Is US telivision too white?

[Tim Cornelis]

Is US television* too white?

Question for US folk here. Is US television too white, or does its demographic makeup correspond to how you perceive and experience the demographic makeup around you?

Because if we look at Breaking Bad we see it takes places in Albuquerque New Mexico where 40% is European American 40% Hispanic American, yet about 70% of the main and recurring characters are European American.
Dexter: Miami is populated by 10% European American, yet main and recurring cast is majority European American.

[G4b3n]

These institutions actually carry out very in depth studies in order to appeal to their targeted audience, this having nothing to with an accurate racial portrayal of a given geographical area.

[Skyhilist]

With these things it's generally about making the most money for companies, not favoring one race specifically.

If it's a choice between making money or pandering to whites at a disproportionate amount, companies will choose the former.

However, shows may still over-represent whites. This is a result of institutional racism in society and a projection of that: not a result of companies consciously putting racism before profits.

[Popular Front of Judea]

How often does American television provide a sympathetic portrayal of working people -- white, black or latino?

The people of TV-ville compose a community far removed from our own: a town with a data-capture expert but no dishwasher, a rocket scientist but no sanitation worker, and a tech magnate but no truck driver. TV-ville is full of people who run their own businesses, often inherited: an inn, a brew pub, a winery, a portrait gallery. Compared to the rest of us, they're much more likely to be wrangling with underlings or regulators rather than bosses. Many of them are celebrities: celebrity chef, celebrity hairstylist, NFL player, sitcom star, pop star, vice president of the United States. These celebrities should create ample business for TV-ville's transition consultant, sports agents, talent agent, executive recruiter, and dating guru.


Welcome to TV-ville, Population: People Richer Than You | Dissent (http://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/welcome-to-tv-ville-population-people-richer-than-you)

[edwad]

our society enforces this white supremacist idea that white people are beautiful and that other races aren't. make-up companies will often use conventionally attractive white women (if you ever see black women, they tend to be light skinned because the lighter you are, the more white people will accept you as being beautiful because you look more like them) in their ads to appeal to this idea and make the consumer think that this product can make them beautiful. you'll see popular shows with an all white cast (friends, how I met your mother, etc), but whenever a Tyler perry movie comes out, a lot of white people feel uncomfortable going and often wonder "where are the white people", without realizing that they've been brainwashed into thinking that white people are normal people and that everyone else is strange or foreign somehow. this same idea easily takes shape when you hand two children, 1 white and 1 black, a picture of a person to color, and the white kid leaves the person white while the black kid will color the person to look more like them. I know when I was a kid, I looked at instances like that and thought "why would you color Santa Claus black? he's white!" without realizing that people are more comfortable looking at their race. I think this is because our hierarchal society is cruel to all races except whites, so individual races are forced to cling to each other, while the whites look down on those people, so they are also bound together as a race. I used to feel uncomfortable watching Tyler perry movies because my race wasnt represented, but now I can't even imagine how other races feel when their races are rarely represented, and when they are, it's for a purpose such as playing the role of a black gangster, or a funny sounding Asian, or some other role that reduces a race down to a stereotype. so yes, our tv is mostly full of white people, and if you watch tv and pay attention to how many PoC are represented, you'll start to realize that white people are dominating the media at every turn, and lots of PoC have told me that they feel like they're blatantly being told they're inferior for not being represented enough/accurately.

[Flying Purple People Eater]

These institutions actually carry out very in depth studies in order to appeal to their targeted audience, this having nothing to with an accurate racial portrayal of a given geographical area.

You seriously think these appeal studies don't take into account racist attitudes?

There's a reason behind why african-American and mexican people often portray a particular racial stereotype in television series.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Yes, the kinds of representations you see on film and tv are way off most of the time. The u.s. is simultaneously more diverse and more segregated than on t.v.

[G4b3n]

You seriously think these appeal studies don't take into account racist attitudes?

There's a reason behind why african-American and mexican people often portray a particular racial stereotype in television series.

I didn't say that at all, however, I would need to see some evidence of this otherwise it is just speculation. The neo-liberals in charge of these corporations generally want to give themselves that champion of equality image.

[Misericordia]

Sometimes they show the brown people in foreign countries with names that are hard to pronounce that we have bombed on TV. So, no.

'MURICA.

[Conscript]

Heh, I like to watch leave it to beaver. Those shows aren't white to me.

[Il Medico]

I remember reading somewhere that television shows here in the states accurately reflect the racial diversity of like 50 years ago when tv started and hasn't really updated for all the new immigrants and stuff.

[Red Commissar]

There have been some shows that had all-African American cast, though those were in the past now. Off the top my head we had Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Family Matters, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and then some shows that weren't on prime-time like Everybody Hates Chris or House of Payne.

I think it could be said though that some of those shows often had an airbrushing effect, focused more on comedy and "normal" family issues than those of race. I haven't really watched much TV as of late but it seems the major shows casts are still dominated by whites. We got some cases of say Chris Rock in 30 Rock or Sofía Vergara in Modern Family, but they're often the lone non-anglo in the cast.

