Op-ed: Stereotypes In Media and Entertainment
Stereotypes are a widely held idea regarding a particular culture or race and are applied through a person’s assumptions about which race and culture a particular person or group might be humans rely on their five senses and most dominantly their eyesight when it comes to identifying a human with a certain race or culture. This identification is not 100% accurate as not all people of a particular race fall into the same category of what is presumed to be a characteristic of whatever the race, they assume the person is.
Often times, people of all sorts of backgrounds encountered my family and I make visual assumptions about our descent based on what the media and their past multi-racial experiences have taught them. I am a man of Japanese and Chinese descent and since people can deviate from the visual classifications of their race and culture, like me in this case, this can lead to implicit bias that unconsciously causes harm to the minorities of today. Stereotypes exist within every race and culture. Unfortunately, these pre-existing prejudices have led to violence, resentment, and ultimately systematic racism that has persecuted many innocent individuals. Most stereotypes, which are widespread through mass media, come from a source of jealousy and fear rather than an authentic appreciation of different cultures and people.
The prejudice that surrounds many races are held against them due to the fact that mass media such as television, news, and social media misrepresent them. The people who decide what TV shows, books, news, and music available to consumers are 85-95 percent white. 1 As such, 95 of the top 100 grossing movies of 2016 were directed by white-Americans. These directors are presumably the top of the social hierarchy and most probably have not had firsthand cross-racial experiences with the minorities that they must accurately represent in movies. Thus, the representation of the minorities throughout these movies are very narrow and inaccurate. Remember that these top 100 grossing movies of 2016 are seen by audiences all over the world that believe and take interest in the representation of certain groups and minorities. 2 If I were to ask what association Black people have with certain ideas or trends, you would most likely link them to the ideas of poverty, criminal charges, felonies, absentee-fathers, family dysfunction. Well statistically, these ideas are only myths and labels that have been created through the mass misrepresentation in the vast media of today. The organization, Color of Change and Family Story commissioned a team at the University of Illinois to study the patterns and trends of the representation of black families and white families. Studying off of over 800 relevant stories throughout the dates of January 2015 to December 2016, they found that stories regarding poverty featured black families 59 percent of the time, even though only 27 percent of black families live below the poverty line. On the contrary, the white families make up 17% of the poor that are depicted but make up over 66% of families under the poverty line.3 In addition to poverty, Black people are also associated with their unproportionally heavy reliance on welfare, where stories covering welfare portrayed black families 60 percent of the time where only 42 percent of the people who receive welfare are black. Then finally, the most notorious myth of all is the crime rate of Black people, where 37% of criminals shown in the news are black. In reality, Black people constitute 26% of those arrested on criminal charges. On the flip side, Whites are portrayed as criminals 28% of the time, where actually 77% of white people are suspects in FBI cases.4 Considering the factual logistics presented, we cannot consider this as the end all be all, as this would be an example of skewed data. No conclusion can be made by these numbers, as 76.3% of the American population is White and 13.4% of the population is Black.5 So in numbers, because there are more white people in proportion to blacks, it is not a fair comparison. Although realize, that Black people have been under a system that has progressively improved, but over countless years, along with the progression of Social Media, has created this never-ending cycle that the next generations must strive to escape from. Rather than living, many are surviving.
