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opinion
Color
on television nowhere to be seen. Black, white dominate
If a person who had never been to this country flipped on
a television to view our programming, they would probably
be led to believe that the United States is full of beautiful
white people. Just take a look at any television station.
This is supposed to be one of the most diverse populations
on the planet, yet the only people represented in TV and film
seem to be white.
Sure there are a few exceptions to this generalization. There
are a handful of shows depicting African-American families.
But what about the rest of the minorities? In Southern California,
a supposed melting pot of cultures, there are Mexicans, Asians,
Indians, every group one could imagine. And still, there are
a scarce number of these ethnicities on screen.
I grew up in a small Northern California suburb, where at
my high school, about 80 percent of the students were white.
I played with blonde Barbie dolls and green-eyed Cabbage Patch
Kids, and thought that was what I was supposed to look like.
All of the Asians I saw on TV were in the roles of scientists,
karate experts or evil villains.
What is even sadder is that other groups, such as homosexuals,
are represented on shows like “Will & Grace,” and “Queer
as Folk.” I admire these groups for making sure they are seen
and heard. Maybe Asians themselves have fed into the model
minority status we are so often labeled as, so we stay quiet
and don’t make a scene about our omission from the entertainment
world.
Every season, the prime time networks gear up with new shows
promising variety, when they’ve added maybe one African-American
character to a predominantly white show. People need to complain,
not just Asians, but all Americans. Are we so apathetic that
we will continue to let this go on? Children will sit in front
of televisions with white faces staring blankly at them and
will think that is the way they are supposed to look.
The Media Action Network for Asian-Americans is one group
attempting to make a positive change. MANAA is dedicated to
monitoring and advocating balanced, sensitive and positive
coverage and portrayals of Asian Americans. MANAA complained
to FOX when an episode of “The Simpsons” used a racist slur.
These are things we need to be aware of. How can we teach
our children tolerance and diversity when it is nowhere to
be seen?
If anyone cares about this problem, they can do several things.
Join groups like MANAA, and write letters to major networks
and movie production companies, demanding to see more minorities
on screen. As the world around us becomes more colorful, so
should television and movie screens. When color televisions
came into existence, it is a shame that the networks remained
stagnant in a world of black and (mostly) white.
Lyndsey Shinoda is a journalism major at Cal State Long
Beach.
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