Media still labelling minorities

After being commissioned by the CRTC in 2001, the Task Force for Cultural Diversity on Television found that "there is a persistence of stereotyping and excessive negative or inaccurate portrayals of minorities" in Canadian programming.

I can already hear the grumbling about "special interests" and "political correctness" with respect to these findings: "Those people" have Black Entertainment Television, they have their Saturday and Sunday morning ethnic programs, so why the big fuss? What else do they want?

Discussing stereotypes that exist in the media with colleagues a couple of years ago, one teacher asked, "When was the last time you saw a black male die of natural causes on TV or in the movies?" I have posed this question in my classroom many times.

Again and again, students of all backgrounds are baffled. In our conversations, it is clear that the predominant media images of young black males are ones that reflect being continually shot at and suffering violent deaths, whether in hip-hop videos, TV dramas, movies, or news reports.

As I flip through TV channels, I rarely see representations of South Asians that challenge the predominant images of communities that are extremely diverse. As comedian/actor Jazz Mann mentioned in a recent talk to local high school students, aspiring young South Asian actors can look to convenience store clerk Apu from The Simpsons and Seinfeld's restaurant owner Babu as their North American role models.

Some may point out that OMNI TV has diverse ethnic programming on weekend mornings, and that there are an increasing number of South Asian news reporters. But on the whole, there appears little mainstream representation of most visible minority groups on television.

As the study indicates, when representation does occur, it is usually negative, reinforcing misperceptions.

Stereotypes form one side of the triangle that makes up racism. Prejudice and discrimination are the other two sides. Prejudice involves prejudging people, and is usually based on stereotypical images. The resulting discrimination is an act of carrying out unfair treatment of a person, or a group of people, based on prejudice.

For instance, based on representations in the media, you may believe all young South Asians over the age of 24 will be facing an upcoming arranged marriage forced upon them by overly strict parents. Consequently, you may judge them as young adults without a substantive voice, or assume that they always defer to their elders.

Hip-hop culture and, in particular, the urban fashion it represents, has been stigmatized, used to buttress systemic discrimination against minority and underprivileged youth.

Today, it is prevalent for some people, who may also be in positions of power and authority, to prejudge groups of young black males wearing doo-rags or bandanas and big coats with baggy pants as gang members.

Racial profiling has its roots in stereotyping, where we judge individuals and groups of people on appearance, as opposed to forming as opinion by observing their behaviour. For this reason alone, media have a responsibility to promote alternative perspectives and representations of minority groups.

When people do not interact with different racial or cultural groups or lack knowledge of the diversity that exists among ethnic communities, they often base their judgments on stereotypes.

Some form an opinion from limited personal experiences or perhaps base them on representations in the media. To treat people according to such superficial interpretations may result in minorities feeling inferior, neglected, and marginalized. It also perpetuates systemic racism.

As the Star's ombud Don Sellar asked recently: Why the need to include race in descriptions of wanted criminals? If anything, these types of labels are extremely dangerous and probably do much more harm than good. How many of you feel much more secure knowing the colour/race of the perpetrator? It only feeds or reaffirms negative images that people already have about certain groups of people.

Canadians, regardless of their ethnic or racial background, need to see people of all creeds and colours in a variety of roles within media portrayals. It is also important to realize that stereotypes exist not only among white individuals, but also among people classified as visible minorities.

Just as we want students around the GTA to see teachers from a variety of backgrounds as role models, we also need to see a range in the representations we observe in media to challenge ignorant assumptions.

However, we shouldn't hold our breath waiting for newspapers, TV programmers, and movie directors to change their tune, especially when there is a buck to be made. Instead, people need to use these misguided representations as opportunities to engage in critical dialogue.

If popular media do not want to be held accountable for simplified perpetuations, we, as active citizens, need to shoulder this responsibility ourselves.

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

Nice article.

What can we do to change such situation?

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A Proud Indian Canadian