The countless false portrayals and depictions throughout media and entertainment of people of color influence the audience at a cognitive level that is undetectable and subliminal. Ultimately, what these stereotypes and depictions create bias, which is “a preference for or a prejudice against a person or a group of people.” 6(Cite 1) Within bias, there are two types, which include implicit and explicit, but what the society of today runs on is the implicit form of the two. There are three characteristics that make an implicit bias, and the first, being that it operates at a subconscious level. This means that we as humans do not know that we have these biases and also cannot access these biases. So, both you and I cannot truthfully answer if we hold any prejudice or preference against a Black man, transgender woman, or Islamic immigrant. The second characteristic is how these biases run contrary to our conscious beliefs and values. A policeman can consciously believe that he lives by the mantra of “protect and serve”, but can still lead his district in stop and frisks of people of color. The third characteristic is how “implicit biases are triggered through rapid and automatic mental associations of people, ideas, and objects with attitudes and stereotypes.”7 Many of these mental associations with such people with a certain type of behavior, which is at a subconscious level, and runs contrary to the morals and beliefs of an individual, shapes behaviors that ultimately bring harm to others.8 (Cite link 1) The harm that is inflicted is usually at a cognitive level that can affect emotions and behaviors of the victims. This is highlighted when a person is at risk confirming a negative stereotype against themselves, known as stereotype threat. It is the fear of confronting a negative stereotype that hinders the ability of completing a task in front of an individual. A study took a group of Black men and assigned them to a task of 18 holes in miniature golf. Just before they started, they told the participants that this was strategic test of decision making and intelligence. This phrase triggers an intelligence stereotype, which evidently made the Black males perform worse than they are capable of. In a flip study, a group of white males were tested in the same study and task but were told that this is a measure of athletic capability, which hindered the performance of the white males.9 If you imagine your brain as a computer with limited space, this stereotype fills this limited capacity with fuzz and can hinder the ability of completing a task at hand. Researchers identify it as excessive cognitive load as these minorities and individuals are aware of the hostile environment. How the smallest mistakes are blown up just because of the color of their skin or the gender they identify as. This should matter in all institutions and people whether you are a teacher, athlete, employer, educator, student, and etc. This then brings about the reasons why implicit bias is what society must look to diagnose and address. A significant amount of the harm that the minorities of today experience are rooted in the implicit form of bias, in addition to explicit bias. Many of the systems and the tools of today are to help address explicit bias, for example, the US’s legalization of gay marriage in all 50 states and many other laws that have brought explicit equality within the country. This is why Racism is hidden and sneakily integrated into the systems of today and can be to some extent unnoticeable through the system on paper. Now when in practice, the implicit biases play just as important of a role and make just as drastic of an effect on the people of today.
We must acknowledge the growth that society has made towards equality, as approximately 27 years ago, Apartheid ended. The final existence of an institutionalized system of racism was brought to a conclusion. The scars do remain, and society has pushed and still do to heal such deeply inflicted wounds, but it seems as if there aren’t as much room for exponential change in a systematic standpoint. As children, teenagers, and even adults, we are taught that racism is abolished and on paper, all people are equal, which to some extent is true. Businesses and governments in the world do not have a set of regulations or rulings that put a certain race or ethnicity in an advantageous state. My idea is that the systems that the minorities endure is run by people who all have a subconscious set of ideas that may be against their beliefs but operate and influence these worker’s behaviors and actions that ultimately put certain minorities and people in subordinate positions. Thus, an individualistic change in every person that operates the systems will change these people’s actions to destem the systemic racism that runs through the coarse of many businesses’ and systems’ veins.
The implicit bias that runs on a subconscious level, which against your beliefs, is what affects the daily behaviors in our human interactions, both in and outside of work. One of the first things that I came across in my research of strategies of reducing this implicit bias was a source from the institute for healthcare improvement. The healthcare line of work is a great example of a system that many minorities must utilize to live a long and healthy life. There are zero guidelines in the healthcare system that put a White man in front of a Black man in any situation or circumstance to put them in a superior condition. It is the everyday interactions between the doctor, nurse, and surgeons with their patients, ranging from all different ethnicities, that stems into the systemic racism that exists today. It is the fact that workers in such line of work possess the ability to work around such guidelines and with the endless possible scenarios in the world, and how they must make difficult everyday decisions this line of work brings.
Two effective strategies include individuating people from the collective ideas that surround them and to simply ask questions with any pre-existing knowledge out of the window. 10 The simplicity of these two strategies is the beauty of them as a small mental note in your head does bring real change. With my life being in four different places in the world, I can say I have encountered of the being the victim of and even been to blame of holding pre-existing prejudice against people.
