How does the representation of people of colour in the media
affect society?
The media is an agent of socialisation; it is not often recognised how much of an impact it has on individuals. There are people part of society that are privileged enough to grow up seeing people that look like them and can relate to them on their screens. These individuals, they come in contact with a world that they are somewhat familiar with, they develop goals, aspirations and dreams knowing that it is possible to achieve them, simply because they have seen a “reflection” of themselves do so. The portrayal of people of colour in the media has altered the perception of individuals in society, depending on your racial identity you will (consciously or subconsciously), not only view the world differently but you will also receive the world differently and be treated differently. I will be looking at both the negative and positive effects that the representation of people of colour have in society.
Young adults, teenagers and children of colour are still not sure who they are as a person. They are learning about themselves and the media is a place that most will look to help navigate them. The media assist them in how they see themselves and what they can achieve as an individual but if the media is limiting them and putting them in a box then this will negatively impact them and they will end up staying in this box and mirroring these representations. In the 1930s, black actors had the roles of butlers, maids, porters, waiters. Many, like Sam McDaniel, acted in these none credited servile roles, sending the message that this is what society expects of them, the message that even if they were an actor, they were not important enough to be credited. To the non-black people of that time, they would have then thought that the place of black people in society were servile roles.
In recent times you continue to see the lack of diversity on the screen, people of colour are still being side-lined and being casted as “drug dealer number #1”, the producers and directors appear to find it hard to believe that a person of colour can be the lead actor. Whitewashing in the media is still an occurring practice, despite it being racially insensitive, people of colour are being represented by people that do not meet the criteria of being a person of colour. An example of this is Scarlett Johansson taking the role of an East Asian actor in Ghost in the Shell. People of colour do not get to see themselves in roles that are made for them so what are they allowed to see themselves in? Actors take the roles of minorities without any real consideration of what the affect can be. Misrepresentation contributes to a young person’s view of what they can achieve as they are only seeing one kind of media that either shows them, they belong at the bottom or they do not belong at all.
People part of the majority culture fail to see the biases against the minorities, they tend to interact with people of colour based on what they have seen in the media. With a push towards diversity you consequently have the one person of colour added to a movie or series for “representation”. Often these characters are the joke, they are there for comic relief, they are the token character of their race. This character of colour is there to represent their entire race and the writer’s room where this character was created, you would have a group of writers who know nothing but stereotypes of this race. Like the Smurfette principle, where there are men in a movie or a series that have complex characteristics with layers of what makes them, them as a character, then having one woman a part of this ensemble whose only characteristics is to be a woman, you see the same thing with the roles of people of colour in movies and tv shows. Their role is to support the white main character and be a stereotype. Some examples are Isis from Bring It On, Raj Koothrappali from The Big Bang theory, Posh Kenneth from Skins and Ellen from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. These characters embody all the tired stereotypes, from “angry black woman” to the “effeminate Indian man”. This then has an effect on how society interacts with meeting a person of colour, they see them on their screens as these one-dimensional characters so they attempt to communicate in that manner, despite the fact that most times, the person cannot relate to that stereotype. Race is not a personality trait; the media is defining who people of colour are to a society that does not know them.
On the other hand, as we interact with individuals in society, the media can influence us positively. Subconsciously, we educate ourselves and change the way we think, view and talk to people that happen to be different from us. Your mindset can be altered by what you see on your screen, you can develop a higher understanding for individuals that are not the same race as you. When a movie or a series is good you learn something new, you look at the characters and you compare them to the people you know and the people you meet, you also compare them to yourself, this then opens up the space for self-growth, allowing you to change and simply treat people with respect and as equals.
Orange Is The New Black is a show where stereotypes are broken down, a show where you see what women of colour in prison go through and how their families were affected. You get to see how the justice system has failed these women of colour that are meant to be part of our society. Often, we assume that the justice system is there to protect everyone but many times there are racial biases that causes only the few to be protected. The representation in Orange Is The New Black is important as it mirrors society truthfully. From moments like a woman of colour getting unfair sentences to women being detained and deported, separated from their families to moments of tragedy where an inmate dies at the hands of a person that was there to protect her. These storylines have encouraged change in society, people want to become lawyers or police officers so that they can be the change they want to see in the justice system. The cast of Orange Is The New Black have also been affected and are now more than representation to the incarcerated and their families. They are physical help as they created a fund to help social issues surrounding criminal justice and policy reform, immigrants’ rights and helping those affected by mass incarceration. This show has affected the people of society that are families of the incarcerated and have helped them get through it and not feel alone but to feel represented.
