It is no myth that Hollywood certainly has a diversity problem. This is often because of Hollywood’s hegemonic power belonging to straight, white, males. This power structure leads to media seeming as a distorted mirror image of actual reality. Contemporary media may seem diverse, but it still lacks true multi-dimensional diversity. LGBT people of color, the minority of the minority, have little to no visibility in mainstream media and are often misrepresented along with being underrepresented due to racism and homophobia excluding their voices. The aim of this paper is to explore the adversities that LGBT people of color face on both sides; racism intersecting with LGBT oppression and also the identity issues that stem from such social injustice and inaccurate media portrayals.
Racism within the LGBT community
In the United States, LGBT ethnic minorities find themselves as a double minority. Ones who are not fully accepted by society as a whole as well as in their own ethnic groups but also as not fully accepted and often ignored by mainly white LGBT communities. The racism experienced against these ethnic minorities can be manifested in many forms and leads to either exclusion or stereotyping.
Tolerance of Racism
The attitude within white LGBT groups and communities is “How can I be oppressive if I myself am a part of an oppressed community?” (Jones, 2016). This attitude of bigotism is succinct in the act of holding up and exalting the “white, gay male” image as the forefront of the LGBT community. The ability to erase other voices and faces of minority LGBT persons is part of the social privilege that white, gay men hold above LGBT-poc. Furthermore, this erasure of voice is part of the reason that this problem is not addressed fully within the LGBT community, despite best efforts from LGBT people of color.
Exclusion and Stereotyping of LGBT People of Color
The manifestations of racism against LGBT people of color presents itself in numerous ways. Mobile phone applications for dating sites serve as the most prominent grounds for blatant racism against LGBT poc. Profiles of mainly white gay males can be seen casually excluding entire ethnic groups. Profiles declaring “no Asians” or “no black people” is relatively common on dating apps like Grindr. (Lorenzo, 2016).
Sexual stereotyping. Along with racial stereotypes, there is the notion of gender and sexual stereotypes as well in the LGBT community. For example, Asian LGBT people, both woman and men, are often viewed as more feminine, docile, and submissive, while Black LGBT people, again both women and men, are more likely to be viewed as aggressive and masculine. (Sung, 2015). An entire race itself can be gendered feminine or masculine. Fetishization and objectification play a prominent role in how LGBT poc are treated within the LGBT community.
Homophobia within Ethnic Minority Communities
Along with the plight of being ignored and discriminated against by white LGBT people, LGBT people of color often face discrimination from their own ethnic communities based on ethnocultural norms. (Moradi et al., 2010). Feelings of disgust, irrational fear, and hatred exists in the context of this and is often due to religious beliefs and stereotypical race and gender roles held within ethnic communities.
Societal Effects among LGBT People of Color
The effects of racism and homophobia on LGBT people of color is not only prevalent in media portrayals of LGBT poc but also within the damaging psychological effects of these encounters. One 2007 study showed that sexual racism in the gay community led to participants identifying a feeling of internalized sexual racism, diminished self-esteem, and psychological distress as consequences of the manifestation of ethnosexual stereotypes, and race-based sexual rejection. (Plummer, 2007). Minority LGBT people have also identified racism and homophobia as repressive and limiting to their opportunities to live to their full potential (Brown III, 2008). These lasting effects lead to identity issues within LGBT POC community. A sense of alienation from both communities.
Underrepresentation in Media
In the United States, television and other entertainment media outlets portray the “white experience,” leaving out and disproportionately representing people of color in the media. LGBT spaces are also guilty of disproportionally representing the community, portraying a more white-washed version of the community as a whole. (Martin Jr., 2011). A 2015 study showed the disparity of overall LGBT representation on television. The study showed that 72.3% of all LGBT character on TV were white. 10.6% were Latinx, 8.5% were Black, and 6.4% were Asian or Pacific Islander (Anderson, 2016). The disparity of visibility between news and entertainment media is even more daunting.
LGBT People of Color in News
One of the biggest problems that LGBT-POC face today are hate crimes. In fact, research shows that LGBT minorities are far more likely to be victims of LGBT hate crimes than whites. Writer Rob Wile wrote in an article, “It’s still dangerous to be gay in America.” And he later points out it is even more dangerous to be a gay person of color. Minorities are overrepresented as victims of hate crimes and are at a greater risk of homicide than other LGBT people (Wile, 2016). An even more insidious aspect to this is that while homicide rates are higher for LGBT-poc than their white counterparts, major news outlets do not display this fact in the news – that is if they even talk about LGBT hate crimes at all.
After the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, formerly named the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, research was conducted to investigate the responses from LGBT people of color. The research conducted stated that that while 90% of the victims of the shooting were Latinx LGBT, this was rarely seen or talked about in the news media coverage. The reality of the victims was that this shooting was a direct attack on the LGBT Latinx community (Ramirez, 2017).
LGBT Publications. LGBT publications are also culpable of neglecting issues of race and have engaged in exclusionary tactics when it comes to the voices of LGBT-poc. The top ten U.S. LGBT magazines all have white, gay, editors. Within these magazines and publications, white men are looked at as the epitome of beauty; and when people of color are brought up in conversation, it is usually about how a non-LGBT person of color had said something homophobic. According to Jones (2016), “Gay media is completely whitewashed.”