Something that I remember when meeting people from all over the globe is that throwing away and forgetting knowledge is just as important as learning and gaining knowledge. As most probably, the knowledge you think you possess is most likely false, and like as a Zen monk stated, “How can you fill a cup that is already full?”11
Before understanding the first strategy, you must understand that our generations submergence in technology and the misrepresentation of many ethnicities in such media is what makes the ideas presented to blame rather than the individual itself. All the individual has is curiosity and the want to know why. This makes the logical and easy thing we do an act of seeing the individual and the culture as one mashed identity, rather than two coexisting entities that flow cohesively as one. Individuating the person from the cultural ideas and physical characteristic of their origins is the first step as every person does not reflect the ideas of their culture. I sure do not as I’ve been called Filipino, Hawaiian, Chinese, Mongolian, Vietnamese, and so forth. Clearly, my physical features do not line up with who I truly am, a Chinese-Japanese-American. This perfect -ian -nese of every ethnicity that lies subconsciously in the back of your head is only an accumulation of your past cross-racial relations and the products of the manipulative media. Know that this standard you’ve created is based off of some truth, but almost all the people you find around this race will vary greatly from your perceived standards. As you may know, I am Asian, but I sure do hate math and I also think its interesting to note that I’m a pretty good driver as well. Chuck that perception or that perfect “somethinganese” “blahblahbian” out the window and go in with a cup that only has the idea that you both have a brain, heart, and some bones.
The second strategy, after you have emptied your cup, is how all I want you to do is to ask where I’m from. “Japan.” “Cool is that where you were born?” “No, I was born in LA and then moved to Hawaii when I was 4.” “How long did you live in Hawaii?” “Until I was 12.” “So, when did you come to Bradenton, Florida?” “When I was 14.” “So you can speak Japanese just by living there for two years?” “I always spoke Japanese with my parents, but I learned how to read and write properly.” “Wow that is so cool” “Not too shabby, right? How about you? Where are you from?” You can ask my friends and parents, because I am the farthest thing, yet the closest thing to a Japanese person. It isn’t about how Japanese I am, but how much of who I am that I am staying true to. The only person that knows this is you.
It is time that we all on a national level must get hands on to improve ourselves as individuals to create a greater impact in this world.
Bibliography
DiAngelo, Robin J. White Fragility: Why It's so Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Boston: Beacon Press, 2020.
Jan, Tracy. “News Media Offers Consistently Warped Portrayals of Black Families, Study Finds.” The Washington Post. WP Company, April 29, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/12/13/news-media-offers consistently-warped-portrayals-of-black-families-study-finds/.
O'Brien, Barbara. “The Old Chinese Zen Saying, ‘Empty Your Cup ".” Learn Religions. Accessed January 24, 2021. https://www.learnreligions.com/empty-your-cup-3976934.
Rodgers, Nicole, and Rashad Robinson. “How the News Media Distorts Black Families.” The Washington Post. WP Company, December 29, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2017/12/29/a374a268-ea6d-11e7-8a6a80acf0774e64_story.html.
“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States.” Census Bureau QuickFacts. Accessed January 24, 2021.https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045219.
“How to Reduce Implicit Bias.” Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Accessed January 24, 2021. http://www.ihi.org/communities/blogs/how-to-reduce-implicit-bias.
We All Have Implicit Biases. So What Can We Do about It? | Dushaw Hockett | TEDxMidAtlanticSalon. Performed by Dushaw Hockett. TEDx Talks. September 18, 2017. Accessed August 24, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKHSJHkPeLY&t=634s.
Implicit Bias, Stereotype Threat and Higher Ed | Russell McClain | TEDxUniversityofMarylandBaltimore. Performed by Russel McClain. TEDx Talks. December 11, 2018. Accessed August 26, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiZQaE0q9BY&t=1s.