In my groups project we made a video that expressed our
discontent with racism in the media. I didn’t really get a chance to express my
personal opinion so I thought this would make for a great chance to say how I
feel. It is obvious that there is so
much racism in our TV shows, and all over the media, but a lot of this racism
is just fabricated. Most shows consist of a cast of white people and one or two
black people. If it is a thriller or a horror film, I have no doubt that the
black cast member will be the first to die. It is that predictable every time I
watch these types of shows or movies. It is not right that they have the black
person die first always, and it is not right that they usually don’t have that
many lines. It may be a problem but really, I think people sometimes make
things worse than they really are. I think people cast a crew with white people
and maybe one black person because that what they experienced growing up. I
personally only have one or two black people that are my friends. It’s not
because I don’t enjoy black peoples company or because I’m a racist but instead
because I have only really known one or two black people growing up. So shows that cast with only cast with one or
two black people are shows I can better relate with. I don’t think the writers
are trying to be racist; it’s just what they’ve experienced.
The thing is, black people make up, what, 11% of the US population? I think it's unrealistic to expect a 50/50 split because 1) there are many other races that would need to be represented to be "fair", and 2) the segment of the population doesn't lend itself to an evenly split cast, because it's just not realistic. I wouldn't expect to live in Mexico and see a ton of white people on TV, that's just not their population or audience. Now I don't know the % of black characters on TV, maybe a study has been done, but if it is anywhere around 11%, then I think that's fair. I honestly have no idea though.
ReplyDeleteFor the part about the black characters always dying first. I think that's a stereotype for sure, and I do always notice when that happens, but I never notice when a white/latino/asain/indian or whatever character dies first because that's not the stereotype we know, so we don't notice or remember it. It's just like when someone says they see the number XX all the time, well that's mostly because they are LOOKING for that number, and remember it more often than any other numbers. I think this could also be the case, we just notice it more because we look for it to happen.