Dear Larson, I have a Question...

There are some concerns for this text, Media & Minorities: The Politics of Race In News and Entertainment. The primary issue that I have acknowledged with this book is the types of examples or statements she uses to convey her message of racism in the media. I am not necessarily arguing against her examples, they are valid and relatively good points of reference that do depict instances of racism. However I keep finding myself arguing against some of them. For instance, she writes,” For years, television avoided racially political themes to avoid offending white Southerners” (Larson. 23). I find it hard to believe that the media was trying to avoid racially political issues ONLY for the sake of White Southerners.  Also in the same chapter, the discussion about the subservient “mammie” was informative, but left me to question other examples of characters that seemed to straddle types of stereotypical roles. Characters, such as Butterfly McQueen in Mildred Pierce, who obviously portrayed the Negro nanny but also showed qualities that embodied the childish, ignorant but lovable “coon” were not mentioned, or should I say classified in Larson’s text. Where would these multidimensional characters fit into the racist realm of media and politics? Also I thought about how other minorities were being depicted as the “mammie” such as the nameless nanny in Little Women, who was Irish. I understand that the text based primarily ethnicity and segregation, but it is interesting how Larson uses some historical context to justify her angle but leaves out the harsh treatment of other immigrants during the 1800’s and 1900’s.

Another comment about the text I want to make is the reoccurring theme of how minorities represent for their entire race. Larson separates the minorities into types of stereotypes the media uses. This does help us as readers identify the on goings in Hollywood, but it also perpetuates the notion that any minority, individual or collective, is seen as a representative for their whole race because Larson is making the stereotype dependant on the dominant culture’s perceptions. Now I’m not sure there is a way to fix how one minority does not equate to an entire culture, but when reflecting on ethnic groups in the media, you see that minorities are more often categorized and the ones in power are more likely to be address as such. We are more acceptable of the fluid motion of language that goes back and forth between identifying Caucasian characters as individuals and being a representative of their race (stereotypes vs. white ally/savior).