Allen L. Woll’s online article “Century of Abuse: Ethnic Images
on the Big Screen” on the Center for Media Literacy’s website states “From the
dawn of films, virtually all ethnic groups have been stereotyped on screen”
(Woll np).
The story doesn’t start with movies though because literature
and graphic arts with negative depictions of ethnic groups have existed long
before the big screen, but “the first mass media in the United States” helped
to further distort the often-negative image of “blacks, Mexican Americans,
Irish, Chinese, Italians, and others throughout the world” (Woll np).
Woll mentions D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation and Tony
the Greaser as infamous examples of negative references to “black
characters” and “Hispanics” (Woll np).
Woll admits that “ethnic and racial groups” were not always
portrayed negatively in movies and mentions That Night in Rio, Down
Argentine Way, and Weekend in Havana during World War II, which
positively portray Latin Americans (Woll np). Musicals like Stormy Weather
and Cabin in the Sky, triggered by the government’s attempt to
“eliminate many of the derogatory stereotypes”, tried to do African Americans
more justice (Woll np).
Any existing progress is not a straight line. The lesson is that
stereotypes in movies reflect the expectations that their makers have of the
audience.
Woll concludes that our perceptions need to be changed to avoid
further mistakes.
It is interesting to note here that the Allen L. Woll uses
“Mexican American” but “blacks” instead of African Americans.
Allen L. Woll. “Century of Abuse: Ethnic Images on the Big
Screen”. Medialit.org. Center
for Media Literacy. No date. Web. 8 November 2013.
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