The issue of racism, privilege, and inequality fueled by long-existing stereotypes and prejudice remain topical in the society of the 21st century. In spite of significant improvements over the recent years, there is still much progress to be made, as there remain entire communities that are underrepresented and even oppressed. Today’s human rights movements promote equality on all levels, which is reflected in the open-minded views of the youth. Nevertheless, some of the old stereotypes persist, having been embedded in society for too long. The purpose of this paper is to examine modern views on racial equality based on media representation.
The concept of race has been in the center of scientific debate for the past few centuries. In the past, the idea that each race was different on physiological level dominated, but, as the research progressed, opposing views prevailed. In fact, studies show that the DNA of any given human being is ninety-nine percent identical in comparison to the rest of the population, regardless of their origin (Desmond & Emirbayer, 2010). According to Desmon and Emirbayer (2010), this misconception has actually costed numerous lives due to the belief that organ transplantation can only be performed between people of the same race. In other words, all people are the same on the genetic level, as it has been proved by extensive research over the 20th century. Therefore, the race is not a biological concept but a social construct instead.
This phenomenon can be described by the term symbolic category. As Desmond and Emirbayer (2010) say, a symbolic category is something that is “actively created and recreated by the human beings rather than pre-given” and “opposed to the realm of nature and biology” (p.15). According to them, the mere term Native Americans was created by Europeans upon coming to America and subsumed essentially different peoples with their own history and traditions (Desmond & Emirbayer, 2010). The racial taxonomies of the United States distinguish between five primary groups: Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, Asians and Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanics, and Caucasians. Desmond and Emirbayer (2010) state that this division is used nationwide, including major governmental institutions, such as the U.S. Bureau of Census. However, the factors, according to which people are attributed to different categories of this kind, are not objective, as they do not have scientific grounds.
Nevertheless, the categories mentioned above, already being a social construct, are, in fact, distinct for the United States and do not apply in the rest of the world. For example, in South Africa, racial categories are white, black, and colored (Desmond & Emirbayer, 2010). The third category is the result of apartheid, which was a case of legalized segregation, but it remains in the country’s cultural space until nowadays. Meanwhile, there is no racial division in India, where different groups of people are distinguished upon their caste, i.e., family and occupation, rather than phenotype. These cases prove that racial inequality is a mere result of internal social processes and does not have any solid biological foundation.
In general, racial discrimination of any kind is based on a set of stereotypes and prejudices. While both concepts imply a conventional perception of one ethnic group by another, the first one is based on experience, even though exaggerated and extrapolated. On the other hand, prejudices are caused not by real facts but by an unjustified aggressive attitude. According to Dixon et al. (2019), “cultural stereotypes have significant implications for our psychology, social interactions, and policymaking” (para. 8). Once negative prejudices and stereotypes prevail in a society, it begins to discriminate against a certain group.
However, stereotyping may take different forms that, while not necessarily being negative, still harm relations between social groups. Desmond and Emirbayer (2010) say that there is a common opinion that people of African descent are naturally better at athletics than other ethnic groups, which is, however, not justified. Indeed, the majority of the most prominent NBA players are African Americans. Nevertheless, the best volleyball players are Caucasian, even though both sports require similar sets of attributes. In reality, there are complex factors that have led to the present situation and that are not always taken into account. Putting such labels diminishes a person’s input into their own success and limits their origin.
Stereotypes and prejudices are shaped according to the majority’s perception of the world. Caucasian people colonized North America and dominated other ethnic groups for several centuries. Consequently, they began to consider their ethnic identity the norm, whereas, naturally, other groups were perceived as abnormal. Desmond and Emirbayer (2010) call this phenomenon whiteness and add that it “is visible most clearly to those it definitely excludes and those, to whom it does violence” (p. 40). At the same time, the privileged group does not see any effect of the whiteness, as it does not cause any negative implications in their lives. Nevertheless, they benefit from the mere fact of belonging to the right group. The described concept is also known as White Privilege, which is “the collection of unearned cultural, political, economic, and social advantages and privileges possessed by people of Anglo-Saxon descent” (Desmond & Emirbayer, 2010, p. 40). Unearned is the keyword of the definition, as it implies that Caucasian people receive a generally better treatment than others do, which includes a better representation in the media.
Racial media representation has been the subject of many studies over the past few years. As Dixon et al. (2019) note, the way ethnic minorities portrayed in popular culture is closely connected to existing stereotypes. African American actresses frequently appear on prime-time television, but, in many cases, their roles are limited to situational comedies, where various racial stereotypes are exploited. As far as shows that are more serious are concerned, actors of African descent are more likely to be typecast as villains. In advertising, African American men are usually presented as athletic but unemployed, just as sports journalists emphasize their allegedly innate athleticism during competitions (Dixon et al., 2019). As for the news media outlets, Dixon et al. (2019) state that they tend to “overrepresent black criminality and exaggerate the notion that blacks belong to the undeserving poor class” (para. 3). Such kinds of representation do not reflect the reality and focus on prejudices instead.
People of Hispanic origin are another group that lacks proper representation in today’s media. In most cases, entertainment sources tend to oversexualize them, as well as to show them having low-occupation jobs in TV shows and films. Latino criminality is another stereotypical feature that is widely exploited by media outlets, along with Hispanic mass migration to the United States. In most cases, the stereotypes above demean the communities in question, dwelling on stereotypes that have little to do with the reality of the 21st century.
Nevertheless, stereotypes persist in media representation patterns, and there are several reasons for that. Dixon et al. (2019) say that content creators aim at using mental shortcuts, playing along with the public’s stereotypes in order to facilitate the understanding of the content. To put it differently, media outlets respond to the viewers’ expectations, even though those expectations are based on racial prejudices. Dixon et al. (2019) state that there is a four-stage model of racial media representation. The first step is called invisibility, meaning that the ethnic group in question receives little to no representation. Stage 2, ridicule, has members of the community appear on the screen exclusively in stereotypical ways a means to entertain the audience. The third step is regulation, when an ethnic group is portrayed primarily in the roles of people that protect the order, such as police officers. The fourth stage, respect, is attained when members of the community receive due representation, and their roles are not limited by racial stereotypes (Dixon et al., 2019).
According to the fourth-stage system, it is possible to assume that the African American community representation is now around the third step with possible derivations towards the previous stage. At the same time, there have been many progressive projects that tend to depict underrepresented groups in a proper way, which brings them due recognition. All in all, racial media representation has made much progress over the past decades, but there is more ground to cover. However, as media outlets adjust to the public’s perception, it is vital to eradicate outdated stereotypes to achieve proper and equal representation.
References
Desmond, M, Emirbayer., M. (2010). Racial Domination, Racial Progress: The Sociology of Race in America. McGraw Hill.
Dixon, T. L., Weeks, K. R., & Smith, M. A. 2019). Media Constructions of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford University Press. Web.