America, "the melting pot", or so it was once called but this melting pot has become predominantly Caucasian, especially in media representation. Today on television there are very few television shows that have a predominant ethnic cast, and the few that are, appear to be comedies in which the cast are portraying stereotypes of their own race.
We once had great shows like "The Jeffersons", "Good Times", "In Living Color", "Martin" and many more popular television shows with a predominant African American cast but over the years these shows have fallen off of the air. Tyler Perry has produced House of Payne, and Meet the Browns over the last few years in which the cast appears to be a all African American family, but the cast is portrayed as goofy, irrational, obese and stupid. This portrayal of African Americans makes these shows extremely hard to relate to. No one is ever truly successful, and they all appear to be struggling to achieve some end; is this how society views African Americans?! Are African Americans a race of goofy irrational people who are struggling to make it? This is a total misinterpretation of our race, Maryland alone has the wealthiest African Americans in the country. Most African American families no longer have the entire family tree living under one roof, or have tacky outdated "hand me down" wardrobes. The face of African American families has changed and with it, how we are represented on television should change as well.
There also seem to be few to no shows on television featuring a predominant Asian American cast, or Hispanic American cast on any major networks. But this misrepresentation of minorities on television does not just end at race; women, homosexuals, and handicap individuals are either not seen on television or portrayed to be over- dramatic representation of themselves. With America being a melting pot shouldn't this be represented in our media without racial stigma's or stereotypes?
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"With America being a melting pot shouldn't this be represented in our media without racial stigma's or stereotypes?"
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. The lack of successful African American character's on television is disturbing, as well as the lack of most other ethnicities. Unfortunately I don't believe we'll see much change with this. The goal of every network and cable series is to draw in as many viewers as possible or else they get canceled. To avoid this most shows rely on these stereotypes that they think most Americans will like. Until ratings go down and Networks are willing to experiment with unique shows that break away from these stereotypes, there won't be much change.
I agree. There are not many prime time television shows with a full black cast. I know that they are trying to encorporate them into some of the prime time shows by bringing in a few cast members that represent these character types. I actually miss Good Times, The Jeffersons, and even Different Strokes.
ReplyDeleteWhite working class males also recieve these same stereo types. It seems across the board, if you are not a rich white man, then you are potrayed on television as goofy, dumb, and poor. Like this is what we all want to watch. However, the opposite is also a problem. If you portray every person as rich, no matter their cultural background, then you have people who see this as attempting to make the majority feel like they need to buy stuff to fit it. Its a catch 22.