Ethnicity on TV

Can I identify what ethnicities people are?

Throughout the film there are many different ethnicities that are portrayed. The first one that I saw was a white woman who was standing behind a counter, and the stereotypes that were inputted were that she was wearing white, had blonde hair and was acting as the hero.

The next ethnicity was the woman who was at her desk. The stereotypes played were that she was typing on the computer, she was quite quiet and she was saying 'thank you' quite a lot.

There was also someone who was cleaning and he had a locker which had 'tribal' pictures in it. The man who was helping the diabetic woman had an African accent as well that he had put on. This was to make it easier for the audience to understand.

Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?

All ethnic backgrounds have stereotypes of their behaviours. For example, Asian people are portrayed as being very intelligent, submissive and nerdy. Indian people are portrayed as often being poor, living in large families, very traditional and working in corner shops. White people are portrayed as good, pure, heroes, strong and sometimes racist. These stereotypes are all seen in some films and TV shows, it is very negative and generic. However, in real life, these stereotypes are not all lived out, for example, white people are not all good, many bad things have happened because of white people. Black people are not all poor and tribal as there are many successful black people, such as Will Smith.

Is their ethnicity represented as being important in their life?

Their ethnicity is not represented as being important in their life, in the programme, because it is shown as getting in the way of them living their life as the immigration officers were coming to get them. However, it could be represented as important because the staff member who got took away had tribal pictures in his locker, this could convey that his ethnicity is important to him which is why he is keeping it with him when he is working.

Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better or more powerful than others?

In the show, the white people are shown as being better as they are the ones doing the ‘higher’ classed jobs such as the receptionist or the people in charge as the people from other ethnicities have the worse jobs, which are the cleaners and the chefs. Also, it is white people who are from the immigration office and this shows that they have power over them as they can easily take them away.

Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal/weaker/more pathetic than others?

Yes, the people of the different ethnicities are hiding away from the immigrant officers which shows that they are weaker as they are not wanting confrontation and will most likely not be able to stand up against them as they so easily took away one of the cleaners who didn’t get to hide. 

How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic backgrounds? 

The people from different ethnic groups treat each other with respect and are nice to each other. In the programme, all of the staff work together to get the people from different ethnicities to the staff only room where the immigration offices can’t get them. However, it could be portrayed that the staff have been given jobs which are meant for their ethnicities, such as the ‘Asian woman’ on the computer as she is stereo-typically ‘interested in technology’ and the ‘black people’ are the cleaners which is most likely the job which gets least paid. This shows that the staff who employed them are quite stereotypical and don’t treat them as if everyone is equal.

What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity?

I think that the clip is portraying that each of the ethnicities have ‘their own job’ and are only set to do that job which is very stereotypical. It also shows that the different ethnicities like Black people, Asian people and Indian people are being told that they are immigrants and they are being taken out against their will, which is showing that a lot of places are being taken over by the immigration officers and this conveys that people do not think that the ethnicities are equal.