Top Boy is another product of the media than can affect how we interact with individuals’ part of society in a positive way. This series is a true depiction of what the some of the youth in London endure; knife crime, dealing drugs and postcode wars. Top Boy is a new level of authenticity and representation because not only was it filmed in places where real life gangs operate but the cast members have been a part of that world or know people who are experiencing that world, most even had similar storylines with their characters. Top Boy is the representation that we need to see as actress Jasmine Jobson said “It’s underlining issues that are either swept under the carpet or not really spoken about”. The young people of colour involved in gang life or know people in gangs belong to an underrepresented part of the world that we often do not see in the media, this means that a majority of society will not understand them. The themes of Top Boy are universal, not only are the people on the streets of London being represented and are able to make connections but people who initially have no understanding of that world can connect through the themes, like family, bereavement, mental health issues and the pressure of masculinity.
The way you think of that lifestyle changes, you view it in a different way as you are seeing young people do the wrong things for the right reasons. You develop empathy as you realise that these youths are growing up in a cycle, they are at a disadvantage, they do not see any other way than the streets, they only see that they need money now. They have not been represented enough in the media and when they are it is negative so if they stay on the streets they are the expectation and if they leave they society’s anomaly but Top Boy changed the narrative and gave a voice to the youth of society that do not have a voice, it told their story in a way that makes it just as important as any other story in the media and gave the young people of colour a form of representation and the viewers to not only feel connected to the characters but to understand them and see them in society.
The media is an agent of socialisation; it is not often recognised how much of an impact it has on individuals. There are people part of society that are privileged enough to grow up seeing people that look like them and can relate to them on their screens. These individuals, they come in contact with a world that they are somewhat familiar with, they develop goals, aspirations and dreams knowing that it is possible to achieve them, simply because they have seen a “reflection” of themselves do so. The portrayal of people of colour in the media has altered the perception of individuals in society, depending on your racial identity you will (consciously or subconsciously), not only view the world differently but you will also receive the world differently and be treated differently. I will be looking at both the negative and positive effects that the representation of people of colour have in society.
Young adults, teenagers and children of colour are still not sure who they are as a person. They are learning about themselves and the media is a place that most will look to help navigate them. The media assist them in how they see themselves and what they can achieve as an individual but if the media is limiting them and putting them in a box then this will negatively impact them and they will end up staying in this box and mirroring these representations. In the 1930s, black actors had the roles of butlers, maids, porters, waiters. Many, like Sam McDaniel, acted in these none credited servile roles, sending the message that this is what society expects of them, the message that even if they were an actor, they were not important enough to be credited. To the non-black people of that time, they would have then thought that the place of black people in society were servile roles.
In recent times you continue to see the lack of diversity on the screen, people of colour are still being side-lined and being casted as “drug dealer number #1”, the producers and directors appear to find it hard to believe that a person of colour can be the lead actor. Whitewashing in the media is still an occurring practice, despite it being racially insensitive, people of colour are being represented by people that do not meet the criteria of being a person of colour. An example of this is Scarlett Johansson taking the role of an East Asian actor in Ghost in the Shell. People of colour do not get to see themselves in roles that are made for them so what are they allowed to see themselves in? Actors take the roles of minorities without any real consideration of what the affect can be. Misrepresentation contributes to a young person’s view of what they can achieve as they are only seeing one kind of media that either shows them, they belong at the bottom or they do not belong at all.
People part of the majority culture fail to see the biases against the minorities, they tend to interact with people of colour based on what they have seen in the media. With a push towards diversity you consequently have the one person of colour added to a movie or series for “representation”. Often these characters are the joke, they are there for comic relief, they are the token character of their race. This character of colour is there to represent their entire race and the writer’s room where this character was created, you would have a group of writers who know nothing but stereotypes of this race. Like the Smurfette principle, where there are men in a movie or a series that have complex characteristics with layers of what makes them, them as a character, then having one woman a part of this ensemble whose only characteristics is to be a woman, you see the same thing with the roles of people of colour in movies and tv shows. Their role is to support the white main character and be a stereotype. Some examples are Isis from Bring It On, Raj Koothrappali from The Big Bang theory, Posh Kenneth from Skins and Ellen from Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. These characters embody all the tired stereotypes, from “angry black woman” to the “effeminate Indian man”. This then has an effect on how society interacts with meeting a person of colour, they see them on their screens as these one-dimensional characters so they attempt to communicate in that manner, despite the fact that most times, the person cannot relate to that stereotype. Race is not a personality trait; the media is defining who people of colour are to a society that does not know them.
On the other hand, as we interact with individuals in society, the media can influence us positively. Subconsciously, we educate ourselves and change the way we think, view and talk to people that happen to be different from us. Your mindset can be altered by what you see on your screen, you can develop a higher understanding for individuals that are not the same race as you. When a movie or a series is good you learn something new, you look at the characters and you compare them to the people you know and the people you meet, you also compare them to yourself, this then opens up the space for self-growth, allowing you to change and simply treat people with respect and as equals.
