Ethnicity and Race

The fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural
tradition.
In 1987, the Alvarado theory was introduced about how race is represented. The theory said
that there are seven ways in which race is represented within media:
Exotic
Dangerous
Humorous
Pitied
Sexualised
Tokenism
Conflict
Exotic
The Alvarado theory says that within the Exotic representation, people are being represented
as being the other or the outcast. They are also being represented as strange or unusual
to society, again linking with being the other. Assumed point of view of white people is
called white eye (Hall, 1990)
Dangerous
The Alvarado theory says that within the Dangerous representation, people are a threat to
society, linking with anti-social behaviour which is very stereotypical representation of
someone who is of a different race. They are also being stereotyped to taking advantage of
society, meaning that illegal immigrants are coming into the country and living here for free,
which again is a stereotype through the white eye.
Humorous
In the 70s, race was a vehicle for comedy. Because it was getting out of hand, programmes
had to remove the threat of races by making them the butt of jokes. In modern programmes
made by ethnic minorities, they are made to laugh at themselves and make jokes about
their own ethnicity or race.
Pitied
The Alvarado theory says within the Pitied representation, they are mostly deprived groups or
victims of natural disasters such as famine, floods and conflict. Images are used to gain
sympathy to the public, e.g. charities using children to make a more powerful image.
Sexualised
The Alvarado theory says within the sexualised representation, people are sexually violent,
linking with their own culture. People are then a threat to our society through rape. Men and
women from ethnic groups are both seen as sexual objects, which links with both the male
and female gaze.

Tokenism
This representation is limited inclusion or artistic/political representation of traditionally
marginalised group, unusually creating a false impression. E.g. purposefully including a
member of a minority race.
Conflict
Ethnicity is characterised by unity and conflict. Conflict is often binary opposition of ethnic
groups and wider society. Their differences and diversity is emphasised. Stereotypes of
ethnicity as close-knit community. Representation of illegal immigrants e.g. us vs them. There
is also a tendency for media to link ethnicity to knife crime and gang culture to the young
black males. Stereotypes of ethnic minorities as dangerous, both physically and also to British
ideology.
An example of ethnicity is in Bad Education, a south Asian girl named Jing. South Asians are
stereotyped to be very intelligent people and for the ones who are
educated in these countries stereotypically become the smartest
people in the world. This is shown in Bad Education as Jing is the
smartest in her class and gets the highest grades comparing to the
other students in the class who are white. Again she is stereotyped
by the way she speaks as she does not speak English very well, this
is used as a comedy element as the teacher or students who
speak in slang, make fun of her.