LGBT People of Color in Entertainment Media
In 2017, it’s not hard to turn on the television and see LGBT characters on your TV screens. There is “Modern Family,” “Orange Is The New Black,” and even “Will and Grace” is making its way back to the silver screen this December. And while these are great examples of Hollywood “diversifying” itself to a broader audience, these shows still tend to perpetuate the same narratives that have dominated media for ages. “Where are the LGBT people of color in media?” a direct question asked in a column for The Root. (Hannah, 2012). When one looks at the world through the lens of the media, they are bound to see a world that is overwhelmingly white – a world that does not reflect the reality of our world. In Daryl Hannah’s article in the root (2012), he points out that when media, whether it be entertainment or news, only shows the stories of white individuals, it “inaccurately promote(s) a world in which it would appear that LGBT people of color do not exist, or that acceptance of LGBT people is exclusive to white populations.” The fact is that Hollywood needs to do more to represent the lives, stories, trials, and triumphs of LGBT people of color.
Symbolic Annihilation. The term symbolic annihilation was first coined by media educator George Gerbner in 1972 as a way to explain why there is an insufficient representation of minority groups in the media. “Representation in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation” (Gerbner & Gross, 1976, p. 182). The idea here is that Hollywood producers and executives have avoided portraying LGBT characters on TV for fear of offending audiences and also sponsors who pander to the “straight experience”— those who are only comfortable with heteronormativity. This reigns true with LGBT people of color in TV as well. When LGBT-poc aren’t portrayed, this lack of visibility continues to maintain stereotypes in the media – which further affects how LGBT-poc are treated in real life.
Misrepresentation of LGBT People of Color in the Media
Representation of LGBT people color in media alone is not enough; the type of representation also matters. Stereotypical representations in media have real life consequences. Idealization, fear mongering, or scapegoating are just some examples of this. Misrepresentation can be dangerous towards LGBT people of color and can also lead to identity invalidation among LGBT-poc.
Stereotype and Color Blind Ideology in Media
When the few shows that do portray an LGBT person of color on camera, that character’s race is either used as a plot device and as a trope, or depicted as race neutral and never explicitly mentioned or even relevant in the world of that show (Martin Jr., 2011). For example, in the Teenage Comedy-Drama, Glee, the character of Santana Lopez is a queer Latina. In the series Santana was portrayed as a minor antagonist; the sexually promiscuous “bad girl.” She portrayed as the bully of the series main protagonist, Rachael Berry, and is from the bad side of town called “Lima Heights.” She has several relationships with male characters in the show before it is revealed that she is in love with her best friend Brittany and that she is struggling with lesbian identity. She ends up being publically outed without her consent by another character on the show, who accuses her of being a coward for bullying and tearing down other people since she can’t admit that she’s a lesbian. Subsequently, Santana does come out officially as a lesbian and tells her parents who accept her lovingly, while her grandmother disowns Santana in disgust. While Santana’s coming out storyline has been applauded by critics, her character does fall victim to that of a stereotypical Latina, which some have criticized the show for.
Moreover, other non-white LGBT characters do not get that same, in-depth character treatment as Santana did on Glee. On the show GRΣΣK, the character of Calvin Owens is an openly gay African American man. And while his storylines do follow his identification as a gay man, it’s never mentioned or seen that he is explicitly black. Alfred Martin (2011) points out that while Calvin is portrayed as race neutral, his dual identities intersect when “convenient” for the writers. In the show, when Calvin’s gayness is emphasized, his blackness is therefore minimized. Calvin’s coded blackness is emphasized only when in interracial relationships – he’s looked at as the dominant, masculine boyfriend using common tropes of black masculinity.
Intersectionality. These two representations of LGBT people of color in media have negative ideological implications that follow. Santana’s story follows stereotype ideology while Calvin’s story follows a color-blind ideology. These two ideologies are not only damaging to real LGBT people of color who are in a constant search of other people who are like them to relate to, but they both misrepresent and erase intersectionality. Intersectionality theory, a term coined by critical race theory scholar, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, holds that social identities intersect and are inextricably linked to each other. The same theory also holds that racism, homophobia, classism, sexism, or any other ideology of bigotry interrelates, which in turn perpetuates a system of oppression towards minority groups. Intersectionality is multidimensional and suggests that all facets of one’s identity need to be observed in order to fully understand how it can affect one’s privilege and societal experience (Crenshaw, 1991).
Lasting effects of media misrepresentation. It is important to understand that accurate media portrayals lead to a furthering of knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of LGBT people of color. Misrepresentations only lead to negative consequences. Misrepresentation in media, when perceived by LGBT-poc themselves leads to a sense of identity invalidation because they are not seeing anyone who is relatable to their true selves. One may start to question, do images of them matter, or if society even values them at all. As noted in a recent Huffington post article on why representation matters (2017), “If you are a black, Asian or Latinx person who sees an “inauthentic” or “one-dimensional” version of yourself, Ramón explained, you “may wonder if that is all that is expected of you in society” (Boboltz and Yam).
Conclusion
As LGBT People of color struggle to find themselves in media, they’re also struggling with a sense of personal identity that counteracts within their respective communities. In media, audiences are rarely shows instances where structural racism intersects with LGBT oppression, and this fact should be made more prevalent to audiences to create awareness of social injustices in media and society, but also so any minority group can see themselves accurately portrayed and can be proud of their own diverse experience. Responsible and ethical portrayals of LGBT people of color in media not just for visibility, but for a changes mindset of society.