I think that in general Hispanics seem to be very underrepresented in media. For a demographic that's becoming pretty significant in the US, it's rare to even see a Hispanic even in a token role. One exception to this was the George Lopez Show, but that got canned by ABC. To add insult to injury its timeslot was picked up by "Cavemen", a show that was based off the Geico Commercials (yeah) and cancelled before it even ended the first season.

[Creative Destruction]

There have been some shows that had all-African American cast, though those were in the past now. Off the top my head we had Cosby Show, Sanford and Son, Family Matters, The Jeffersons, Good Times, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and then some shows that weren't on prime-time like Everybody Hates Chris or House of Payne.

I think it could be said though that some of those shows often had an airbrushing effect, focused more on comedy and "normal" family issues than those of race. I haven't really watched much TV as of late but it seems the major shows casts are still dominated by whites. We got some cases of say Chris Rock in 30 Rock or Sofía Vergara in Modern Family, but they're often the lone non-anglo in the cast.

I think that in general Hispanics seem to be very underrepresented in media. For a demographic that's becoming pretty significant in the US, it's rare to even see a Hispanic even in a token role. One exception to this was the George Lopez Show, but that got canned by ABC. To add insult to injury its timeslot was picked up by "Cavemen", a show that was based off the Geico Commercials (yeah) and cancelled before it even ended the first season.

The Hispanics that are represented in television seem to be overly-sexualized, as well (Gloria from Modern Family, etc.) The most notable exception I can find to this is FX's The Bridge, where the cast is almost equal in terms of representation and the show does well to spurn stereotypes. The lead male character in the show isn't promiscuous because he's Latino -- it's because he's a dickheaded man.

[brigadista]

i watched Bamboozled again this weekend after quite a few years -which says it all really - it is worth watching with Spike Lee's commentary if you don't get it

breaking bad is driving me mad and I have made comments on that on the breaking bad thread -

the wire went some way to getting it right imho but we wont see anything like that again i doubt

[adipocere]

The same is true in mainstream fiction writing. Characters are white. If the (rarely main) character is black, you are reminded every other sentence. If the character is not white, they are designated by their nationality. I've seen exceptions to this, I have read a book where the female character was nominally black...she was mixed actually (and don't you forget it!)- but she had to be a least technically a little black for the plot to make sense. Still she was slender, beautiful, light skinned with flowing hair and her love interest, who was clearly attracted to her exotic beauty, was white as the driven snow.

I'm generalizing above, but after having read literally thousands of novels over the years - yeah - it works that way in books too.

I always have liked the TV show In the Heat of the Night. It's really very good. It deals a lot with issues such as labor and racial tensions and poverty and crime in a small racist backwater in Mississippi - actually that is entirely what it is about - that - and the cops who have to deal with it, even the community tensions with the police over race and power are dealt with. Although the central figure of the series is white, his default white status is also one of the underlying issues and a main plot driver behind the series is the black cop who has rank on the redneck deputies. The cops aren't perfect either and the show doesn't balk at some of the hypocrisy of their words and actions. It also happens to be entertaining.

[brigadista]

The same is true in mainstream fiction writing. Characters are white. If the (rarely main) character is black, you are reminded every other sentence. If the character is not white, they are designated by their nationality. I've seen exceptions to this, I have read a book where the female character was nominally black...she was mixed actually (and don't you forget it!)- but she had to be a least technically a little black for the plot to make sense. Still she was slender, beautiful, light skinned with flowing hair and her love interest, who was clearly attracted to her exotic beauty, was white as the driven snow.

I'm generalizing above, but after having read literally thousands of novels over the years - yeah - it works that way in books too.

I always have liked the TV show In the Heat of the Night. It's really very good. It deals a lot with issues such as labor and racial tensions and poverty and crime in a small racist backwater in Mississippi - actually that is entirely what it is about - that - and the cops who have to deal with it, even the community tensions with the police over race and power are dealt with. Although the central figure of the series is white, his default white status is also one of the underlying issues and a main plot driver behind the series is the black cop who has rank on the redneck deputies. The cops aren't perfect either and the show doesn't balk at some of the hypocrisy of their words and actions. It also happens to be entertaining.

have you read any African writers?

[Fred]

What they almost never portray on US TV is actual poverty. Even the "poor people" live in nice large apartments, and rarely seem troubled by lack of money or having to work at shitty jobs for long hours. There have been some exceptions, like Roseanne. You have to go back a long way to find families in working class situations -- like the Honeymooners (a big favorite of mine). Ralph and Alice lived in a bare bones tenement apartment and Ralph drove a bus (on one episode he when he was nervous he said he "brives a dus."). I guess the networks figure that people watch TV to escape their daily troubles. Which might be true.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Yeah who wants to watch a show featuring some person working from 7 to 3 and then dragging their ass home and watching TV for the rest of the night before passing out