Rodriguez 1

Selene Rodriguez
Ms. Gongora
English 12
26 October 2015
Period 2
Minority Representation in the Media
The media has a severe lack of representation for not only people of color but also people
who are gay, transsexual, bisexual etc. Take any popular film of todays society and it is
guaranteed that the main character of said film is white and straight. In having majority of films
be mainly about white and straight people sends out a message to the general public that it is
only okay to be white and straight and being anything else is not. There are not enough people of
color being represented correctly in the media, not enough people of different sexualities being
represented and neither of them are being honored for what they do in the media.
Some may argue that there is a good amount of representation in the media of people of
color and of different sexualities with TV and movies such as 42, 12 Years a Slave, Modern
Family, etc (Keegan).
Majority of characters in books and movies are more often than not, white. While white
people do make up half of the worlds population, it is unfair to only showcase them in the media
and completely leave out the other half of the population that is nonwhite. Doing this makes it
seem like anyone who is of color, not even worth mentioning. While actors of color do get acting
jobs, these acting roles are very limited and only require that they act in a specific way all the

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time. The acting jobs for minority actors usually require them to act the same way role after role,
there is not variety for them as of now.
For instance, Mexicans are typically depicted in movies as being drug dealers, maids, and
females are often seen as prostitutes (Race & Ethnicity). Asians are portrayed as being incredibly
smart or taking in very broken English. African Americans are seen as violent people who steal
and are a danger to everyone around them (Kothari). Muslims are often seen as terrorists who
want to destroy everything in sight (Race & Ethnicity). These stereotypes do not and cannot
accurately represent an entire population of people. Often used interchangeably, race is a way of
classifying individuals and groups on the basis of physical characteristics, particularly ones skin
color (Race & Ethnicity).
Hollywood has even taken it a step further in whitewashing the few characters of color in
movies (Kothari). An example of this would be The Hunger Games. The main character of
Katniss Everdeen, in the book, is written as a nonwhite, with dark, olive skin and yet they
casted Jennifer Lawrence who is white (Ghahremani). In doing such things essentially robes
minority actors of the few acting roles that could help their career as well as represent their
ethnicity. Having an actor who is not white in such a huge role could also show the public that
they are more than their stereotype. As it is right now, 10.8% of speaking roles are black actors,
5% are Asian, 4.2% are Hispanic and 3.6 are from other ethnicities, leaving 76.3% of speaking
roles for white actors (Keegan).
Letting more actors of color have a better portal in movies can help younger generations
see a person of their ethnicity be successful and make them believe and give them hope that they
can achieve that too. Changing this flaw in the media could also help the younger generations of

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children see that it is okay to be whatever ethnicity that they are, but above that, help them be
proud of who they are.
Hundreds of movies produced in Hollywood are more often than not of a man and a
women falling in love and living happily together. However, there are hardly any movies that
show a man and a man falling in love or show a transsexual person find love. By not having the
media show that is it okay for people of the same sex to be together, it can make people believe
that if they fall in love with someone of the same sex then something is wrong with them.
However, there have been instances where LGBTQ characters have made appearances in film
but are portrayed in a negative way (Beaumont-Thomas). Take the gay butler from the movie,
The Wolf of Wall Street, the butler was depicted as being over sexualized rather than being
characterized in a better light (Beaumont-Thomas).
Having children know from a young age that it is okay to having feelings for the same
sex is crucial so that later on in their life they would not feel like what they are doing is wrong or
judge others for it. Some TV shows have taken upon themselves to show people of different
sexualities, such as, Modern Family, Shadowhunters, How to Get Away with Murder, The
Fosters, The Family and Orange is the New Black. Out of these shows however, only The
Fosters has been the one to show a transgender male. In the show, Orange is the New Black, the
actress Ruby Rose stars in it and has considered herself to be gender fluid.
There are, however, a couple of minority actors who have made it big in the media and
they still do not get recognition for it. For instance, the Oscars in a huge award show that honors
some of the best actors in Hollywood. For the past 2 years, the Oscars has had the majority of the
nominations be pronominally white actors. This caused a huge controversy and led many black
actors to not attend the award show and even encourage people to boycott the show. The lack of

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minority actors nominated for an Oscar is low since most of the big role are given to white
actors. In the last 2 years of the Oscars the presenters have poked fun at the fact that the majority
of people in the audience were white.
This years presenter, however, continued to bring up the issue throughout the entire
show. This years host of the Oscars was Chris Rock who at the beginning of the show gave a
speech on this years issue. He made a point and said that it is not the Oscars fault that only
people who were white where nominated, but rather it was Hollywoods fault (Wong). A quote
said by Chris Rock, Thats right. Is Hollywood racist? Youre damn right Hollywood is racist.
But it aint that racist that youve grown accustomed to (Wong). Chris Rock is right, the reason
why minority actors were not nominated is because Hollywood discriminates against actors of
color and choose white actors over them.
If Hollywood changed, if the media changed, then actors from all kinds of ethnicities and
sexualities would get recognition for all that they have done. There are so many talented actors
that are not getting the amount of publicity that they should be getting just because they are not
what Hollywood is looking for. It should be noted that this year, Sam Smith, an openly gay man,
did win an Oscar for soundtrack of the year, and it is said for him to be the first openly gay man
to receive an Oscar.
Some might disagree and say that LGBTQ people and people of color are represented in
the media because there is an increase of movies having all black actors and TV shows having
same sex couples. While this is true, it has only been within the recent years that a small amount
of networks picked up having gay couples and nonwhite actors in TV and film. Even with the
increase of these types of TV shows and movies it does not out weight the amount of movies

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with straight white characters. The amount of these movies and TV shows being produced is still
not enough to send the message that being of a different race or sexuality is okay.
It should be common sense to include all types of people in any form of media because
the world has so many unique and diverse people. No one race or sexuality should be
misrepresented on a platform as big as the medias. Everyone should have an equal opportunity at
getting casted in movie roles and being treated equally. No one person should be treated better or
worse simply because of the color of their skin. Being gay, transsexual or asexual should not be
considered a flaw in someone. Every sexuality and ethnicity should be represented for who they
really are not by what their stereotypes are.

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Works Cited
Beaumont-Thomas, Ben. "Hollywood Criticized for Negative Portrayal of LGBT Characters."
The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 23 July 2014. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
GHAHREMANI, TANYA. "25 Minority Characters That Hollywood Whitewashed." Complex.
Web. 5 Oct. 2015. <http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/04/25-minoritycharacters-that-hollywood-whitewashed/>.
Keegan, Rebecca. "USC Study: Minorities Still Under-represented in Popular Films." Los
Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
<http://articles.latimes.com/2013/oct/30/entertainment/la-et-mn-race-and-movies20131030>.
Kothari, Monika. "What Are the Problems with Representations of Ethnic Minorities in
American Media?" Quora. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. <https://www.quora.com/What-are-theproblems-with-representations-of-ethnic-minorities-in-American-media>.
"Race & Ethnicity | The Critical Media Project." Race &amp; Ethnicity | The Critical Media
Project. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
<http://www.criticalmediaproject.org/cml/topicbackground/race-ethnicity/>.
Wong, Derek. "WATCH CHRIS ROCK'S OPENING MONOLOGUE AT THE 2016 OSCARS."
Oscar.go. 28 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. <http://oscar.go.com/news/oscarnews/chris-rock-opening-2016-oscars>.