Representations of Ethnicity.

Representations of Ethnicity

GTA

In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you play as the protagonist Carl Johnson (CJ), a young African American. In the majority of the missions, you find yourself helping out your ‘homies’ and defending your streets against rival gangs. The African American characters in this game are completely stereotyped as gangsters and simply criminals. With their overuse of slang and swearing, your method of income is not behind a desk (what a boring game that would be), instead you commit crimes for money. In this game, the people with proper authority are white, the high up gangsters. This game glamorises violence and sets up the belief that ‘young black bodies’ are disposable. African Americans are depicted are hyper violent criminals in this game and are constantly seen with guns, therefore it stereotypes African Americans as violent and criminal.

THE SUN

This headline, from none else than the Sun, suggests an ‘us’ and ‘them’ war for its audience. Although I obviously dislike any terrorism, this front page goes further than an attack on this man in particular, but instead plants a seed for a fully blown smear campaign. With its racist intentions, the Sun names this man and all others from outside of the UK as ‘Sworn enemies’ after he allegedly tried to blow up a bus. The word ‘us’ is used so the audiences automatically take sides against this man and other foreigners like him.

TOKEN

Token Black, a character from South Park is a friend of one of the characters. This characters first name comes from the word Tokenism, which means to include someone to prevent criticism. Very clever. Token in South Park is the biggest Stereotype of them all. However, this cartoon stems away from the negative stereotypes. Token is a rich boy who had moved into South Park, he has a very tough time fitting in with the other kids. In one scene, he tries a bass guitar for the first time after being reassured that he can play, simply because ‘hes black’. Sure enough, the first bass line he plays is perfect. These positive stereotypes are littered across Tokens character, which is unusual for South Park, as they usually portray many negative stereotypes.