Now You See Black, Now You Don't

Recently, the Los Angeles Times printed an article titled, No black-and-white answer for the lack of diversity on television. The article was about a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Comcast's proposed takeover of NBC Universal. What started out as a discussion on whether Comcast should be allowed to take over this network at all, turned into an all out race battle. The issue raised by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) was the lack of television shows aimed at minority viewers and particularly black viewers. Even though the issue was very relevant, it still did not address the underlying concern, which was the Comcast takeover. Instead, the story became about race whether than possible antitrust violations. But since Water's opened the flood gates, let's explore programming on television today!


Programming today does lack diversity, however, blacks are not the only ones underrepresented. Most television shows today doesn't portray true images of the majority. What I mean is that television does not display how diverse we really are. It does not display the many sizes, colors and personalities of the American people.


When I read the comments made on the article, I was disgusted and embarrassed because it is so sad that we still have not gotten past race. Everything always seems to evolve around the color of one's skin, why does it not evolve around skill? While there are a lot of talented minorities who are not casted in roles because they are not "white," it's not that actor/actress fault that they received the role. The fault lies with us and those writing the scripts. We support these television shows that do not properly represent us, we support shows that do not display real talent so therefore, we are to blame.


I also read how "blacks" have their own television stations such as BET and Centric. Seriously, BET and Centric does not represent the majority of African Americans. In my opinion, it demoralizes us. BET does not show traditional black shows like, The Cosby Show which epitomize what African Americans aspire to be. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Girlfriends, Family Matters and other shows that showed successful African American families. Instead, we are typecasts in movies like Baby Boy, which shows a black woman struggling to make ends meet, living in low income apartments and dealing with a cheating baby daddy. Shows such as Everybody Hates Chris which shows poor black people living in the ghetto. I want to see shows where blacks are successful.


Finally, I want to see shows that shows full figures women and men, dark skinned people, etc. Most shows you see on TV that do show blacks, they are sticking out like a sore thumb. Most of the shows has one or two blacks at the most. There are more talented blacks that those same few that are casted. Also, most shows that do display positive blacks are either obsolete or they are cut after only a year or two such as The Game, Lincoln Heights, Girlfriends, Bernie Mac Show and My Wife and Kids. We need to be able to choose what we watch instead of having to pay for shows we don't like.

check out original story:

 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/06/diversity-television.html


Any comments and examples related to this blog is welcome. I want to create dialogue and hopefully a great discussion on the topic.  Thanks!

Stereotypes: What are they and where do they exist!

According to dictionary.com: A stereotype is a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group.

Stereotypes are created from perception. Stereotypes are created by society. What I mean by this is: we learn stereotypes from our parents, spouses and the media. Stereotypes come from social learning theory, which basically says that we learn stereotypes socially. Stereotypes come from our own thinking and because we have a thought of how things should be, we tend to group things into categories, therefore we create our own perceptions.  Basically, we create certain qualities (sterotypes) that we assign so that we don't have to think about things or people on an individual basis but rather collectively. This is our own sense of security which allows us to feel good about ourselves because we have created our own little box of how everything is supposed to operate. Through these perceptions, we allow others to dictate how we think and what we think of others. Stereotypes are not always negative, however, most are.

There are many different types of stereotypes whether they are based on sex,race, gender religion, country or social standing. All stereotypes are generalizations about a person, but don't get it confused, all generalizations are not stereotypes. Not all stereotypes are bad, but in a way they both do harm. Stereotypes are said to be based on truths about , the problem comes when it is suggested that a certain group is prone to a certain behavior as if they are born into this particular behavior or stereotype about them.For example, if I say all Asians are good at math. This is a positive stereotype but it is still harmful because I have classified one race of people as being good at math, but what if they aren't good at math? They are forced to live with a perception of them and some even try to live up to this perception. An example of a negative stereotype is all black men are lazy. This stereotype just classified one group of people and it isn't necessarily true. Not all black men are lazy but if the majority thinks this, then this is the perception everyone will believe because society has said all black men are lazy. Below are a few more examples of stereotypes, both negative and positive:

• She is seductive. This is a stereotype that states that a woman is seductive, even though she may not be seductive, but because it is said she is seductive she has just been stereotyped.

• Men are better at sports than women. This is a stereotype that states that a man is more physically fit than a woman, therefore they are stronger than women, which in turn makes them better at sports than women.

• Muslims are terrorist. Because of the 9-11incident and other terrorist activities, we have placed all muslims from a foreign country into the terrorist category.

• All asians do nails. The stereotype is that all asians do is nails and feet. We have stereotyped them as great manicurist and pedicurists and we only look at them as only owning nail shops.

I have outlined for you what I think a stereotype is, however, I would like everyone to give me their input on this subject. Feel free to leave a comment, list other stereotypes or ask a question.

For more information, visit these sites:

 https://www.msu.edu/course/psy/442/stereotypes.ppt/sld008.htm

http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/WhatIsaStereotype.htm