Racial Stereotypes In Film

There are many different stereotypes in the world today. They can be used for different categories like age, gender and race. Stereotypes are formed by the media, passed down from many generations and also just the populations need to understand the social world around us. Racial stereotypes make up large portion of stereotypes in today's society. Racial stereotypes can be used for comedic effect and our found to be funny by a majority of people, but they can also be depicted as hate to an ethnic group if it goes too far. One example of a race effected by stereotypes are Asian people. They have many stereotypes that have developed over the years. An example of a stereotype Asian people experience is that they cannot drive very well. Some

The 1987 film documentary Ethnic Notions directed by Marlon Riggs, identifies the evolution of African American cultural depictions through ethnic stereotypes and caricatures in American culture. I feel Ethnic Notions exposes the roots of false generalization from the beginning and presents a series of classifications for racial depictions that still are noticeable in today's society. These racial depictions identified with in this film begin in the mid 1800's and continue thought to the 1960's. I now after viewing Ethnic notions agree that there are generalizations and depictions that are exaggerated in American popular culture and entertainment.

The film Ethnic Notions examines the various caricatures of African Americans in popular culture and the consequences of these representations from the 1800s to the 1980s. The film showed how America went through a face of injustice for a period of time. The internet defines stereotype as qualities assigned to groups of people related to their race, nationality and sexual orientation, to name a few. (Kemick) Throughout American history, African Americans have been victims of stereotypes in many ways. White majority use violence caricatures, stereotypes, dominance, subordination and the media as ways to overpower African Americans.

Through the use of images, films, and other media outlets harmful stereotypes are often times created. One of the many challenges that American cinema endures is the inability to correctly portray characters of color. Film directors have formed a habit of creating and defining characters in a way that the audiences can easily identify with, thus leading to the reproduction of racial stereotyping. Black characters have generally been stigmatized throughout the course of history as aggressive, inferior, and irrational beings. These common stereotypes are perpetuated through the use of redundant film clichés that have a significant impact on society’s popular image of blacks. Within the article In Living Color, Michael Omi claims that despite progressive changes in America pertaining to race, popular culture is still responsible for damaging racial stereotypes and racism. Whereas, within Matt Zoller Seitz article, The Offensive Movie Cliché That Won’t Die, he discusses film clichés such as “Magical Negro” that uses an African American character for the sole purpose of acting as a mentor for their oblivious white counterpart. However, Get Out, a horror satire on the micro-aggressive black experience, directed by Jordan Peele, debunks these racial stereotypes centered around black men. The film subverts the use of racial stereotypes, as it rejects America’s depiction of common black men behavior pertaining to their criminalized lifestyle, masculinity, and aggression in

Different archetypes have been used to represent black people through television, live performances, and film. These stereotypes consisted of “Coon”, “Mulatto”, “Mammy”, and “Tom” (site—Johnson). Prior to films and television, African American’s were depicted by white actors wearing “blackface” in which white people entertained audiences through plots that portrayed African Americans in stereotypical ways that had prevailed since the time of slavery. “Coon” for instance, was created as a from of comedy and amusement for white individuals, as this image allowed for comic relief through idiocy. “Coons” had, in essence, a low level of intelligence with minimal common sense. Their dull-wittedness advocated the view that African American people were unintelligent beings who were incompetent and unable to formulate intelligible thoughts. This further reinforced the idea that African American people were in need of instruction and guidance from white individuals—just as they did during slavery—in order for African Americans to sustain and remain alive, or else they would be damaged by their own incapabilities. Similar to the “Coon”, Mammy was also a common character who was portrayed as an obese and grumpy woman who also provided comic relief to white folks. Mammy’s creation was

apartment in which the Evans family live is roach infested and in disrepair; in other words, they

Particularly, in Civil War era films, African American women were predominantly shown as having a robust figure, a constant smile, and a happy disposition, i.e. mammies. “By the time the flood of Civil War features began in 1908, these racist cliches were set in stone” (Chadwick 80). The archetype of Mammy became a stereotype created by white producers in an effort to portray African American women in a more pleasing light, to satisfy white audiences. Filmmakers actions created an intensified racial stereotype and instilled a false image of African Americans. Chadwick called this “the Hollywood black”: a racial viewpoint filmmakers created about blacks.

