Is minority representation the pathway to success?

It has seemed to become common knowledge that minorities are inadequately represented on television. However, the representation of minorities on television have been changing for two reasons—firstly because there has been a rise in social support for inclusion of minorities in television and secondly because racial issues in television have been attracting the attention of mass media.

An article from The Guardian looks back on the fall television season of 2014, focusing on the seven new projects that included main characters of a minority race. This may not seem like much but is a huge increase from the one minority show produced in 2013, which was shortly canceled after airing. Shows like Blackish, a sitcom featuring an African-American family, as well as Fresh off the Boat which follows a Chinese family moving to Florida have consistently been featured by the news as unique and exciting programs—the first of their kind in years.

This move is not just about fairness or equality. If diversity wasn’t making money for the networks, it wouldn’t be happening. In a UCLA study in 2013, greater diversity in broadcast and cable shows was linked to higher ratings.

In the news, representation of race has been shifting, too. Since a study by Dixon, Azocar, and Casas in 2003 supported the overrepresentation of whites as victims in officers and the underrepresentation of African-Americans in the same roles, it has been widely accepted that the news does not necessarily represent reality. However, a more recent study performed at UCLA reworks this study focusing on both broadcast and cable news.

In this study, the results showed that the TV accurately depicted the correct amount of white violent perpetrators but actually underrepresented black violent perpetrators by 20%. Furthermore, the number of black victims was also underrepresented by 26%. Even worse are the misrepresentations of minority groups that are far less focused on than black or white. While only 47% of immigrant suspects are Latino, yet the news represents 97% of the suspects as Latino. Furthermore, while only 6% of terror suspects in the United States are Muslim, the news shows 81% of suspects as Muslim.

These statistics really tell it all; if the news, which is often considered a representation of reality, is so drastically representing minorities as criminal, it is only natural that the fictional shows created follow these guidelines and avoid making minority protagonist characters. As television shows begin to fight these stereotypes to coincide with increasing public support for accurate minority representation, it is time for the news industry to follow suit.

AMERICAN SNIPER: Why it doesn’t matter if Chris Kyle was racist

Oscar-Nominated film American Sniper came to theaters on January 16^th, and since its release has not escaped a moment of controversy in the global media. The Clint Eastwood film follows the life of Chris Kyle, the most lethal sniper in U.S. history, on his four tours to Iraq. However, the film has faced controversy for the manner in which the Iraqis were portrayed in the film and has eventually simmered down to the debate over whether Chris Kyle himself was a racist.

A New York Post article discusses the main disagreement of the controversy; an NBC reporter allegedly described Kyle as having “racist tendencies towards Iraqis and Muslims when he was going on some of these…killing sprees in Iraq.” This led to an outrage by members of the military who were enraged that someone who nobly fought for his country could be questioned in character.

The truth of the matter is that Chris Kyle’s beliefs are irrelevant. The debate of his character is futile—it is impossible to know the inner thoughts and subtleties of this man. Conversely, this debate has acted as a scapegoat for a bigger question behind American Sniper: is this film inherently racist?

Throughout the film, the Iraqis are portrayed as brutal, dishonest people who will go to any means to eradicate the American soldiers. Some of the more poignant representations of this include an Iraqi terrorist drilling the head of a man as well as an Iraqi mother sending her young son on a suicide mission.

What American Sniper fails to achieve is a range of people and their beliefs. Where are the moderates? The film portrays the war between the two countries as a black and white matter; both sides believe that they are right without question or consideration of the other point of view. In an interview with an Iraqi interpreter for Chris Kyle during his tours, the interpreter described times that Kyle would laugh and joke with the Iraqi soldiers who helped them fight the extremist groups; yet, this aspect remained untouched in the film.

American Sniper does not fairly represent the real world, though it claims to be a biographical war film. This is not because of the “racist tendencies” of the man it was based on nor the extreme representations of the Iraqis in the film; this is because of the omission of all other groups in between which would have provided an increasingly well-rounded and complete snapshot of the entire story.