Why Is This A Social Justice Issue?
Television culture today is built on the dramatization of our everyday lives. This, however, becomes an issue when people of color and their communities are portrayed incorrectly or harmfully. For people who live outside of these communities, mainly whites, what they see on television about people of color is the only thing that determines their attitudes toward them. This means that when they are presented with dramatized stereotypical characters or situations, they have no reason not to believe that these stereotypes aren't the undeniable truth. Still, that's only in the case that people of color are actually represented in the series or film. Here are the facts: despite people of color making up 50.3% of the US population, people of color only accounted for 13.9% of the film leads in 2018. This is not only extremely unfair, but it's damaging to POC's and their own self images.
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“Hollywood Diversity Report 2019.” Social Sciences, https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/hollywood-diversity-report-2019/.
Julious, Britt. “Hollywood 'Race Casting': What the Industry Is Getting Wrong about Diversity.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Mar. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/mar/25/deadlines-race-casting-article-tvs-diversity-wrong.
PORTRAYAL OF MINORITIES IN THE FILM, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES, https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm.
Julious, Britt. “Hollywood 'Race Casting': What the Industry Is Getting Wrong about Diversity.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Mar. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2015/mar/25/deadlines-race-casting-article-tvs-diversity-wrong.
PORTRAYAL OF MINORITIES IN THE FILM, MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRIES, https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm.