Misrepresentation Of Latinos In The Media

Improved Essays
Minorities vs. Majority
The average person in the United States spends nearly half of their spare time watching television, listening to radio, reading newspaper and magazines, or surfing the web. Television is the primary source of news and entertainment for the average American. Some viewers even think that social conditions and stereotypes shown on television are real (Mass Media and American Politics). Minorities are overall depicted as uneducated and criminals, while whites are portray as heroes because of media’s stereotypes. African Americans are depicted as uneducated, violent, a burden to society, and over sexualized. Meanwhile, Latinos are portrayed as gangster criminals, immigrants, and as uneducated. Yet, whites are always the heroes
…show more content…
Latino portrayals in the media has had a negative effects for Latino community. These misrepresentations of Latinos are responsible for the social standards by which many in this country judge entire Latino communities. For example, a want to be thug, often illiterate and inhabitant of a downtrodden ghetto that hangs around the neighborhood. They graffiti buildings, smoke/sell drugs and wear lose sagging pants and big t-shirts. Who are we talking about? Can you guess from the descriptions? Well of course we are talking about the male Latinos race, the “Cholos” as most people known them. According to the article How Hispanics are portrayed in the media, past present these are the most common stereotypes that the media have about the male Latinos (Gonzalez). These stereotypes of Latinos have a great impact on how society views them and on self-image as well. For example, the news such as Fox News, ABC news, Univision, Telemundo, and many other ones always show Latinos getting arrested just because of the way they are dress. Some even get shot and killed just because they fit the description of a gangster. In the video Graphic Body Cam Footage Shows Killer Cop as He Murders an Innocent Unarmed Man, a confrontation between a police officer by the named Cruz and a citizen of Salt Lake City, UT, by the named Dillon Taylor started because officer Cruz confused Taylor with a possible criminal in the area. The confrontation ended in the tragic death of Taylor. The officer confuse Taylor for a criminal just because he was wearing a bagging pants and a big white t-shirt. The officer ask Taylor to stop, but Taylor was unable to hear the commands as he was wearing ear phones and listening to music. The officer shot Taylor from the back and when Taylor was laying in the floor and dying, the officer continue with the arrest instead of calling for medical assistance. The officer search

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    With so much production and consumption of a plethora of different forms of media, too many people never need to need for it to be any different than how it is, never have to wish it would change. Too many people, unknowingly, take for granted something another group of people would weep with joy at finding. This is what being represented in the media can feel like. African Americans experience anywhere from negative representation to erasure from television, film, literature, and even the educational curriculum. This lack of active or positive representation stems from a long, complex history of slavery and racism.…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Basically, they were disregarded in the United States mass media. Latino Americans/ Hispanic experienced unequal treatment from the society and the media. For instance, there are unpleasant incidents in Mexico related to drug cartel killed thousands and thousands of innocent people and children, but media did not cover most of it even though if they are family members of Latino Americans in the United…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hispanic women on television are mostly portrayed as sexy or fiesty and the roles they play are stereotypical such as maids and housewives. When called sexy, one may easily take it as a compliment but when it is consistently portrayed in the media, it’s an objectification of the Hispanic woman for her body and sensuality. The small representation is not even the worst part of Latinos/Latinas in the media, the negative portrayals and encouraging stereotypes are. “Latinos are likely to find familiar faces on nearly every network.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Appalachia Stereotypes

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Although it is not always ideal, today’s world forms stereotypes for specific cultures and uses them as entertainment. Stereotypes exist for Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, people from the south, people from the north, and various others. Through deeper analysis, it is discovered that not all of these stereotypes are true and usually only reflect a small percentage of the individuals of these cultures. The world is so vast that it is hard for the average person to form connections with people from these walks of life, so the stereotypes stick. This angers the people of these cultures, because it seems that the world is making fun of their way of life, which is all they know.…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Latino Americans

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There is a constant theme regarding the treatment of Latino Americans in the U.S.,…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Embrace Diversity, Hollywood Hollywood is American society’s guilty pleasure and the most frequent used source of entertainment. People rush to the movies in flocks for an opening premier of Hollywood’s latest blockbuster hit. Therefore the movie and television industry has become so much a part of American culture that society fails to question what is actually being broadcasted. People become sublimely oblivious and subconsciously record everything they watch on these theatrical screens, that any unrepresented ethics or morals are simply disregarded.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Latino Crime Issues

