Within the United States, even children perceive these images as negative stereotypes. In a 1998 study conducted on behalf of Children Now, a nonprofit children's advocacy group, interviewers asked twelve hundred American children how often and in what roles do they see their race depicted on television. The results were revealing. Children more often associate positive qualities such as financial and academic success, leadership, and intelligence with White characters, and negative qualities such as lawbreaking, financial hardship, laziness, and goofy behavior with minority characters.
When children were asked about positive qualities, 58% of the children said that they see Whites on television as having a lot of money. Only 8% perceived minority characters as having a lot of money. As for negative qualities, 6% reported seeing White characters breaking the law or the rules compared with 47% of minority characters.
When asked how often they see their race on television, 71% of White children said they see their race depicted very often, compared to only 42% of African- Americans and 22% of Hispanic-Americans. As for who plays the boss, 71% of all children said someone who is White usually plays the role of boss, while 59% said Blacks typically play the criminal. "'You always see black people doing drugs and carrying around drugs, shooting people and stealing things,' one white girl said." Thus, after six decades of African-Americans on television, even children do not perceive this group as being presented in a positive light.
Children Now conducted another study, called Fall Colors: How Diverse is the 1999-2000 TV Season's Prime Time Line-Up? after the controversy in the fall of 1999 over the lack of minority characters on network television. This study analyzed the level of cast diversity on ninety-two prime-time network drama and comedy shows, and was "commissioned in part to provide networks with information regarding a quantification of their usage of minorities in prime-time casts." The findings indicated that the vast majority of characters on network series were White, and while there was a "visible African American presence" on these shows, other racial and ethnic minorities were underrepresented.
Furthermore, of the minority characters portrayed on these shows, very few were main cast members. According to Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now, "Any way you carve it, the more central a character is to a program, the more likely he or she is white." Thus, while the networks seem to have attempted to include some African-Americans, they have not gone far enough. As Salisbury stated, "Children in America tell us that being included in TV is a major signal of acceptance, respect and recognition. The absence of cultural images and characters that reflect them, conversely, is disturbing to kids. It affects their aspirations." . .
actually i was thinking of this song when i visited this thread the first time.
You still aren't getting it. Empathy isn't one of your strong points is it?
