Ethnicity, Racism and stereotypes

Stereotypical images?

Representation of ethnic minorities  Minority ethnics are greatly under-represented in the media  There are few people of colour in top media positions and few programmes are aimed at minority ethnics  The GUMG has shown how news and current affairs programmes are essentially nationalistic  Developing countries are presented as problems so that disasters such as war or famine are associated with them

 From a Marxist point of view, such portrayals reinforce the capitalist system by showing the superiority of white, western culture  Until recent years, blacks have been portrayed as servants, figures of fun or slaves  Hartman and Husband argue that the media still operates within a culture that sees foreigners, especially blacks as inferior  When black people are positively represented this is seen as “tokenism”

Negative portrayals  Van Djilks (1991) studied the inner city riots of the 1980s  And showed how the tabloid press focused on a racial and criminal explanation of the riots  However many young white people were involved  The Sun dismissed Sociological explanations of the riots as “making excuses for criminals”  Van Djilks analysed the meanings and ideology behind these portrayals

 He says the British media constantly flatters its readers with statements like  “The British are a kind and tolerant people” always followed by the racist “but”  Then minority ethnics are accused of abusing our hospitality  Being social security scroungers, bogus asylum seekers and terrorist sympathisers

Supporting Research  Look at the review of the work of Stuart Hall (page 193 in the text book)  What role did the media play here?  How does this link with portrayal of “the other”?  Which perspective does Hall come from?  Take notes on the work of Back (2002)

Appreciation of Black culture  Appreciation of black culture has grown  There are now major figures in music, the Arts and the media in general  There are more programmes specifically for minority ethnics  More importantly there has been a crossover of ethnic minority culture into mainstream media  Programmes such as the Kumars at no 42 are appealing to White and Asian viewers  This demonstrates a more multi cultural media in the 21 st century

Research  Abercrombie(1996) argues that these positive changes are most apparent in soap operas  Minority ethnics are now depicted in far less stereotypical ways than in the past,  As ordinary people rather than exotic or dangerous others  However Reid found that black women were heavily critical of The Cosby Show  Because its depiction of black family life was idealised and unrealistic

Sociological Approaches  Functionalists would argue that media presentations of ethnic minorities reflect their position in society  These depictions change to reflect the integration of ethnic minorities into mainstream culture  Examples would be the positive portrayal of successful Asian businessmen or Black medical professionals  Marxists and Neo-Marxists see things very differently  They emphasise how the media uses racism to promote the interests of the powerful  Moral panics about immigrants and asylum seekers help to divide the working class on racial grounds and produce false consciousness  The blame for social problems such as unemployment and crime is focused on minority ethnics rather than the real causes – capitalism and the injustices it causes