Racial Stereotypes as a Social Construction - Assignment Example

Racial Stereotypes as a Social Construction Introduction Film and television are powerful agents of change, but contain scenes of racism such as the ‘comic Negro’ and ‘contented slave’ that perpetuates negative stereotypes against African Americans. The film industry will widen the class and race gaps through portraying the White Americans as rich and well educated while the minorities such as Blacks and Latinos are portrayed as uneducated (Valdivia p 398). Race stereotypes is a social construction by the powerful and dangerous US mainstream Hollywood culture that dominates the US movie industry, but racial minority filmmakers are trying the re-construct the identity that has been damaged by the mainstream Hollywood films that depicting positive perceptions and images of racial minorities in the society (Kiuchi p 213). Analysis Hollywood mainstream movies represent the White Americans as heros since movie scenes contain scenes were minorities like Hispanics and Blacks are killed and only for the White hero to save the day. The Whiteness is unquestioned and reinforced and is associated with privileges such as authority, education, power and richness (Friedman p 48). In this case, the mainstream culture advocates for melting down and assimilation of the minority identities in to the White culture in order to form the misunderstanding. The movies identify the existing race relations and people of color since Asians are represented as ‘yellowface’ while the Indians are represented as the ‘Redface’. Native Americans: American Indian The smoke signals (1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBEhz8vw2AM The film is directed and produced by Native Americans and deals with contemporary Native American culture as evidenced by the discussion between Victor and Thomas on the ‘real’ Indian look. Victor asserts that a real Indian is stoic and has long hair like a warrior, but Thomas asserts that Indians were fishermen and not warriors. The movie talks about Native American struggles and the final unity with Whites and thus aims at ending the socially construed stereotypes since Indians are not threatening. Smoke signals film explores the historical memory, identity, forgiveness and daily Indian activities thus portraying Indian Americans as noble savages that are forgiving and helpful. Before the advent of film, the Natives were depicted bloodthirsty savage Natives as aggressive or more helpful noble savage that could destroy even White settler’s children and women. The stereotypes portray Native Americans as lacking European customs and other noble character images like ‘Indian princesses’. The Indians are portrayed as marauding since they carry bows, arrows and spears in the films such as The Iron Horse (1924) and Lone Ranger that aired in ABC-TV in early 1950s. The films have socially construed the American Indians as threatening. Billy Jack’s film like ‘The Trial of Billy Jack (1974) reiterates the Natives as ‘half-breed’ and ‘redface’ and illustrates the prejudice and corruption encounters at the American system. Although Billy Jack is interested in peace, the film reinforces the violent machismo prejudice. They are stereotyped as mocking and generic and incapable of change. The American Indians are considered Native people and situated in categories with non-humans such as bears, tigers and lions (Tahmahkera p 330). Asian Americans ‘The Mask of FU Manchu’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpzypx_bwxQ The film is racist and offensive and is full of many torture scenes. Boris Karloff, Chinese scientist is portrayed as criminal since he has a sword and mask of Genghis Khan and aims at pursuing power through kidnapping Professor Lionel Barton. The film has sexually seductive scenes and posits world fantasy whereby Chinese have Black slaves. This is a negative stereotype of an attempt of ‘yellowface’ to conquer the White race as white female sexuality is contained in the sceens. The National review (1997) rekindled the race stereotypes debate by using a yellowface cartoon to demonstrate political corruption since Clinton administration solicited campaign donations from Asian Americans. The yellowface is a common stereotypes associated with Asian Americans the misrepresents them as ‘Oriental’ and having facial features like mustard-yellow skin color and slanted eyes. The Asian Americans are portrayed as foreigners who have a danger of polluting American identity. Asian Americans are represented as Arabs who are violent and perpetuate terrorism as evidenced by the numerous images such as American dreams (2006) and Crash (2004) that capitalize on the anti-Muslim feelings in American culture. African Americans ‘Crash (2004) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Crash+%282004%29 Cameron Thayer, the film producer is a African American and Graham Waters (detective) exhibits internal racism. The films show that Blacks