Racism In The Media

The issue of race in America has been a prominent issue for years. In the United States, whites have historically been associated with superiority and privilege while other citizens who do not share the same skin tone are plagued to be categorized as an inferior “other”. Minorities have to constantly deal with the issue of racism in the predominantly white country. Though the society has made great progress in dealing with racial discrimination but the issue of injustice, inequality and stereotyping still remains especially in the media. The media plays an influential role in shaping how we view people of other races, especially minorities. The issue of race and the influence that media portrayal has on societal views on the topic is argued …show more content…
One of the most notable accounts of Glee’s racism would be in their season two premiere episode “Audition” starring Filipino singer Charice as new character Sunshine Corazon. In the episode Rachel, a white main character of the show, approaches Sunshine in the bathroom after hearing the Filipino female sing then asks her to join the glee club. Sunshine is unable to hear her correctly because she has headphones in her ear, Rachel overlooks this and assumes the female does not understand her because of a language barrier and starts shouting at her in broken English “Oh, you don’t speak English. You like me sing. You like me sing very much.’’ (Brennan and Falchuk, 2010) This racist assumption stems from the idea that Asian people in the United States cannot understand English. In the normal world Sunshine would’ve lashed back harshly for Rachel simply assuming that she cannot grasp the concept of the English language because of her race but in the fantasy world of no racism that televisions shows, such as Glee, portray Sunshine just casually tells Rachel that she does speaks English and walks away. Viewers find humor in this overt racism because as Omi mentions in his article society has become used to the naturalized inferential racism because “film and television have been notorious in disseminating images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what these groups look like, how they behave, and, in essence, “who they are.”” (Omi 659) This phenomenon has made people believe in the stereotypes portrayed on the television screen, these images have become the foundation on how people of other races are viewed because of inferential racist portrayals seen on tv screens society has come to view these stereotypes as a norm due to how often the images of such are exposed to the public without little to no