minoritiesworld-blog

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To introduce our project, we found a quote from Stuart Hall about the representation in society which says: «The dominant definition of a problem acquires by repetition and by weight and credibility of those who propose and subscribed it the warrant of common sense. »  According to his opinion the representation of some minorities by the media become real for the population and so it represent their society. We must define what is a minority, it is a group of people who are put aside by the majority, who, them are members of a dominant social group. Minorities are being judged for their ethnic and social differences such as: religion, sexual orientation, skin color etc.  

About our subject, which is minorities in American series, as they are not represented they cannot imagine themselves and identify them to the character.

The few representations of minorities are subject of tension because they are based on prejudices. Indeed, the first picture of them in the series of the sixties was a character with no importance and stereotyped according to the idea that people had of this society.

As a result of this the evolution is present, in fact people stemming of social minorities are increasingly being promoted such as the series: My Wife and Kids which staged a black family as main characters.

The development will focus on the following question: how minorities are portrayed in American series?

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In the American series, it is very common that before but persisting today that the roles of minorities in the series are unfairly represented. The presence of stereotypes, clichés for all kinds of communities, be in the black community, the Latino community, or the LGBTQ +. But also, it is recurrent that minorities find themselves playing the bad roles in the series.

Let’s talk about the stereotypes present on the black community: in the American series black communities are often portrayed in the bad neighborhoods of the city they are associated with poor social classes (they will be found very rarely in business districts like businessmen or traders.) it is very common for black communities in American series to be associated with crimes or acts of violence. Like in the “Step Up High Water” series, from the first episode, two high school students (brother and sister) African-American move to a southern state of the United States. We see cartels, mostly represented by Hispanic and black tattooed neighborhoods. They are represented aggressively and to support that, at the end of the episode we see a scene of violence between the newcomer in high school and a group of three black American.

If blacks are only very poorly represented in an American series, it is very common to hear racist comments (often masked by humor) or the presence of blackface from actors who play their roles in the series, but especially in the affluent social classes of the series.

As an example, we can take the “Mad Men” series, in the scene or Roger Sterling, a white man, is painted his head in black to make laugh his friends (mostly rich). This scene presents a blackface that can be interpreted as a racist scene. (you can find an extract of the scene at the end of this post!)

But now that there is an awareness about the representation of minorities, especially of the black community, researchers and professors named Sebastien Lefait and Olivier Esteves are talking about the displacement of stereotypical representation on other minority not to mention more explicitly Indian or Latino minorities.

Concerning Hispanic minorities, the clichés are mostly similar to those of the black minorities: Poverty, crime, violence and low neighborhoods. But Latinos are often associated with poverty, but they are also undocumented immigrants (without green card), with the job of being servants for rich families. The “Devious Maids” series is a perfect example of this, it tells the story of Four Hispanic Domestic Workers, working in a very quiet residential area of Beverly Hills. Their job is to clean up the mess left by rock stars, billionaires and egocentric celebrities. ”. From the first episode the Latinas are presented as women of gossip, very active but submissive. (not very flattering). And they are reduced to their role of servant, without any outside profession.

The LGBTQ + community, although it is more and more present today in the American series as in: “This is us”, “Modern Family” or “Sense8”. They undergo clichés underlining the label of the character’s sexuality and not that of the normal human he can be…

On the gay side a lot of shows represent him in a young, beautiful and feminine way, almost always associating him as being the best gay friend. As in the “Glee” series with the Kurt character or in the “Riverdale” series for his character Kevin Keller, both represent as well.

While lesbians have a very masculine appearance or with a very aggressive behavior, for example with “Orange Is the new black” with the character of Boo and Samantha in “Glee”.

Transsexuals, meanwhile, are increasingly representing, but it is often that the transgender character is represented by a woman. With the caricature of the woman who pays attention to her… “Orange is the new black” with the character of Sophia Burset, who represents a transgender woman in the series, with the cliché of the woman who takes care of her.

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We have just seen the unjust representation of the minorities in the series, but there are also series that represent no minority. They are not many especially nowadays.

Let’s first look at the example of the series called Friends, an American series representing 6 friends in their daily lives. The main characters are basics and represent the good American types, there are no blacks or Latinos or homosexual for example. Why did the creators of the series not put forward various characters? We can, from time to time, see black and Latino people, but this is very rare. It’s a humorous series that wants people to identify with it somehow, but they do not represent everyone. In general, the audience identifies with the main characters and not with the secondary characters, so you have to represent all types of people

                                      Or in the Girls series, the four heroines are white, who sleep with whites, and work with and for whites. In the pilot, we saw a black tramp and an Asian. In the second episode, a gynecologist who appears to be of Indian origin. The same question always comes down to “Is it realistic?” That is to say: "Can I, a young Western woman, identify with these characters and their stories? ”

Unfortunately, after seeing several articles and series, we can see that black public or Latino public cannot easily identify with these characters, so they do not watch the series. Big brands like Netflix should think about it to change that.