can work in authority positions as Dixon, the superior police officer is a Black. However, the movies portrayed Black American aggressive behavior, but reinforces the need to follow the due justice process. The movie contains scenes of rescuing of Chinese trafficker and immigrants that showing that racial stereotypes must end, but Ryan, the White policeman is seen making racist remarks and molesting women. Hispanic Locksmith Daniels seems untrustworthy and as a gang member since he has a shaved head and many tattoos. Anthony, an African American is portrayed a criminal since he robs Rick and Jean in carjacking incident while Peter is shot by Hansen fro carjacking. The Persian shop owner seems not to trust Latinos. The African Americans are referred as the ‘Negro’ and are associated with negative activities such as crime and drug abuse in most of the Hollyhood movies (Foster p 90). Latin Americans ‘Real women have curves (2002) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpDifyDIp0 The film is about Latino women encounters with struggles such as employment, love, body weight and other social issues. Ana, Latino-American college student struggles with typical teenage issues such as societal tensions on relationships and pressure to get married. Although Ana is a determined student, the lacks self-awareness and is doubtful of her image and struggles to lose weight. Ana’s mother does not appreciate education and she is displayed as a character who is stubborn and uneducated that representing the traditional Latin Americans stereotyping. Ana ultimately loses her virginity before the wedding day, thus signals the end of conservative culture and empowerment of women on their sexuality since she seems not to regret it. The Latin Americans were referred as ‘Carmine or Guido’ that means a single-minded person who speaks broken English or has a bushy moustache. The Latin Americans are often seen as street vendors who struggle to feed their large families as in the ‘Life with Luigi’ (CBS TV program of 1952). Recently, the Latin Americans were stereotyped as anarchists who desire toppling the public control and social order through violent means rather than assimilating in the dominant culture. Latino women are portrayed in limited roles and overlap with African American female images as maid or welfare mothers or in sexually suggestive dancing scenes in the films (Foster p 57). Some of the movies that have negative stereotypes against Latino women include the ‘Untamed Heart, It could happen and Do the right thing’ since the women as seen in seductive dances (Valdivia p 400). However, the 1970s witnessed the rise of successful Italian actors like Talia Shire and John Travolta that signaled the beginning of erasing the Latino stereotypes, but the Italian film directors like Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Godfather (1972)’ contained gangster violence scenes that continued to perpetuate the negative Latin American identity. Conclusion The racial images contain ‘color-coded’ and negative morals that fuel the misconceptions and advance the misunderstanding of the minority racial groups. The minority stereotypes are socially constructed and distorted since the black representations are portrayed as incapable of innovation, transformation and change while Native Indians are depicted as threatening. The Latin Americans stereotypes see Latin Women as sexual objects and latino men as aggressive and criminals. The decline in popularity of Western film genre has shifted the representations as minority filmmakers have tried to re-construct the stereotypes associated with Native American Indians in the films as evidenced the Dances with Wolves (1990) film that finds the Lakota culture as peaceful and US cavalry as brutal. However, Minority filmmakers have started reconnecting to their ethnic and racial heritages by taking pride in their Latin, Irish and other roots. Race stereotypes is a social construction by the powerful and dangerous US mainstream Hollywood culture that dominates the US movie industry, but racial minority filmmakers are trying the re-construct the identity that has been damaged by the mainstream Hollywood films that depicting positive perceptions and images of racial minorities in the society. Works cited: Foster, Gwendolyn. Performing Whiteness: post-modern re/construction in Cinema. New York: University of New York Press. 2003. Friedman, Lester., ed. Unspeakable images: ethnicity and the American cinema. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 1991. Kiuchi, Yuyi. Struggles for equal voice: the history of African American media democracy. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2012. Tahmahkera, D. ‘Custers last sitcom: decolonized viewing of the Sitcom’s Indian’, The American Indian quarterly, Volume 32, Number 3, Summer 2008, pp 324-351. Valdivia, A.N. (2014). ‘Stereotype or transgression’, Sociological quarterly, volume 39, Number 3, pp 393-408. Read More