The Power Of The Media And Racial Stereotypes In Film

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Author Michael Omni states in his work “In Living Color: race and American Culture”, “ The power of the media lies not only in their ability to reflect the dominant racial ideology, but in their capacity to shape their ideology in the first place” (542) . The media has the ability to make society see any race in any light they choose. For example African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics are all tied to smoking marijuana, excessive alcoholism, broken sentences, being indolent, jobless, and imprisonment. These are sometimes true in every race but they portray these listed races in an inaccurate way in every film. Hollywood directors do have a social responsibility to stop stereotyping different ethnic groups. Through analyzing various films such Friday, American Me, and Skins you will be able to see the prejudice stereotypes and the negative affects its causes in society. What are ones first thoughts of when you think of a Hispanic? Most would say gangster or sweatshop worker or even …show more content…

The media and is directors producers or anyone who has the responsibility of casting directing or anything that will be shown to the masses have a huge responsibility to every group of people to represent them in light that is not stereotyped in a negative manner. All the films discussed all show some form of stereotype each ethnic group has held over their heads. Ask yourself if we didn’t have film would we still have these stereotypes? In order to get over this racial profiling in film they should start showing what else these groups have accomplished not just the negative side. For example they could make a film of Madam C. J. Walker who was African American and also the first self-made female millionaire. Directors hold a huge responsibility and they owe it society to portray each ethnic group in fair

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