Minorities and Film Essay

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.

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.

African American Women in Television has been a rising issue in the media industry for years now. Being that television is mainly dominated by white men, African American women emerging into television has had a positive and negative effect in the media industry. There are many different aspects of African American Women in television. They are actresses, producers, directors, personalities, news anchors and reports and so much more. Through all the major success African American women have had within in television thus far it has not always been easy. This topic is very relevant because it specifically affects African American women in television. The issue of controversy with African American women being in the media industry through the television sparks major concerns from consumers, co-workers, and people in the entertainment industry. This issue impacting how the world view all African American women in

I have chosen the issue of “miss/underrepresentation of minorities in American television and film.” As America has changed over the years to become much more accepting and inclusive, American media seems to be a bit behind. There are countless instances in which characters from a book or graphic novel has been white-washed once they make it to the big screen. Some may argue these choices are made because the actor is very strong at their craft or they are a star and will bring in the big bucks in theaters. While this may be true, it completely discredits not only the original art and meaning of the work but also the community of talented non-white artist in America. I want to delve deep into the reason this can be happening in a generally

African Americans are not always seen in a positive light, they are usually seen in controversial and misrepresented images in the media. "Research on the portrayal of African Americans in prime-time television from 1955 to 1986 found that only 6 percent of the characters were African-Americans, while 89 percent of the TV population was white. Among these African-American characters, 19 percent lacked a high school diploma and 47 percent were low in economic status." The idea of African Americans being well represented is a debate of ownership diversity which affects content

The more television changes, the more it stays the same for the genre of African American sitcoms. Some critics believe that African Americans will never accept the images they see of themselves on network television. Like whites, African Americans on television sitcoms should be portrayed “in the full array of cultures that exist in our society.”

One of the main reasons the media industries need to become more diversified is positive representation. Growing up watching shows and films, I don’t feel like I had adequate representation and positive role models to look up to. Even now, when I look at the images of Black women in media, I don’t find many of them to be positive – however, the positivity is growing thanks to the presence of people like Shonda Rhimes and Ava DuVernay. The problem with the lack of diversity in the media industries, particularly behind the scenes, is the fact that when it comes to creating content that targets and includes marginalized groups, a lot of it is derived from stereotyped stigmas that the White majority perpetuates via their predominate role. This

Theses are all very popular sitcoms that show little to none representation for people of color. The television show Girls, created by and starring Lena Dunham, has received many complaints on the fact that there were no people of color in the show when it had first aired, and there are still barely in it today. In the article ‘I’m a White Girl’: Why ‘Girls’ Won’t Ever Overcome Its Racial Problem, written by Judy Berman, Berman states, “Dunham continues to cast non-white actors only when race defines their character.” (Berman). What Berman means by this statement is unless the character’s race has to do with the role they’re playing, you most likely won’t see a person of color in the show. The only times you will probably see a person of a different race would be if their character was either in the background, playing a character that isn’t given a major enough role to even be given a name, or playing a role where they are seen in a negative light, such as a bum in the streets or a racially stereotypical character, such as an angry black man. A research project had been conducted at the University of Southern California to analyze and come to a conclusion as to how diverse Hollywood actually is. The researchers looked over several hundreds of films from the years 2007 to 2014, not including 2011, and studied more than 30,000 characters to reveal how truly diverse films in

Not only as a tool of entertainment, television also serves as an instruction tool because television can be the reflection of culture, race and gender. Because of the diversity of the audiences, expanding diversity is necessary in the television industry. More and more shows begin to feature minority group; however, the representation of minorities still has issues of underrepresentation and stereotype because producers believe casting minorities can’t make money. It is no doubt that white actors disproportionally dominate the screen and minority actors are often characterized as criminal and immoral roles. The colorblind casting and a diverse writers’ room are effective measures to solve those challenges.

Maya Syag How do complicated issues like race affect Television and how does Television affect society with their depiction of these issues? Television is affected greatly by current events and scandals in the country in which the show is being produced. The most significant issues currently being depicted on TV by shows like Scandal and Law And Order:Special Victims Unit are the “Black Lives Matter movement” ,the institutionalized racism in law enforcement, and the abundant racism among the citizens resulting in murders between civilians. These issues, being represented on television sheds a light on many issues that have been occurring for many years in the United States.

The point in this is to call attention to the lack of diversity in entertainment, the inaccurate and stereotypical picture created in the minds of the majority race viewers, and that

A recent study done by the UCLA Bunche Center for African American Studies showed the lack of diversity within Hollywood by examining all the films released, television programs on broadcast, cable, or digital networks, as well as the actors, writers, directors, and producers within the industry. Ethnic minorities make up about 40% of the American population but still remain underrepresented in all forms of entertainment. The study also discovered that more than 50% of moviegoers in the past two years were minorities. In television, minorities only claimed about 7% of lead roles in broadcast television (“NEW! 2015 Hollywood Diversity Report”). With half the American population consisting of different ethnicities, American television should accurately and proportionately portray the American people, yet some are having trouble doing so. Some television networks have catered to their diverse audience by casting actors of different ethnicities as the lead of a show, or by centering an entire show around a unique culture. Most have found this to be beneficial with an increase in ratings and in profits through their sponsors. The organizations, the Florida Family Association (FFA) and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) represent two different positions on diversity within Hollywood and how the American people should be portrayed in the television industry.

the other was the imbalances created in the televison between black and white community. it teaches young black to accept minority status as noticebely inevietable and even deserved. television also overrepresent and glamourize the elite occupation that sets up unrealistic expectations and largely neglects portraying the occupation such as farmers, factory workers and small businessman. On television 55% of characters are involved in the violent conforontation once a week in reality figure is less than 1 % creating a fear of crime. the way the race and the racial minority groups are represented in television they contribute to the overall racial climate.The historical results have been distinct and different groups have encountered unique forms of racial opression. Native american faced genocide , blacks were subjected to slavery, mexicans were invaded and asians faced exclusions. Films and televsions have been notorious in dissementing images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what these groups look like, how they behave and in essence who they are. Another important perhaps central dimensions of racial minority streotype is sex gender differentiation. women of color were sometimes treated as erotic sex objects. such a comment revelas an interesting aspects about myths and reality in american culture. the imporatance of race

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.