Stereotypes Extend into Television and the Video Age

At the start of Tuesday's class, our professor asked everyone to get in groups of three or four. The reason for this was to have an exercise among each other on discussing stereotypical ways that Hollywood portrays every cultural background. So, my group first thought about Black Americans/African-Americans. We viewed them as being loud, comical, strung out on drugs, living in a bad environment, being 'hood' as some say, having low income housing, being so aggressive towards themselves and others, not being too knowledgeable about life or situations that may come along, not making school a priority, etc. We thought about Latino Americans as being gang members, body tattooed up, having young beautiful females with a lot of children, fast talkers, etc. We thought of Asian Americans as people who are very smart, they all look alike, own many Chinese restaurants or  food businesses everywhere, very artistic, martial artist, etc. My group never discussed Caucasians Americans/White Americans, Native Americans, or even Arabic Americans because we ran out of time. The professor then had a few power point slides on cultural stereotypes in films from the first fifty years to this present day. She discussed the stereotypical ways on how Native Americans, Black Americans, Latinos, and Asians were viewed or seen in movies from then to this upcoming age and how things have change in some ways from a minority aspect. Meaning, how the color barrier has been broken in the film industry, how film made television so diverse with more minority actors having there own show and network, and changes with role playing has become a whole lot popular now, just from famous minority actors venturing out to different roles. If we think about Josephine Baker,Halle Berry, Bill Cosby, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Morgan Freeman, Gregory Hines, Lena Horne, James Earl Jones, Spike Lee, Eddie Murphy, Sidney Poitier, Richard Pryor, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey, and the list goes on and on, but we think about how these great actors and actresses have paved a way for so much and not just in the movie industry, just in life in general all around the world.