The Representation of Ethnicity

Definition:

1.       Ethnic traits, background, allegiance, or association.

2.       An ethnic group: representatives of several ethnicities were present.

Examples

Asian people:

·         Rich, business people

·         Religious,

·         Have been portrayed as terrorists,

·         Good at making curry.

·         Own corner shops.

·         Big families and they all live in one house with all relatives.

o   Masoods in Eastenders have their own business - typical of a Muslim family.

§  They own a curry place and are good at making it - is a typical representation of an Asian family.

§  They speak in a typical Indian accent.

§  However, have recently been praised as one of the most realistic "ethnic" families to ever have inhabited soap land and haven’t been subjected to the usual stereotypical storylines such as owning a corner shop, being subjected to racially motivated attacks, etc

§  We have also seen Syed realise he is gay - bending the stereotypical view of Muslim’s as they believe that being homosexual is wrong and it is forbidden in Islam

Travellers:

·         AKA gypsies

·         Usually Irish/foreign (Bulgarian/Romanian)

·         Associated with fun fairs

·         Live in caravans

·         Take over peoples land/destroy it

·         They make a mess and steal

·         Lacking in education

·         Wear vests and jeans and slobber everywhere

·         Sometimes long hair

·         Excess of lynx

·         Women wear big dresses and hooped gold earrings

·         British/Irish travellers prefer to be called ‘Travellers’

o   In waterloo road they moved their caravans onto the school grounds and many people were unhappy so they confronted them with conflict. It caused many problems and the police got involved – makes them seem like trouble makers and that they need to be controlled by the law. It also makes them appear selfish as they purposefully moved onto school property and didn’t want to move

o   Also in The Simpsons, their house got taken over by gypsies and they had to fight their way back in – see notes above

§  These examples only represent a small number of gypsies, but these stereotypes paint a negative picture when realistically we know they are not all bad.

Polish people:

·         Cheap labour

·         Poor

·         Have young families

·         Own kebab, chicken, pizza shops

·         Take all of our jobs. e.g. builders

o   In Coronation Street there were two polish girls who Carla employed. They were both illegal immigrants and one of them died so Carla had to cover it up by hiding her body. The other girl, Vicki, carried on working but no one liked her even though she was a good worker and she tried to make friends. But people began to like her after a while and she was then treated like everyone else

§  shows that stereotypical views can be changed

The “Brown” Race

·         “Brown” - often the general term used to describe the category of South Asian races

·         Most notably Indians are stereotyped – despite the fact that there are several countries who make up part of this geographic area

·         Seen as “comic relief” for dominant white culture – ridicule other countries such as Sri Lanka or Bangladesh  

Tessa Perkins

·         Said that all stereotypes have a bit of truth about them which makes them plausible

o   Said that most terrorists are Muslim but, not all Muslims are terrorists

A stereotype is normally viewed negatively

Positive representations are called corrective stereotypes -  where new ideas are created about a previous group to change our view about them. 

Common Representations of Race

·         Typical stereotype of an Asian woman - doctors or accountantsﾉnot artists, actors etc

·         Stereotypes of black people

o   Living in slums

o   On welfare

o   Need help from community

o   Less intelligent 

o   Over sexual

Black Men

o   Being lazy

o   Promiscuous

o   Bad fathers

o   Obsessed with rap

o   poor - nearly twice as often as their true incidence

o   Criminal

§  In video games - 79% of African-American males were shown as verbally and physically aggressive, compared to 57% of white males

o   late arrivers

Black women obsessed with

o   How much money a man earned

o   Were "strait-laced" compared to white women when it came to sex

o   Usually linked to black men

·         Asian people - invaders or karate experts.

o   own corner shops in England

o   Doctors

o   Engineers

o   Mathematicians

o   Newsagents- small businesses – entrepreneur

o   Ignorant

o   Extremely smart people

o   Men are threats to white women

o   Insensitive

o   Disrespectful towards women

·         Hispanic people - comics, banditos or gang members.

·         Native Americans - savages, victims, cowards or medicine men

·         People from Middle East are - terrorists or oil sheiks.

·         White people can’t dance

o   Dumb blondes

o   Greedy

o   Materialistic

o   Businessmen

o   Middle/upper class

o   Posh/ well spoken




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl5EDzss4-Q

Hotel Babylon
 - follows stereotypes
 - Black people - lazy - friend wants him to slack off of work and have a party - want to have a good time with the lady's - talk in slang
- foreign maids - low paid job - uniform - have to do other things to get more money
- White people seem to be in charge - business men and women - own business clothes - well spoken - white chef makes pain and un-interesting food - therefore the British are seen as dull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjwvCoiKZ-8
Spooks
Follows stereotypes - Indian/ Asian terrorists - have British citizens held captive in a dark and dreary house - tied up - British brought 'chaos and anarchy' to Iran - payback - threatening and therefore bad, while the British are good
- use of a video camera to make a ransom video - see it on the news
- British say they won't kill people themselves - but will send others to drop bombs - just as bad as terrorists - not stereotypical view
- Asian man wears a suit - business dress - powerful - not something you would see a 'terrorist' wearing - same sort of dress as the spies - show that both ethnicities are actually quite similar - not stereotypical