Moving Forward or Stepping Back?

Media and Minorities:

After reading these six chapters, I am aware of some issues that I hadn’t thought about before. In chapter one: The authors discuss a lot about the racial stereotypes and wrongness portrayed in the Apprentice. How even though the show was hit, the show portrayed the “whiteness” or the dominant culture and where only the white people would win. Where others could only be seen as helpers, hinders, dramatists, and stereotypes of their racial statuses. The show never really portrayed and racial minority other than African Americans, which I find really sad because there are so many other people whose identities and cultures should be a part of this show. It might have helped to connect to more people and made the show even popular. But sadly, the show only lasted six seasons (not including the celebrity versions).

In chapter two: The authors discuss exclusion and selective exclusion. Now, I’ve known the idea behind these terms were going on with previous media studies classes, but the term “selective exclusion” was new to me. They way in which they authors used this term applied to what they consider to adhere to the dominant ideology. “When outsider communications are co-opted by the mainstream, their messages tend to be neutralized and domesticated. This is one way in which the dominant ideology is maintained. The dominant culture can appropriate the contributions of racial minorities without fully understanding or respecting them” (20). This statement applies to the remaining four chapters and is discussed by showing how mainstream media reinstates this ideology.

Chapter three, four, five, and six: This chapter discusses the many different roles and stereotypes that African Americans, Native American, Hispanics, and Asian Americans played in films and television throughout the years. They were selectively excluded to play roles that would show them as weak, bad, or other the other hand they assimilated to the white ideology and were accepted only as sidekicks, friends, and helpers but never as equals or heroes. The authors give many great film examples that I have seen, yet when they discuss the positive images in films they exclude so many great films that cherish and validate minority races. The only film mentioned that truly was a great example was Smoke Signals, this film “demonstrates the beauty of the reservation and breaks down stereotypes by showing ‘the kind of powerful Indian I’ve known all my life’” (55). Other films they left out were Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I know this is not a Hollywood film but it was widely seen and accepted in America for its beauty of the Japanese culture.

I agree with much of what the authors say about the film industry controlling what we see in the media, and I know that there is much stereotyping and selective exclusion, but there are also more and more independent film companies now a days trying to break through this stronghold. There have been so many movies that I have seen that beautify and celebrate minorities and at the same time making them the majority within films. I think that since this book was written in 2006, they are missing some of the changing films in today’s society. Even though these things are occurring, I am not dismissing the fact that the film industry is predominantly white and would like to continue to show assimilation to feed their dominant ideology. Ugh. I get sick to my stomach every time I think about this.