We can also talk about the LGBT minority which is, for its part, very little represented. In a series, it is very rare to see someone homosexual or lesbian, or when it is the case it is a person and not even a main character, which is a pity.

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Previously, we have seen that minorities were negatively represented in American series. Moreover, these portrayals have created some voltages between communities and we can see that in series themselves.

Indeed, in these series, they are often exploited a lot of scenes of violence between communities. This is the case in Orange Is the New Black series, where women prisoners from different communities form ‘clans’ based on their ethnicities and compete with each other to try to dominate other communities.

What this series tries to show is the fact that black, Latino, Asian  or white communities are constantly under voltages and are subject to stereotypes. Orange is The New Black is an example that is interesting to deal with as well because this series denounces the tensions that already exist between communities in American society.

This series tries to represent the stereotypes that Americans people may have towards minorities.

 From now on, we will address the issue of homosexuality. We can deal with the question of the homosexuality, with some recent series created by Netflix. First, Sex Education, here homosexuality is a subject exploited through two characters. But, unfortunately, we can notice that one of them is discriminated due to the fact that he assume his sexual orientation.

As for the second, he doesn’t dare to talk about his homosexuality and he is even one of the pupils who victimize the other gay boy.

Secondly another serie also deal with this topic, it’s 13 Reasons Why. Here the characters who permit to approach this theme are more numerous. They are three, but, even though two of them assume, they are all facing to violent discrimination. One of them is afraid of made her coming out, although her parents are already gay.   This leads us to conclude that homosexuality remains a somewhat taboo subject in American series and that it is difficult to illustrate it. Indeed, none of the characters in these two series can fully assume themselves without being victims of mockery or violence, verbal and physical.

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We saw the problems present in the series but now we’ve gonna see that all this problem are present in our society.

Indeed, the insults, the harassments, the beatings that the ethnic and social minorities receive are not only present in the series but unfortunately, they are also found in our society.

Even if we can say that tensions are gradually reducing but when a new scandal is going out it bring back all the problems which were flattened such as the «Black lives matter» movement, it deals with police violence against American black people further to the murder of a young American black.

But the series do not only show the tensions of our society through their scenarios, they can also provoke them.

Indeed The Simpson created a debate because of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon who is an Indian character. Many viewers of this series criticize the fact that he represented all Indian stereotypes that society had, so much that Hari Kondabolu produced a documentary which denounce all of them. The Simpsons’ producer had proposed to develop the character with a competition of scenarios but finally he will be deleted. Further to this Adi Shankar said «If you are a show about cultural commentary and you are too afraid to comment on the culture, especially when it’s a component of the culture you had a hand in creating, then you are a show about cowardice, it’s not a step forward, or step backwards, it’s just a massive step sideways. After having read all these wonderful scripts, I feel like sidestepping this issue doesn’t solve it when the whole purpose of art, I would argue, is to bring us together. » The series preferred to avoid the problem than solving it.

Moreover, South Park, a cartoon for adults which talk about important subject, such as the religion or homosexuality, with too much irony and vulgarity, for example:  »My mom says if you want to become a lesbian, you have to lick carpet. «Shut up you black asshole!" South Park was victim of deprogramming, censorship even more attacks and trial but none of this has stopped the gallows humor of Matt Stone and Trey Parker.  

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Nowadays, opportunities to bring into the middle the parity issue are multiplying. Today’s series are asking us the following question: Is there a change into the representation of minorities in the US series?

In a series like This Is Us, broadcasted on the NBC channel, we can see that Afro-Americans characters are treated with the same strength, the same depth as white characters. For example, we can focus on one of the Afro-American characters: Randall Pearson.

He is an Afro-American raised in a white family although the scenarists didn’t hush up the difficulties of this situation. When he was a child, Randall Pearson wanted to play with other black friends, he was wondering why nobody was like him in his neighborhood and wished to join an Afro-American university instead of Harvard. As an adult, he decided to go in search of his biological father as well as trying to help a black community who is living in an unhealthy building.

A point worth talking is the fact that in this series, we see Randall from two viewpoints. On the one hand, we see him as an adopted child and on the other hand we see him as a child coming from an ethnical minority. There is a will from the scenarists to portray this character with realism and complexity, not only with stereotypes from the nineties.

