Blog Topic #1

How have the stereotypes of people of color, created and perpetuated by the mainstream theatre and media, impacted our society as a whole?  

Stereotypes of people of color have changed our society over the years. Stereotypes, or the making fun of another individual or group which is different is as evident today as it was a few centuries ago. Our book Playwrights of Color states that starting back in 1766 with The Padlock, satires have been developed to exaggerate our everyday activities to reflect our humorous selves. Back at these times, it was a new way of looking at the changing society and gives an uplifting cheer in the hard times. The skits moved from town to town and were the big hits of entertainment at the time, but now times have changed. There are numerous forms of entertainment that people are drawn to, but the use of typical stereotypes is still seen today. Even though I do not enjoy the shows that are on television and making fun of today’s society like the Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and more, Satires are still used. These shows still use typical stereotypes and poke fun at different ethnicities, cultures and races just as The Minstrel Show was a century ago.

As stereotypes are continued to be ridiculed in some of these sought after modern day shows, I perceive it to be a slowly fading concept of entertainment. Just look over the years of how it has changed. In the Day of Absence, colors for the set and actors were to be bright red, blue and white to help represent patriotism from the south when in reality; a lot of racism is being exhibited. This is ok to try to perceive something that is not entirely true to capture the audience’s attention in a different way, but it kind of reminds me of what The Minstrel Show did; blew the characters out of proportion with cover up to the degree that they looked like caricatures. Their faces remind me of clowns, which I do believe is a more of a thing of the past luckily in our modern shows.

Why are stereotypes of people changing? There are several reasons. For starters I believe that with more rules and regulations, people of today’s society are growing up realizing that everyone is equal, or else there are penalties (laws, violations, ect). At the beginning of the century black people were not created equal as they are supposed to be today. The same has evolved with women over the years. As societies forget the past of how it once was, we will progress with today’s society as being a standard to change. If people don’t learn from the start about what racism is in an everyday setting, then they won’t practice if it is history. This reminds me of a common situation in one of the organizations I am in. When you joined the club, you were told that if you don’t meet certain requirements and be active, that you would be brought up to be kicked out. As a new member when the first round of voting came to kick some inactive members out, they did not receive enough votes to get kicked out. This continued the next voting session or two, and soon you realized that if you were not active, you may be brought up to be kicked out, but the likelihood of you actually getting kicked out is pretty much null. Overtime you learn to accept this as being the norm at that it is accepted throughout the club which is kind of like how things are accepted throughout a society. Stereotypes are viewed differently from one culture to the next, but it all comes back to you because you are part of this in a larger culture.

Looking around, I see can constantly find people that are exceptions to stereotypes, ex. Smart blonds, good women drivers, tall guys that are bad at basketball ect. With the technology available to us to be anywhere in the world within a day, or have access to anywhere in seconds, there are no real secrets out there and all the unexpected should be expected. The differences in stereotypes just as amusing as they once were when you were confined to your ideas in your individual culture growing up decades ago.