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages

    For my article I decided to write about crime issues involving Latinos. I decided to read about Why the deaths of Latinos at the hands of police haven’t drawn as much attention. By Nicole Santa Cruz, Ruben Vives and Marisa Gerber. This article talks about how a guy named Ramirez never saw police as a threat, he saw them with respect because they wore a uniform and they took care of us. Ramirez then had another perspective of police when they killed his brother.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The author Charles Ramirez-Berg in the book Latino Images, he discuses the negative images that are stereotyped against Latinos. Berg argues that the image of a bandido is often perceived as a lazy, violent, criminal, Mexican person (Berg 2002). He further argues that the image of a Mexican bandido has remained in American media through different shapes and forms; the contemporary bandido is now a criminal portrayed through drug dealers or gangsters (Berg 2002). Berg argues that the reason behind this negative stereotyping of Latinos is the underrepresentation of Latinos in the media. Furthermore, the concept of negative stereotyping is seen in the Lemon Grove Incident, when the school board member of Lemon Grove argue that the Mexican school is needed because of the lack of hygiene Mexican children have.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Critical Thinking Assignment For my critical thinking assignment, I was asked what stereotypical images of Hispanic/Latino Americans and Black Americans exist in the contemporary media. I was also asked what harm these stereotypes present to the races, ethnic groups, and society. There are many parts that come together to create the contemporary media, such as television networks, internet website, and newspaper outlets they help in putting these stereotypes into the minds’ of the people.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Despite their resemblances in certain situations, Latinos do not have a particular “look” that is perpetuated in society, because the term Latinos includes a diverse population from Afro-Latinos to Indigenous Latinos to white Latinos, which is why Latinos should be considered an ethnicity more than a race in the United States. For example, a Puerto Rican and a Chilean would not have a similar culture, however, when placed in the United States, they are bounded by shared experiences and have more in common with themselves than they would with a white American. These common ground allows Latinos to create a sense of community with each other, thus, forming an ethnic group and not a race, because they have more of a mental bond than one based on physical…

    • 1684 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The United States is a country made up of countless ethnicities and nationalities from different parts of the world that have different cultural beliefs, traditions and customs. The rich culture of the U.S. mainly stems from immigrants, individuals who have migrated from another country. With any change there is struggle, especially when it comes to adapting to the culture of a new country. Amongst many immigrants who struggle to adapt to the American culture are those in the Latino Community. According to the U.S Census Bureau (2010), about 52 million Latinos /Hispanics live in the United States, which makes them the largest ethnic minority group living in the United States.…

    • 1593 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Society’s Stereotypes Women belong in the kitchen, and Jews are cheap. African Americans are criminals, and Asians are geeks. The poor, of course, are lazy. Media portrays people from all walks of life in many different ways, painting them in ways that are not always true to reality. When watching a movie, the majority of police are white men, and most women stay home raising their children.…

    • 1678 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is TV Too White? Most, if not all characters featured on television programs are white. On the off chance that there are Asians, Blacks, or Latinos, they all usually have one thing in common. Asians are depicted as quiet, sexless, geniuses.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction: Thesis statement: The Media’s portrayal of African American’s is racially biased, reinforcing the misconception that people of colour in the United States are inferior to those of other ethnicities and perpetuating self-hate within the African American community. Divided Topic: African Americans are criminals. They are the most dangerous race in all of the United States. African Americans are unintelligent in comparison to White Americans. African Americans are unattractive according to society’s standard of beauty that is greatly influenced by European ideals.…

    • 1792 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hollywood: Truly a Land of Opportunity? From white actors portraying black men in classics, such as Othello, or even from white actress playing dark skinned women, such as Mariane Pearl, white actors portraying people of color in american films has been a tradition in Hollywood. Hollywood has historically made the decision to cast white actors instead of letting minorities play their own roles. While Hollywood is known for being a white industry, over the past years more noise, such as the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite (8), has been made about the lack of diversity in their films.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays