Throughout history there has always been stereotypes against minorities, they’ve been seen on Television when someone from a different race plays a person from a different background. For example, a white man playing a as a black man in a show or movie. People try to be humorous when someone plays a character from a different race but that humor sometimes goes the wrong way were someone portrays a person from a different race but by doing so it becomes very offensive for people coming from that ethnic background because those people know that they don’t act like that. Black, Latino, Asian, Native Americans and anyone from a minority background many people are always doing stereotypes in the media industry to get views for the show or movie. Also, today we see a lot of stereotypical ads and commercials where we see someone play a role of someone from a different ethnic background which causes much backslash because people of the group that they associate don’t act that way.
Prior to the civil rights era there was portrayals of blacks on television and shows like “Amos n Andy” had blacks played as Maids, and cooks it had showed that whites were more superior than the black community. But in 1953 the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) had sued CBS because of how the actors in the TV show represented the black community as stupid and lazy as of the lawsuit CBS had to kill the show. As of today, you still see many white play the big roles in television even though television is more diverse than movies. But of being more diverse still you see majority of the main roles given to white males and females because many companies are afraid of giving it to someone from different background and color because they believe that they will lose money. To that much of TV shows lack Hispanics and Asians while whites own the representations in TV and black coming in second.
In the movie industry, it’s much harder for a person of color or someone from a different ethnic background to get a role in a movie and when people do get a role they want them to play a role as a maid or someone that relates to your “stereotypical” background. For an example when Hattie McDaniel plays the role as a mammy (Golash-Boza 98) in “Gone with the Wind” which is a stereotypical name for a black maid which this role of McDaniel lead to the mammy stereotype of Aunt Jemima by Anna Robinson which was very offensive that Quaker had to change the logo because of the criticism that they have received. When It comes to Latino women they are called a “Cantina Girl” because they are usually portrayed as a sexual object, which is usually true where much of movies and tv shows have Latina women play as some role where they have to be very sexualized. For instance, you have Sofia Vergara play a role in Modern Family where she plays the hot Latina mom which “evolves into a mix of sex siren and feisty-Latina” (www.LAtimes.com) and another example is in Desperate Housewife’s Eva Longoria plays a Latina women where she dresses in a very intimate way and that she’s portrayed as Cantina, senorita, and vamp way.
For people that are Native American they are also to receive stereotypes in both movies and TV shows. When it comes to stereotypes for Natives they are often portrayed as Savages or the wise man. When it comes to women they are portrayed as “beautiful, erotic, noble, and fully dedicated to its white lover” (Golash-Boza 105) such as the portrayal of Pocahontas. When it comes to tv shows they are often shown as Shamans and wise mans in television in a survey that represents stenotypes against Natives.
When it comes to advertising much of the big corporations don’t know what they are showing when they show the consumers of their product. They can be sometimes humorous but sometimes when these big companies produce this media they go a different route and that route can be very racial offensive to certain people, and that they don’t realize till it’s out and they receive much negative criticism. For example, Ashton Kutcher a white man plays in a Pop Chips ad where he plays an Indian man and while playing the Indian Man Name Raj. Raj the character that Kutcher plays is a bachelor looking for love and while he talks about his interests his accent is very discriminatory against Indian people the way he talks is not even close to how an Indian people talk. While receiving so much criticism from everyone they removed the commercial within a few days after the release of it.
When it comes to Race and Media I feel like it’s something that is getting better by time in both the Television industry and the Movie Industry but within today’s society it can be better such as minorities having bigger roles in these media industries and by giving them a shot can break the racial barrier even more. When it comes to stereotypes I don’t think they should be out there anymore especially with this day and age media is put on everywhere to social media and on the go to your smartphone, that something that companies try to put off something that is stereotyping a race will caught on by someone that I find it a waste of time and money that these corporations do that. But some day these stereotypes will end if we break the barrier and educate ourselves and our future generation that we will see an end of these racial stereotypes against may minority groups out there in the world.