Your Culture/Ethnicity or Race Being Portrayed on Television and Movies

What are some of the things that you've notice of the media to portray of certain races? The good, bad and ugly and what are some of the things you would like to see different or change if you had to put in your two cents?

I feel this thread is a little different then this one but if not, please lock my feelings wont be hurt.

A white girl can't be in a relationship with a black man (in American films) unless it's the plot of the whole damn film, but a white man can be in a relationship with a black girl. (I find this both racist and sexist.)

A black man can't really be in a relationship with a white girl either. Cameron Diaz wanted to be in 'Hitch' but since Will Smith is black they went with a Latina chick (if I'm not mistaken) who gets casted in that role a lot because she's a 'happy medium'.

Jasmine (Disney princess) also is so fucking white-washed by this point.

@ dru sighs no more.
I've noticed those too, about mixed couples in movies. I tend to see more black women with white men than the other way around. It's like the media has portrayed black men as being not good enough for white women. Or when it comes to the other way around, it's like the white man is the black girls savior.

I would like to change the way media views Muslims. Not all of us are trouble and want to see America burn or want to blow up something. A Muslim family on TV would be unique to see how a true American or even non-American Muslim family is held.

@ lonna
I watched the documentary 'A Billion Muslims' and I'm so glad I did. It was so enlightening and it just honestly taught me a lot of things I didn't know. I really think they should should it in schools in, like, fifth grade or something. It would really open peoples' eyes.

I would like people to view Muslims (or Islam) in a different light. It's really disheartening to see Muslims being portrayed as terrorists in almost every, damn movie.

Well I'm Jewish and Israeli so it drives me crazy when we're portrayed as short fat money crazed accountants, religious freaks, terrorists, not humans, etc.

Indians are always portrayed as really smart, really stupid, telemarketers or actually being from India. There are indians from around the world you know!!! and we don't have that indian accent thing going for us or the head shake thing. Psh... Damned media

Portuguese people aren't even in the media, AT ALL. And when they are, they have a Brazilian accent, for some reason, like on an episode of Family Guy where there were two Portuguese sailors, yet they spoke in a Brazilian accent. Get your shit together, media!

It seriously annoys me when a TV show has a great character (who isn't white), and they have to introduce another character of the same or similar origin/ethnicity so they can couple them off. The second character is usually quite dull and irrelevant too. Anybody else ever picked up on that?

@ Kinki Jinki
To be fair, Family Guy knows a lot of their stuff isn't accurate. They're mocking those who think it is.

We're either undocumented immigrants, drug lords, criminals, stay at home moms with 4+ children, alcoholic, lazy, and poor (Mexicans).

@ sobre mi cadaver

sobre mi cadaver:

We're either undocumented immigrants, drug lords, criminals, stay at home moms with 4+ children, alcoholic, lazy, and poor (Mexicans).

I feel that way kinda, like with me it's

If we are African-American/Black we are loud, obnoxious, violent (mostly), prone to speaking with/in Ebonics.
and if we are Jamaican we smoke a lot/the go-to for weed, lazy, have no job(s), always have dreads, must speak Patois.

Some of those apply for either/or. It really just makes me think that the stereotypes of my races must be portrayed like so on TV otherwise it's like the person is not of that race.

Latina women are usually depicted as exotic, olive-skinned women with silky accents and are sexy and seductive and ugh not true.

Or we're portrayed as promiscuous or as a maid.

The men are usually portrayed as being involved in drugs, gangs, shootings, crimes, etc. Oh, and being undocumented.

*sighs*

Not my race, but I always notice that you often see lighter-complected people of non-white races, as if to make them "safer" for the "white viewer".

I also hate how if you have a white girl and a black guy in a relationship that's the whole plot of the movie, but a black guy and a white girl doesn't need to be the whole movie plot.

It's so refreshing to watch British films and shows where people of all sorts of races are paired up and it's not an issue.

dru vs. slut shaming:

I also hate how if you have a white girl and a black guy in a relationship that's the whole plot of the movie, but a black guy and a white girl doesn't need to be the whole movie plot.

