled, as has the country, to find a place for them that white Americans could find comforting and digestible from the safe distance of their living rooms. Reality had nothing to do with it.” The media has portrayed black characters as nothing more than, buffoons, hustlers, pimps, and prostitutes.