Racial Representation in Mainstream Media

[Applause]

when i was about five years old

my mother bought me a book called all

the colors of the earth

and upon opening it i realized it was

unlike any other one i’d ever read

before

because it was filled with children of a

range of different colors

the author sheila hamanaka described

children

in the roaring brands of bears and

soaring eagles

the whispering golds of late summer

grasses and the crackling russets of

fallen leaves

the tinkling pinks of tiny seashells by

the rumbling sea

hearing this little excerpt even now i

still remember the warm feeling it

filled me with ten years ago

and the joy i felt to see a brown girl

on paper

when i was seven i remember running to

my mother crying and demanding to know

why she and my father had given me my

name riti

i told her i wanted to change it

immediately

she looked at me puzzled at first before

humoring me and asking me

why that was to be honest i hadn’t

expected to get that far so i just broke

down further

into a sobbing wailing and tearful mess

while she comforted me

still confused by this emotional inquiry

i didn’t know how to tell her that i

wanted to change more than just my name

but also my skin my hair my

eyes my culture my everything

you see i wanted to be an ashley or an

emily

with fair skin and blonde hair and blue

eyes

not a riti with brown skin and brown

hair

and brown eyes i felt disgusted that i

felt this way but i also felt disgusted

to be within my own body

unseen in the books i read on the tv

shows i watched

i was jealous of some of my friends who

did have somebody who looked like them

so when we played make-believe or joked

about who we wanted to be when we were

older

they always had a character or an answer

eventually i brushed my feelings off and

i told my mother i didn’t want to talk

about it again

and she understood she had bought me

that book

all the colors of the earth two years

prior because she knew

how much i struggled with my color

but despite her best efforts that

feeling of unimportance

of being a brown wilted leaf amongst

fresh screens

that didn’t go away

now eight years later i’m here to talk

to you about the power of racial

representation

and why it still matters because i know

i’m not the only child who felt

inadequate

who felt that they didn’t meet the

caucasian ideal presented to us in our

media

i also know that i’m not the only person

waiting for the day when my generation

won’t have to run down to the local mall

to pick up a picture book

just so their five-year-old can feel

accepted

so let’s begin by talking about one of

the most commonly used words nowadays

diversity i’ll admit it has gotten

better in recent years

with films like black panther and crazy

rich asians

and verbal outrage where such

representation has failed to manifest

netflix now one of the largest streaming

services available

has been pushing through diversity

calling for actors of various ethnic

backgrounds to front line tv shows and

movies

to convey the stories of people of color

minorities are also steadily surging

into cinemas at a higher rate than ever

historically recorded before

with 54 of the audience of avengers end

game

one of the largest blockbuster films in

recent years being made

up of people of color

it feels like we’re finally on the path

towards seeing non-white folk on the

screen

as a norm rather than a spectacle

however it is far more difficult to

cleanse an industry notorious for its

flawless execution of racism

through stereotyping and job exclusion

behind the scenes than one might think

and these small strides towards

diversity

they shouldn’t be mistaken for the

bigger victory of equal racial

representation

in fact to better illustrate this for

you i just want to share a few

statistics

in 2019 27.6 of lead actors in hollywood

were people of color

a increase to 2018 whilst 15.1 percent

of all movie directors

were minorities or 4.2 decreased

to the previous year diverse movie

writers also covered a measly population

of 13.9 percent

so better sure sometimes

but perfect hardly

a major reason for this stifle growth is

a lack of understanding on what racial

representation is

and why it matters in the first place

often

representation is confused with having a

single black

asian or latino or non-white character

in an otherwise completely caucasian

caste

they’re solely for comic relief or to

convey a false sense of diversity

you know what i’m talking about we’ve

all seen it

these token characters have

personalities built on stereotypes

and are there for the rare difficult

conversations about discrimination

as a love interest antagonist or

for humor reasons as the main

character’s best thought

they don’t get the limelight they just

take the box

and of course racial representation is

not perpetuating stereotypes

and expressing a race or ethnic group

how it’s assumed to be

most of all it is not caucasian erasure

it is however the equal representation

of various racial and ethnic groups with

accurate research and understanding

now a few of you might be thinking

what’s the big deal

we do have representation why aren’t you

talking about that

well i agree but first let’s face it out

of it

for over a century minorities on people

of color have been victim to the media’s

belittling and demeaning

portrayal of their people they have

watched

as an industry profited off of age-old

stereotypes and perceptions

to garner larger audiences often at the

expense

of people of color and their actors

our writers directors and artists are

silenced

and locked out of decision-making rooms

our stories diluted

and manipulated to create a norm which

we all blindly follow

consequently what we see

is often a caricature of our cultures

and screen

we get stereotypes like the dragon lady

or

tiger mom the overly sexual latino or

the sassy black woman

we see tropes like the white male savior

a narrative based on a white man

who upon recognizing the peril of people

of color

caused by racism and discrimination

saves them

which in reality is simply an extension

of colonialism and narcissism

exploiting the struggles of minorities

and people of color

for a touching redemption arc

we don’t get accurate representation

instead we see people that look like us