YES. I feel this way too.

In addition to that, a lot of the time ethnicity on screen makes a huge deal out of itself, and instead of the show focusing on the individual and referencing their culture, it often instead says "look! we're inclusive of a wide demographic!" and frames the plot around that. It irritates me. I would rather culture/cultural relationships be incidental and part of the plot, rather than a device for a company being proud of themselves for so overtly flaunting generalized characters of a certain ethnicity. (I'd also love to watch more gay/lesbian couples as incidental to the plot and part of the story, not the story itself. But these things are probably going to take a while before we can take them for granted & view them as casual and regular.)

@ dru vs. slut shaming
Welcome to multicultural Britain on film. That's a whole topic you could write books on. As great as it is that since the mid-80s, previously underrepresented communities have really found a voice in British cinema they didn't have before, it's just that I don't think the interracial relationships not being showcased deal is true where the Asian community is involved. A white character and a black character (doesn't matter what genders) aren't worth a second thought anymore really, but a white character and an Asian character are still going to focus on racial issues a good percentage of the time. It hasn't reached the same level of nonchalance yet.

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While I'm here, there's a whole world wrong with Eastern European stereotypes in the media, but I hate that any former Soviet controlled country is automatically a villain. I guess it bothers me to see Germany that way too even if I'm not German, but it's like all that people associate with the former Soviet bloc is communism and that negates any good contributions to society or any human decency. Characters from where I'm from don't exist as heroes in mainstream cinema, only as threats to Western freedom. It's almost been 25 years, come on already.

What's more disappointing is not the fact that media plays too much on stereotypes, but how children grow into what they believe they should be like within a stereotype that has been chosen for them. According to the media, I should be an angry, stern, hairy, alcoholic, Nazi with a hankering for brats, potatoes, and lefse whilst traveling the globe in my gypsy caravan. I am not most of those things, lol.

Any miniority character is from a sketchy background full of people that don't know how to talk proper.

@ dru is beautiful.
I actually honestly don't have a problem with her skin tone being technically lighter. Partially because on the right picture she looks orange and if you look at stills from the movie, she wasn't that dark anyway. Also not everyone has the same level of melanin in their skin. I'm of middle eastern descent, and I can get very dark, and have a natural sort of olive complexion, but it's not a dark complexion. I also just don't tan as easily as my brother does. I just find it odd when people suddenly decide I'm not or someone else isn't dark enough to be considered part of that ethnicity.

Edit: Also, fun fact, this is what she looks like on recent product, so I'm not really sure where the problem is. Backpack and T-shirt and the header for the section in the website and the classic doll. So, not only do I not have a problem with Jasmine being that light, she's actually just not portrayed as that light.

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One thing I've been griping about forever is accents. I understand it can be obnoxious, but if you have a movie set in Germany, then why have them speak English? Or, at the very least, if they're speaking English, why don't they have a 'German' type of accent? Why give them one of the many 'British' accents? 'Cause I keep noticing that if it's a group of white people and they can't be bothered to have them speak in their native language, they'll speak English in a standard English accent.

I do, think that we're striving to be better about races/ethnicities/accents in movies and television. I do, however, think it's very difficult to be absolutely diverse, because almost always someone's going to get left out unless you want a huge cast. I mean, The show Orphan Black isn't great about races/ethnicities in the show for the most part, but it is very good at portraying different types of gender and sexuality. At some point there is going to be a group that isn't represented in a show, since there is no real way to have a show or a movie fully give time and plot out every single ethnicity, gender and sexuality to the fullest possible extent. Hell, even if one was just kinda there, we'd then have problems because people would be upset because they'd call it 'pandering'.

So I do think it'll partially always be an issue because on top of it being very difficult to make everyone happy? Some people just like to complain. Like when Princess and the Frog came out and Tiana's prince ended up being more racially mixed than anything. People seriously wanted to know why she wasn't with just a flat out black man in it.

I hate that whenever the main character of a film is an African American woman, she's usually a struggling single mom living in the ghetto. There are plenty of struggling white women and plenty of well-to-do black women.