Why You Should Be Watching “American Crime”

Is Seth MacFarlane Racist?

Seth MacFarlane is well-known for producing “Family Guy,” “Bordertown,” “Ted,” and “American Dad!” While he got kind reviews, he was also criticized about his works. He’s works were mainly criticized by the people the reason because it contained racial discrimination content and people found it offensive. “Bordertown” for example, is a sitcom that follows families living in a Southwest desert town on the United States near Mexico border. According to Latin Times, “Bordertown” includes offensive humor that will most likely get under people’s skin and be considered racist such as Hispanic origin speaking very broken language. One of his famous animated sitcom “Family Guy” deal with a lot of racial discrimination.

Lacroix in her journal “High Stakes Stereotypes,” she chose an episode that featured Native Americans working the casino. In that episode, all the native workers in the casino wear name tags with names that are insulting as more and more characters appear. There are old characters and shirtless guy name with “Running Bear,” “Change for a Buck,” and “Watches You Pee” who was bathroom attendant in the men’s restroom (pg.9). Most of MacFarlane’s works portray stereotypes of different races.

When I watched “Family Guy” and saw racism content, I rather found it funny and didn’t find it offensive. I didn’t find it offensive because I just regarded it as a joke or a satire. However, I understand that a lot of people especially these days are sensitive about “jokes” that are included in the sitcoms. MacFarlane might intentionally stereotyped the characters according to their race to make his shows entertaining and to form sympathy with the viewers. I think there is a reason he keeps his way of portraying different race in stereotypical way even though he has been criticized reviews about the shows he produced. I think he should be more careful when forming characters of different race in his shows if he cares the negative reviews he is getting.

Closing the generational gap through film

Those of you who are reading this right now, how many of you are doing it from your own computer? Probably most, if not all of you. Why is that? Think about your parents. Did they have a laptop when they were your age? I doubt that your grandparents did. Our generation is popularly known for our knowledge with technology.

It is so common for me to go to class and see everyone with their laptops out. The way school is taught has changed so much. No longer do we sit with a textbook open and read 50 pages, hand write reports, or even open a dictionary. Now we have Google, Microsoft office, and Wikipedia. Has the classroom really changed that much? Yes, and most of it is due to our new found resources.

What else about the classroom has changed? According to an article titled “Teaching Criminological Theory:The Power of Film and Music” there are whole classes taught by using music and viewing films. The question in my mind is why haven’t I taken that class yet? Hmm…let me see would you rather take a final or watch a movie? For those of you about to endure finals week, I think we both know that answer.

So why is film or music valued in our education system? Why are they turning to film? It influences us more. “Teaching Criminological Theory” notes that while we spend only 5,000 hours of our lives reading we spend 20,000 hours of our lives watching television. Our generation has become more visual learners than textual learners.

We are so heavily influenced by what we see and more importantly what we consume. So when stereotypes are introduced to the way we consume information it is hard for us not to pay attention. When we constantly see the same minorities portrayed the same way, that is how our mind starts to view them.

The truth is that stereotypes are present in our films, our television, and movies. The question is why? According to an article titled “Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media, and Entertainment Industries” the answer is money. The money that the networks, producers, and even actors make outweigh the guilt of what they are showing. In the end, it is just business.

The truth is that if they really wanted to, they could include these stereotypes in a positive light. How? You could always belittle the people that believe in the stereotypes to show that they don’t agree with them. One way the article suggested was to show the stereotype as the minority rather than the majority of the people they are portraying.

One thing is for sure, either way our generation will consume it.

Elba…Idris Elba

We all know the iconic James Bond. The British secret agent, also known as 007. The man who took down odd job, the man who bested Gold Finger, then he took to the stars and saved the world…again. If you are not familiar with any of these plots and villains, than I am sure that you are more familiar with the catch phrase that has been forever engraved into our minds since the first book of James Bond hit the shelves in 1953, “Bond, James Bond”. I am sure we are thinking of the same person now. Concerning the history of James Bond, the character has been played by eight different white males, the last one being Daniel Craig. Recently, Sony studios was hacked which spilled the beans on many of Sony’s upcoming projects, one of them being the potential next actor for the iconic James Bond role. The next James Bond role could be played by Idris Elba, who is black, and that is perfectly fine.

However, Rush Limbaugh does not think that this man is right for the job, because of his race. In an article produced by BBC, which details Rush Limbaugh’s fit about the next James bond, Limbaugh goes on to iterate that “it’s probably racist to even point this out” but “He was white and Scottish, Period. That is who James Bond is.” It is important to point out that Rush Limbaugh brings an intriguing argument to the table, basically stating that the role calls for a white man, and not a black man; although, his logic is inherently wrong. Not because it is racist, but because it is irrelevant what race plays James Bond, for James Bond is nothing more than an idea, an idea that inspires people to use the tag line “Bond, James Bond” and knowing the actor Idris Elba, he can full fill this role and inspire the audience.

Some could argue that a black James Bond could hinder box office sales. A study achieved by Indiana University shed light on why producers are uneasy about casting minorities as major characters in films, the reason is that there is a “fear that the white audiences will largely avoid such films”. The results showed a correlation between black actors casted as a main role and whites avoiding such films. The correlation was actually the strongest in regards of the romantic films.

While James Bond films tend to have some steamy romance buried within the plot of each movie, it is by no means a romantic film. But, it is hard to ignore statistical evidence brought forth by the above study, nonetheless James Bond with a black actor does still have hope. A black actor offers something new to the James Bond series, and could revive the currently dormant series. Also, Idris Ebla is the actor, have you heard his voice? He sounds like he already is James Bond.