THANKS HOLLYWOOD FOR THESE NEGATIVE EFFECTS SINCE YOU DON’T PROPERLY REPRESENT
Representation in Hollywood both on and off-screen has brought a lot of positive effects for the POC/BIPOC community. There have been many films and tv shows such as Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians, One Day at a Time, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and many more have provided stepping stones to give minorities a chance to make their breakthrough in the film industry. But even with the success of shows that have proper POC/BIPOC representation, Hollywood refuses to have a diverse cast in their films and tv shows. Because of this, there have been a lot of negative effects on the POC/BIPOC audience. In this argument, we will see how the lack of POC/BIPOC representation has negative effects on the POC audience.
Hollywood’s racial bias comes in many different forms. The most popular one is whitewashing. As some of you know, whitewashing is when a white actor is cast to play a character who was originally a character of color. Some examples of whitewashing are Netflix’s adaptation of Death Note and Ghost in a shell. Other times, it would be when the film favors the white lead in the film that uses distrustfully from non-western cultures such as Doctor Strange who uses Martial arts that are originally from Asian countries. Because of this, it overlooks the POC talents that could’ve been cast for the role. Instead of taking the time to make sure the film has equal representation and the story is accurate, they decided to give the platform to more white actors and actresses. Although this problem has been addressed by many, Hollywood continues to shamelessly continue to do this. They don’t seem to understand that not having equal representation brings negative effects to the audience. People mentally and emotionally need to see representation on the big screen. Author Anastasia Lacina claims that “If film roles continue to be whitewashed, children will keep developing unhealthy conceptions of racial equality.” (Lacina,2016). The negative effects of misrepresentation and underrepresentation have been seen as harmful to the POC/BIPOC community. The more representation that is seen on and off-screen will be a huge win for the POC/BIPOC community but clearly, Holywood is blind to that reality. Although there are negative outcomes for all POC/BIPOC audience members, it is much harmful to children of color.
The media has the power to influence many people and how they see other races as well as themselves. They can have positive effects on their audience and viewers but can often be problematic when considering the negative portrayals of certain identities such as gender, race, class, and disabilities. The ones who are mostly influenced by what they see on the big screen are children. Because they are still learning about the world around them, the media has a strong grasp on them. The Media can manipulate their behaviors, perceptions, and have them adopt assumptions of media content and project them onto reality. Researchers Riva Tukachinsky, Dana Mastro, and Moran Yarchi looked into this further and found out that the “lack of representation in media can lead to negative psychological outcomes for those with identities that are underrepresented or negatively portrayed” (Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2017) The psychological effects on a child of color when they don’t see themselves in a character can be devastating to witness. Children of color have to witness themselves as always being the villain or just there for comedic relief while their white counterpart always gets to be seen as the main character who gets most of the screen time, having the children of color feel discouraged about their skin color. Researchers Nicole Martins and Kristen Harrison conducted a study where they viewed how TV exposing the topic of self-esteem affects first and second-grade clack and white children. They discovered that “TV exposure was related to lower self-esteem for Black girls and boys and White girls, but was related to higher self-esteem for White boys” (Martins and Harrison, 2012). All of these ties to POC/BIPOC being underrepresented in Hollywood and how that can bring negative psychological effects to children. In addition to that claim, POC/BIPOC may feel like they have failed to meet the unrealistic views the media pushed onto them. If young people, especially children, are not seeing themselves being portrayed correctly or are taken away from the spotlight due to the color of their skin or what race they are, it starts to make them feel invisible. They lose the opportunity to see people with their identities and features being portrayed positively.
This is a huge wake up to Hollywood to start properly adding equal representation. It’s time to include POC/BIPOC and give them greater roles and not just use them for comedic relief or hire white actors to play colored characters. When considering the broader impact, shift your attention and aim for a more diverse and realistic representation that would allow POC/BIPOC, especially children of color, to feel more confident in themselves and their skin color.
Work Cited
Lacina, Anastasia. “Whitewashing in Hollywood: Why Diverse Media Representation Matters.” FORDHAM POLITICAL REVIEW, 5 Oct. 2016, fordhampoliticalreview.org/whitewashing-in-hollywood-why-diverse-media-representation-matters/
Martins, N., & Harrison, K. (2012). Racial and Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Children’s Television Use and Self-Esteem. Communication Research, 39(3), 338–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650211401376
Tukachinsky, R., Mastro, D., & Yarchi, M. (2017). The Effect of Prime Time Television Ethnic/Racial Stereotypes on Latino and Black Americans: A Longitudinal National Level Study. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(3), 538–556. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2017.1344669
Zhang, Xiaoqun. “Business, Soft Power, and Whitewashing: Three Themes in the US Media Coverage of ‘The Great Wall’ Film — Xiaoqun Zhang, 2017.” SAGE Journals, journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2059436418755532.