Orange Is The New Black is a show where stereotypes are broken down, a show where you see what women of colour in prison go through and how their families were affected. You get to see how the justice system has failed these women of colour that are meant to be part of our society. Often, we assume that the justice system is there to protect everyone but many times there are racial biases that causes only the few to be protected. The representation in Orange Is The New Black is important as it mirrors society truthfully. From moments like a woman of colour getting unfair sentences to women being detained and deported, separated from their families to moments of tragedy where an inmate dies at the hands of a person that was there to protect her. These storylines have encouraged change in society, people want to become lawyers or police officers so that they can be the change they want to see in the justice system. The cast of Orange Is The New Black have also been affected and are now more than representation to the incarcerated and their families. They are physical help as they created a fund to help social issues surrounding criminal justice and policy reform, immigrants’ rights and helping those affected by mass incarceration. This show has affected the people of society that are families of the incarcerated and have helped them get through it and not feel alone but to feel represented.
Top Boy is another product of the media than can affect how we interact with individuals’ part of society in a positive way. This series is a true depiction of what the some of the youth in London endure; knife crime, dealing drugs and postcode wars. Top Boy is a new level of authenticity and representation because not only was it filmed in places where real life gangs operate but the cast members have been a part of that world or know people who are experiencing that world, most even had similar storylines with their characters. Top Boy is the representation that we need to see as actress Jasmine Jobson said “It’s underlining issues that are either swept under the carpet or not really spoken about”. The young people of colour involved in gang life or know people in gangs belong to an underrepresented part of the world that we often do not see in the media, this means that a majority of society will not understand them. The themes of Top Boy are universal, not only are the people on the streets of London being represented and are able to make connections but people who initially have no understanding of that world can connect through the themes, like family, bereavement, mental health issues and the pressure of masculinity.
The way you think of that lifestyle changes, you view it in a different way as you are seeing young people do the wrong things for the right reasons. You develop empathy as you realise that these youths are growing up in a cycle, they are at a disadvantage, they do not see any other way than the streets, they only see that they need money now. They have not been represented enough in the media and when they are it is negative so if they stay on the streets they are the expectation and if they leave they society’s anomaly but Top Boy changed the narrative and gave a voice to the youth of society that do not have a voice, it told their story in a way that makes it just as important as any other story in the media and gave the young people of colour a form of representation and the viewers to not only feel connected to the characters but to understand them and see them in society.
In the past couple of decades
people of colour are defining who they are in the media and changing the way
society perceives them. Creatives of
colour are breaking down stereotypes through films and series. In the 90s you
saw shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and The Cosby Show become popular,
the representation of an upper-middle class black family was something that you
rarely saw in the media. Furthermore, you not only see a husband and wife that
are happily married but a father that was there for his family. These
representations allowed people to move away from ignorant views of black
families. In 2018 a film called Crazy Rich Asians was released, this
representation contributed to the beginning of change in what an Asian
character in the media is. Instead of the exaggerated accent for comic relief,
nerd or kung-fu master character, they were represented as real human beings
with complex characteristics and a range of emotions. This movie was the
romantic comedy that was needed, it showed that Asians do not need to be
stereotypes to be funny or interesting in movies. Another film that had a huge
cultural impact was Black Panther. This was the first black lead superhero in
the marvel universe, for a movie franchise that has been around since 2008, 10
years was a long wait for a person of colour to have their own film. Black
Panther broke the stereotypes of Africa being poor and living in huts, Africa
being divided, weak women, simple minded women and showed the world a futuristic
Africa (Wakanda), A country that has a piece of clothing or language from
countries in Africa, an all women army (Dora Milaje) and the most intelligent
marvel character (Shuri). Creatives of colour are further defining how people
of colour are seen in the media and going into genres like horror, Get Out was
release in 2017 and is one of the first horror films where the protagonist is
black. In this genre, black characters are usually known be the trusty
sidekick, the character that does not fit in, the one with common sense but
mostly the one who dies first. This
version of the media has become an important part of society, the
representation that we get to see today affect society in a positive way
because how you see yourselves and how you value yourself changes to reflect
these characters that are breaking barriers and telling their story, your
story.
In conclusion, the media is an agent of socialisation and in many ways affects society both negatively and positively. Representation is not something that should be asked for but should be the standard, any films or shows should be a reflection of the diversity you see every day because honestly, it is not that much to ask for. People of colour should be represented truthfully and not ignorantly. We are all responsible for representation in the media and everyone deserves to feel represented.
Bibliography
In conclusion, the media is an agent of socialisation and in many ways affects society both negatively and positively. Representation is not something that should be asked for but should be the standard, any films or shows should be a reflection of the diversity you see every day because honestly, it is not that much to ask for. People of colour should be represented truthfully and not ignorantly. We are all responsible for representation in the media and everyone deserves to feel represented.
Bibliography
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