Stereotypes: Film Analysis

I was very bothered by the comments Anita Bryant made during a televised speech that was shown in the film. She was an orange juice sales woman who was working to repeal laws that protect homosexual human rights; specifically in employment and housing. She described homosexuality as “tearing down the foundation of the family unit” and compared gays to prostitutes and thieves. She tried to convince the public that the traditional family was being threatened and that practicing or accepting homosexuality was blasphemy.

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.

Harmful racial stereotypes have plagued the entertainment industry since blackface minstrel shows began in New York in the early 1800’s. Although the structure of minstrel shows changed over time; the images, blackface, and the caricatures of blacks continued. Early Hollywood films sustained the racist tradition of white actors performing in blackface with numerous silent movies that included white actors playing non-white characters in a particularly stereotypical fashion. Eventually non-white actors were allowed to play themselves in film, however they were cast in extremely prejudiced roles that degraded themselves like “the coon”, “the tom”, “the black buck” or “the mammy” for African American actors, and “the bandito”, “the greaser”, “Latin lover” or the “spitfire for Latino actors. Although there are some productive ambiguities within some of these roles, they are ultimately damaging.

Throughout this chapter, Korgen main arguments pertained to the media’s portrayal of Black and White biracial characters in movies. Typically the media portrays people with lighter skin to have more positive characteristics while people with darker skin more negative characteristics. Media is one first place young children get these images from and it can have a huge impression on them without even knowing it. They are placed within this social class of existence. “Viewers tend to pay the most attention to characters who share their age, race, and gender and those they wish they could be like” (Korgen, 2010, pg. 89). Biracial Americans go through the toughest scrutiny by both races on whether they fit into either group. I know my brother and sister have this issue from the time they were little especially my sister, she is lighter skinned and was never truly accepted by the black or white girls at school.

Media, defined as a mean of mass communication that reaches and influences the general audience. When the media is combined with moral theories, known as the guides for humans to figure out what actions are either right or wrong, it creates a balance in our entertainment about what is ethical or not to display on society. By having various Moral Theories and none of them being one 100 percent perfect, it causes humans to create their own satisfactory moral theory. My own satisfactory moral theory, in essence, is a combination of being able to take into consideration my personal relationships while still making an impact in my community, society and the world. Having morals in the media is what allows us to know when one may cross the line.

Where can one start when talking about this movie? This movie definitely penetrates through each stereotype threat that can be imagined in the world. Hollywood has seemed also emphasize and exaggerate to point out the racism in the world. From non-driving Asians to an African-American detective that cannot seem to correctly identify the appropriate race of his Hispanic girlfriend. The stereotype threats are throughout this movie. (Haggis, 2005)

The film touched base on different stereotypes that come with living in an area such as Crenshaw. When Tre was shown living with his mother, in the beginning of the film, it is seen that Tre gets into trouble at school. There was an incident where Trey and another student got into an altercation and Tre was suspended for 3 days. Later the same day, Tre gets home and his mother is on the phone discussing the issue with his teacher. The conversation between the teacher and Tre’s mother begins to escalate due to his mother feeling offended. This being that the teacher believes Tre is another student in her class that is a fatherless child, with a mother who is uneducated and struggling to pay her bills consistently.

The second video evidences how stereotype has been persuading children to think they should only play with kids of the same color of their skin, and when they are asked to why is the reason for this attitude, they mention because their parents doesn’t want them to associate with kids different race or color, but the kids because of their young age are programmed just to obey their parents. If a person has been influenced or raised by racist relatives the person has the choice to keep believing those stereotypes or overcome them by determining that stereotyping is only a detriment in forming social relationships. For example: putting yourself in the position of that person that is being stereotyped can help to understand what does the other person is feeling as it shows in the video with one girl who responded different from the other kids and decided that she was not going to be racist as her grandparents. Then In the medical field to offer quality of care one must be aware there are stereotypes that can influence in the way one provides care and that can be negative and harmful in regards to the patient.

I found that the characters seemed to stereotype each other when they either were in trouble, felt uncomfortable, and / or in and aggravated mood looking for trouble. Which honestly were very realistic because when people are put in a “fight or flight” mode if they resort to the fight one, the thing that is really is easy to come up with is to immediately stereotype and make yourself feel better so yes this really can occur in real life.

1. I like how you mentioned that it is wrong for certain race to be representing all the races. I like one of your reason, which talks about it is a bad example and children can be affected by it significantly.

What are the underlying social issues in the film? Consider what the director is trying to say about stereotypes.

I believe Hollywood’s portrayal of Arabs perhaps do create a stereotypes rather than giving the public what is wants. Although some Arab groups have been associated with violence and hatred, this is only a minority. According to Schaefer (2012), typically, jihad is taken by Muslims to refer to their internal struggle for spiritual purity (264). Today, a very visible minority of Muslims in the world sees this as a pretext to carry out an armed struggle against what they view as the enemies of the Palestine (Schaefer 2012:264). In the film an Arab actor is quoted using violence in the name of Allah.

Overall, this research determined that the portrayal of accountants in American movies did several things. These include the over-glamorization of the profession, enhancement of professional traits, and belittlement of the professions hallmark characteristic, integrity. Additionally, the portrayal of accountants goes so far as to make the stereotypical accountant in the movies inconsistent with reality. First, American movies glamorize the profession.

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.