Ethnic Stereotypes in American Films

This paper is an examination of ethnic stereotypes in American films and the psychological impact that those stereotypes have on audiences of all ethnicities. Mainstream films perpetuate in-group perceptions about out-group members, both consciously and unconsciously, even when trying to be liberal-minded. By making specific casting decisions, filmmakers designate the ethnicity of characters that either reinforce the audience's opinions of the ethnicity represented or provide individual exceptions to the accepted stereotypes. Such representations can have a powerful effect on audiences of all races. Stereotypes in some form are almost impossible to avoid, whether they are examples of institutionalized racism (intentional or inadvertent) or attempts to counteract prejudice. Some of the most recent mainstream films demonstrate the difficulties in trying to avoiding stereotyping and the impact it has on viewers of all backgrounds.

Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry was the first black actor to receive featured billing in mainstream American movies, earning more than two million dollars in the 1920s and 1930s, owning 16 cars at once, and living the life of a Hollywood star. A 1929 New York Post review called him the "best actor that the talking movie have produced" (Euell, 1997, Winter, p. 672). He was the first to establish a familiar black face in front of white audiences, and he has claimed a prominent place in cinema history. Under the pseudonym Stepin Fetchit, h

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rhaps, no more accurate than outmoded and now embarrassing stereotypes" (p. 64). Muslims, Arabs, and followers of Islam have also argued against their stereotypic portrayals by Hollywood. Arthur Jones (1998, November 20) quotes George Irani, an Arab Christian who has become an expert on international relations: "There are three Islams: Hollywood Islam, Georgetown Islam, and the Islam of the West Bank, Beirut, Damascus, Karachi and the rest" (p. 17). In "Hollywood Islam," all Arabs are Muslim terrorists, while the reality is quite different; terrorists around the world follow many different creeds, as do Arabs (10 million are Christian, for example, and only 15 percent of all the world's Muslims are Arabs). Yet Arabs with bombs continue to be a prevalent movie image, especially in the wake of isolated real-life incidents, such as the recent suicide bombing of the battleship Cole. As the mainstream media have come to be more aware of stereotypic images, efforts to counteract them have resulted in the establishment of different stereotypes, rather than the elimination of stock images of any kind. In The Green Mile, for instance, a very large black man, convicted of the hideous murder of two very small, very white girls, is

Category: Film - E