This Is Us Saison 1 Trailer: (at the end of this post)

Indeed, the fact that minorities are even more portrayed as often as white characters is recent. Back in the nineties, black were portrayed as people with no friends, they weren’t suffering from racism and discrimination. Moreover, problems always came from them, not white people…

Today, minorities are increasingly coming at the center of the attention, passing from secondary to main roles, winning depth into their representation. That way, they can claim their identity, talk about the things they are victims of and the links they have with their community.

If the representation of minorities is evolving, it is because there is an awareness from the production and the audio-visual industry. To illustrate this point, we can allude to Apu, a character from The Simpsons who has been removed from the TV show in fall 2018 because the character was representing the Indu-American minority in an over stereotyped way.

The problem with Apu – Official Trailer – truTV: (at the end of this post)

This awareness began in the early 21th century with series such as Six Feet Under, a series featuring a homosexual and multiracial couple.

In addition to this, companies like Netflix are willing to give a new representation of minorities. Indeed, the company releases ever more series pointing out ethnical or gender minorities, giving them a new representation into the public sphere.

To illustrate this point, we can allude to Sense8, a series realized by two transgenders that took a role in this awareness. Indeed, the series highlights multiple society issues such as the portrayal of LGBT movements as well as misogynist and socio-ethnical matters within our society. A brand-new generation of scenarists, productors and actors came at the same time thanks to these new series, changing the portrayal of minorities.

It seems that future series needs to tend to the portrayal of minorities that Insecure has made, a series broadcasted on HBO since 2016. This series has been written by scenarists from the Afro-American community, even if it is primarily thought of black point of view in America, it does not take place in a ghetto and staged thirty-year-old financially well off. Here, Afro-American are portrayed like any other character. It allows to reduce minorities stereotypes.

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The producers of series are being accused of not sufficiently reflecting the diversity. They can take shelter behind the argument of the fiction, to remind that the aim of their programs is in no case to be faithful to the reality. In the contrary, they can claim to reflect a reality where minorities do not have the good role and blame policy makers for their inability to improve the situation.

In the same way, the political institutions will be able to argue of the distended link that the fiction has with the real one to continue to do nothing or, on the contrary, to pretend that the series which seem to reflect a socio-ethnic reality appeased, like the example of "Black-ish", are the symptom of a real improvement. In both cases, the status quo will be preserved.

It is probably for this reason that the representation of racial relations on the screen has long resulted in the invisibilities of minorities: if we read the reality in the prism of television or cinema, the problem did not exist. This logic prevailed at least until the Kerner Commission, set up in the aftermath of the riots of the 1960s, proposes to put an end to this media invisibility and thereby to resolve "the indifference of the White America To minorities. "

Certainly, today some US series are exemplary regarding to the insertion of minorities in themselves like “Insecure” or “This is us” but there is still progressing to make.

 Is it better to focus on quality or quantity ? Or we can say: Is this mostly a quota policy ?

When we speak about quality it means here the question: What image do we give to minorities in the US series and how to avoid stereotypes ?

One of the most important problem about minorities in the US series is that they are not well represented. For example the character Apu in “The Simpsons” who is from the Indu-American community was the only of his community to be present in US series but he was a lot stereotyped like with his religion, his accent, his octuplets babies... Apu was deleted of The Simpsons because of these stereotypes.

 Assimilate a person to a community because of his color of skin for example means that we want him to represent his community and then, there is more stereotypes. This is a real problem for the people who are from minorities because each of them are different and this is not fair to represent them as a group in the case of doing stereotypes.

There are other debates like the fact that black people are tired of their image of struggle and difficulties in the US series. They would like that people show the joy of being black.

An important tweet open again the debate « I want TV & movie projects that celebrate the joy of blackness not just our struggles & hardships. When can we get those? » .

Even though black actors are not really known, it is worst for black author, directors and producers. Viola Davis talked about this when she won her Emmys; she said : “You can not win prices for role that are simply not there”.

In this way, we could say that if we want a better representation of minorities in american series without all the stereotypes and other things, then we need to act in “real life” and change the way our society is dealing with minorities.

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To conclude on this subject, we can be said that the under-representation and stereotypical representation of minorities in American series has created tensions among communities and has had a significant impact on society since it can be seen that series have an influence on the viewer's perspective on each community.

However, in recent years the situation has tended to evolve and is making progress with regard to this more present and relevant representation of minorities.  Despite this, progress remains to be made.

In addition to that, a platform that has developed considerably in recent years truly shows and denounces the problems faced by minorities and treats them with rigor. This platform is none other than Netflix, which, with its original series and programs such as Orange Is The New Black and Dear White People, has succeeded in raising awareness among viewers of the harmful impact that any exclusion of minorities in society can have.  Thanks to its original creations, Netflix has established itself as a leader in offering rich and varied series on minorities.