The film industry’s portrayal of African American people consists of countless stereotypes and inaccuracies. These depictions lead to an innumerable amount of misrepresentations about the African American community. As the latest wave of black films begins to dawn, the clearer the images become of a collective people. Using my personal experiences as a mixed woman of color, as well as including my academic strengths and goals, and points of view regarding various black films, the content of this paper will examine the representation and stereotypes that can be seen in African American Hollywood.

The media labels Latinos as “Latin Lovers” (oversexed seducers), the “Crook”, and thugs. As for the Asian population, Asian men are considered as geeks, math whizzes, and are viewed as non masculine. Usually, the only time Asian men are viewed as masculine is when they practice martial arts. Asian women can be considered to be one dimensional, sexualized representations, and can also shown as the “nerdy” type throughout multiple shows and films. Native American tropes include silent, stoic men or bloodthirsty warriors.

What Do You See When You See Me Everyone in some form or fashion has been stereotyped or experienced some unwarranted bias. The African-American community in my opinion is one of the biggest victims of this travesty, now while we are far from innocent in how we are depicted the media and others continue to drive false narratives. Stereotypes in print are anything from magazine covers and ads to the everyday commercials we see on the daily. Stereotypes in television from shows like “Empire” and “Power” or even shows as old as “The Wire”.

From live theater to cinema, from the banjo to hip-hop, from whites in blackface to blacks in blackface, America has imitated and exploited black and has since then not gone back. Many of the adjectives persistently used today to describe African Americans, “lazy, ignorant, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical” were the same words used to describe African Americans throughout the duration of the minstrel shows’ history centuries ago (“The Mammy Caricature”). Real-life black circumstances were satirized and exploited in musical theater, becoming known as ‘minstrelsy’; with its emergence in the 1820’s—and its continual rise after the Antebellum era—minstrelsy easily and quickly became the most popular form of American entertainment

In recent years, talking animals have been an entertainment for children and parents to enjoy, but this pleasure has shown some concern of what these animals portray in films. American films and television displays stereotypical representation of minorities on screen, but not only in reality on screen, but as well as animation. Therefore, one of the stereotypical representations is Chicanos and their connection with Chihuahuas.

Blaxploitation, a sub-genre of Exploitation, becomes fairly popular with Hollywood Cinema during the 1960’s and 1970’s. These films initially targeted urbanized youth and began to appeal to African Americans as well as White audiences. However, various groups, such as the Coalition Against Blaxploitation, formed to stop production on films of this genre as it typically portrayed Blacks in a negative way. Generally, there are two different interpretations of Blaxploitation films. One being that these films empower blacks and the more accepted idea that these films further stereotype blacks with the inclusion of pimps, sex, drugs, crime and more. Due to the huge protests against the films, the movement died in the late 1970’s(Negative Effects of the Blaxploitation Movement.); however, Boyz N’ the Hood, produced by John Singleton in 1991, represents a resurgence of Blaxploitation, referred to as “neo-blaxploitation” which reflects the stereotypical interpretation of a blaxploitation film. (Fancher)

This is even the case in Black shows. Creator of the hit animated show “The Boondocks” Aaron McGruder, used his platform to address this issue on his show. McGruder hypothesized that “black-owned” television is the culprit behind the increase in hatred towards African Americans (Maus 22). Television stations like BET and ESSENCE create and play movies that make fun of the African American experience instead of highlighting the struggles that are had. America’s top black television shows (Atlanta, Insecure, Queen Sugar, Chewing Gum, Luke Cage, Being Mary Jane, Black-ish, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, Empire, and Power) have struggled to stray away from the stereotypes made for them. These stereotypes are types cultural racism. Cultural

African-Americans have long endured demeaning and misrepresentative images within the film industry and American society as a whole. In the early 20th century, an abundance of films depicted an idealized vision of life in the south, in which blacks were happily subservient to their role as the property of their white masters. The roles of black characters were also portrayed by white actors in blackface. Blackface was a form of theatrical makeup used to represent an image of a black person and was employed as a means to portray negative images of African-Americans and to showcase them in an inferior light. Fortunately, the use of blackface dwindled as it was considered extremely offensive and derogatory, although the practice still remains in use today though very limited due to the rightful stigma surrounding it. However, the negative portrayals of African-Americans in film did not end there and continued for a long time after. African-Americans were still confined to roles which often portrayed blacks as incompetent, child-like, hyper-sexualized, and criminal.