bad stereotypes better than no stereotypes?

In the movie The Celluloid Closet, a documentary film about homosexuality in Hollywood, the actor Harvey Fierstein discusses the negative portrayals of gays in film, and in the interview he says that “Even though so many of the gay characters in the early films are portrayed as sissies I would rather see a negative representation than no representation at all”. But, while Fierstein believes that poor images or homosexuals in film are better than an absence of gays, when it comes to blacks in film, I disagree. I don’t think that by continuing to feature minorities, regardless of their roles, we will change stereotypes.

When I was younger, I used to watch television shows with my parents, and with the exception of LeVar Burton on “Reading Rainbow”, I never saw minorities on everyday television shows like “Law and Order” or “ER”. When I was a pre-teen, three of my favorite shows were “Dharma and Greg”, “Frasier” and “Friends” hit comedies from the 1990s featuring stories about middle class Americans and their everyday interactions. But I can count on one hand the number of times when any of those shows featured a permanent black character. Minorities just did not exist- at least not on television and I didn’t like that there wasn’t anything that reflected my race, or my experience as a minority in America. But the lack of minorities changed, in my opinion, with the invention of reality TV. I was eleven when I became addicted by the drug that is reality television and I was watching “Survivor’ and I saw Gervase, the only black contestant on the show and I was thrilled.

There was a minority on television, doing everything that the white contestants were doing. If someone had asked me then if I thought that this type of coverage was better than no coverage, I would have said yes. But that was 2000 and now shows like “The Real World”, “A Shot of Love” and “Keeping up with the Kardashians” all showcase the a few token minorities- but they’re not trying to win a million dollars on an island, they’re hip-hop artists with baggy pants and a drug problem, black girls with big hair and bad attitudes and baby mamas with multiple children by multiple men. After watching a recent episode of singer Ray J’s reality show where women (mostly black women) fought each other, I decided that in my opinion, perhaps no coverage is better than this misrepresentation. I think in order to change Hollywood, we must place more minority directors, which will lead to minority writers and actors. When women first burst into the Hollywood scene, they too had to fight for their roles in films. While roles for actresses, especially older actresses, are still limited, we are seeing more female directors, writers and even producers. Minorities in Hollywood are still fighting to catch up.
After looking at stereotypes presented in the four films, I would say that such films, at least in my case, caused me to question my self esteem and my place in white society. It was very much like the fact that even at a young age, I felt the need to be well-behaved, to be polite and reasonable, because I knew that the way I was viewed was the way my entire race would be viewed, and the same thing existed in film. With blacks being portrayed as lazy, stupid and ignorant Hollywood teaches us just what we are supposed to think of blacks. So, if this is the cause, can we move past these stereotypes and make a noticeable change in the upcoming decades. Earlier in the year, I went to see a film called The Bounty Hunter with actress Jennifer Aniston. I went to see the film because I thought the story sounded good, that it would be entertaining. It didn’t’ matter that the film featured two lead white actors or that no minorities ever appeared onscreen. But if this film had the exact same story with lead black actors, it would be called a black film and immediately audiences tune out.

These so called “black films” usually feature characters in films like “Barbershop” or “Honey” and feature the usual stereotypes. If I were to look into the future of film and television, I think that stereotypes will get better. I am optimistic, because even as I write this, I can turn on the television and see shows like “Without a Trace” featuring several Hispanic actors or talk shows like “The View” that features two African-American co-hosts (out of five). We have a chance to change minority stereotypes, but we can only do this with the creation of more diverse shows and willingness from mainstream America to think outside the box. Since the election of Barack Obama, I don’t think that America is now all of a sudden post-racial, that after years of stereotypes and misconceptions we are now free of racism, but I think that even though we have a long way to go, I see many changes.
One of my favorite shows as a college student is “Sex and the City”, but it never featured minorities. Now, when the first movie came out, a black character had a pivotal role. The 2009 film Precious, featuring a majority-black cast as well as a black director and producer, not only broke through mainstream, but won key Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress (for Monique). I realize that even in 2010, I am not going to turn on a television and see lead black actors on every channel and in the next few decades I probably won’t see that either. But even I believe we have come a long way. My friends once told me that by 2050, we will no longer have a Caucasian majority; rather races will be mixed and blended. If this is the case, then changing stereotypes and creating a more positive representation of minorities would greatly benefit minorities. It would allow people to not judge a book by its cover. When people see me, they often think (or appear to think) that they know everything about me. That’s why they ask if I live in the ghetto, if I have children, if I wear grills, but all the answers are no. If we create positive stereotypes, then perhaps people won’t ask questions like these, they won’t need to because they will see things other than black drug deals and prostitutes. And certainly we’re getting somewhere.
No longer do we have white actors in blackface, black slaves who sing and dance and appear ignorant like Prissy in Gone with the Wind. Gone are the Gus characters in Birth of a Nation that chase after women like the monster in Godzilla. But just because those outwardly racist films are no longer made, it does not mean that the lesser overtly racist films did not have a great influence. I watched the more modern films, Diary of a Tired Black Man and Monster’s Balls; there is no mention of slavery or the Civil War. With Diary of a Tired Black Man, the movie is so present day and modern, but even though the stereotypes have changed, they are still powerful. Blacks eventually stopped being just slaves, but now the men are a modern day Gus, and are shown as being pimps, thugs, drug dealers, abusers and womanizers.