on screen

but people that we can’t fully identify

with

because they’re interpreted through a

whitewash filter

over the camera lens somebody else’s

lens

this creates a confusing relationship in

which we’re expected to be grateful to

be seen

but we don’t understand what we’re

seeing

or first of all we don’t even get this

representation in the first place

and our characters are never written or

they are raised

take scarlett johansson’s role in the

movie the ghost in the shell for example

which was originally written for an

asian woman but was whitewashed

look at the fictional character of al

harrison in the non-fictional movie

hidden figures which told the story of

katherine johnson

a black woman and the nasa rocket launch

who is there solely

for his white male savior narrative

internalized racism and prejudices

continue

to be seen throughout the fabric of what

makes hollywood

you can see it in characters like

baljeet from phineas and ferb

ravi from jessie abu from the simpsons

or gloria from modern family

and unfortunately these stereotypes

don’t only stay on screen

disguised as entertainment they venture

further into our lives

our work into our world

so let’s talk through these impacts a

bit by looking at the following articles

from the same journalists published

within a day of one another

about two different groups who committed

the same crime

when the news agency was questioned for

their decision to obtain

graduation photos for the caucasian men

you see on screen here but mugshots

for the african-american men they

defended themselves

saying that they needed to put in a

formal request to get mugshots

however in doing so they overlook their

decisions to perpetuate

the stereotype of black men being

immediately guilty in the crimes that

they’re accused of

this is evidence of a subtle racial bias

that manifests without an individual’s

knowledge

without the individual recognizing the

gravity of their actions

of course the criminalization of black

men and women seen in the media

and news goes further than only with

black people

internalized racism and prejudice

continues on for other minorities and

racial groups

and this impacts everything from the

very weight that we interact with one

another

so let me lay out these impacts for you

in a more clear manner

in our legal systems people of color are

five times more likely to be convicted

of longer sentences

for the exact same crimes a study

conducted by the remain trust and the

university of greenwich also found

that black and muslim inmates are

consistently treated worse

within prisons police

as we see nowadays are able to act as

judge jury and executioner before

their suspects sometimes the innocent

and mostly

people of color are able to say their

case

in the world of economics and finance

children of color are more likely to be

of lower socioeconomic statuses by the

time they are adults

even if they do start from the same

financial status

as their caucasian counterparts caused

by

racially biased hiring and policing

another study found that minorities who

whitened their resumes

removing any racial cues or cultural

hints got nearly twice

as many callbacks for interviews

in the world of residency and health

care minorities

are affected by residential housing

segregation

and are more likely to live in densely

populated areas that are farther away

from basic facilities such as medical

care facilities

grocery stores and pharmacies making it

more difficult for them to obtain their

most basic needs

people of color are also more likely to

not have insurance coverage

adequate pay sick leave ensure

adventure insurance and a variety of

other factors that impact their

day-to-day lives

this has become increasingly apparent

with the pandemic and cobia 19

as studies have found that people of

color are disproportionately affected

by what our world is facing making up

more of the severe outcome cases

hospitalizations and deaths

finally in pop culture and media we see

the cultures of non-white folk

being appropriated for beauty purposes

or aesthetics

just take the fox eye trend or the trend

of darkening your skin

wearing large hoops dreadlocks box

braids

thin these to coachella or native

american feathers

hairstyles jewelry and clothing garments

that were previously deemed to ghetto

to weird or too exotic and now being

reappropriated

for white audiences and portrayed as

trendy cool and the next big thing

what began as appreciation has quickly

shifted towards cultural appropriation

and erasure and arguably the worst

impact of all

which affects everybody listening to

this whether as a parent

child or teacher is how racial

stereotyping and prejudice seen through

our media

affects children a study conducted in

communication research that surveyed

over 400 children

found that white boys are more likely to

develop higher self-esteems

as compared to children of different

races

or girls this is a result of gender and

racial practices conducted by hollywood

and the media as a whole in which

caucasian men are conveyed as heroes

whilst other groups are pushed aside as

antagonists

sexual interests side characters

or simply unimportant

furthermore these impacts they don’t

only stay on screen

as mentioned they affect everything down

to how we interact with one another

as put by nancy ryan yuen who wrote real

inequality

hollywood actors and racism this is

dangerous

because when there is a lack of racial

representation people tend to rely

on media stereotypes to formulate their

opinions

about people outside of their own race

and when these stereotypes are damaging

or inaccurate this changes the way

that we interact with one another as a

whole

today when the conversation about

anti-racism and activism

is more poignant than ever we need to

pause and consider what cues we’re

taking in from our media

because unfortunately prejudices and

biases are all around us

in asia we may think that we are

excluded from the narrative of racism

that we see

across the western world particularly in

the united states

but we are not for it is in the very

media that we see all around us

we cannot stay silent and oblivious and

we need to start noticing

what we’re reading what we’re watching

and what we’re taking in

so speak up thank you