Anayeli Gonzalez Gonzalez 1

Professor Lee

AAS 201

10 February 2018

Minority Spotting Paper

The word “minority” can be used to represent a portion of a number, less than a half

whole number. Although the word minority in our society is not used to describe numbers, rather

to represent people. These minorities are the people who are less; who are not white. In the book

“Racist America: Roots, Current Realities, And Future Reparations” by Joe R. Feagin we are

introduced to this concept. The first page of the chapter is based on the year of 1787 when the

constitution was being written for the “first democratic nation”. “The white founders cite

prominently “We the People,” but this phrase does not encompass the one-fifth of the population

that is enslaved or the large indigenous population” (Feagin 1). So, we ask how could it be that

since the birth of our nation these large populations have been discriminated and labeled as

minorities? The truth is that racism was founded in America along with its constitutions and

although indigenous people are found everywhere in the books of our history we continue to

alienate them. These populations have been victims of white privilege in America since the dawn

of our country and unfortunately they continue to struggle with this issue through, education,

employment, health care, and the media.

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 Minorities are a target for racism and discrimination and the media has constantly

demonized these people with stereotypes to create a negative image of their cultures. For

example, we often turn to the television for entertainment and a way to relax our minds but

unfortunately we are exposed to racism and stereotypes about minorities such as Asian

Americans and people of color. The media is a great influencer in the portrayal of minorities

through tv shows, films, and commercials. One of the many observations I have made is that the

main characters on the big screen are more likely to be white people while the co stars and

background characters are often minorities. It's interesting to analyze that even our entertainment

is influenced by stereotypes against people of different cultural backgrounds. As “Many do not

have access to well-paying jobs- or they face serious unemployment- because of persisting and

intentional discrimination in the job market lack of access by black workers to white-dominated

job networks or to adequate job training and educational programs” (Feagin 18).

A recent film that I watched in 2016 titled, “Hidden Figures” is an example of the idea of

racism against minorities and the portrayal of minority roles. The story is about three african

american women who worked for the NASA in the 1960s. Although these women were hard

working, responsible ,and incredibly smart they were not given the same opportunities as the

white. To complicate their situation even more they were women, and could not attain a strong

presence in Nasa in the 1960s. The environment of their workplace was in poor conditions, they

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were underpaid often they dealt with racism being that they could only use the facilities for the

“colored”. The talent of these women is what allowed them to be successful and have roles in

historical events such as the launch of american astronauts into space. The skills of a particular

women in analytical geometry allows her to become the first african american women to be part

of the NASA team. Her success was profound but still as the minority many disagreed to allow

her to take part in the team meetings and have her name printed on the projects. Towards the end

of the film her boss a white male discovers that everyday she must walk half a mile across the

lost to use the “colored people” bathroom. This was a turning point for the minority in the film

because gradual changes were made in their workplace to accommodate them and they began to

be appreciated for their hard work. From my critical analysis some of the observations i made

was that although the film was about a breakthrough of the people of color we still see the

stereotypes about minorities. In the film the white women have nicer clothes and they are more

educated, respected, valued in the workplace, paid well. While the women of color fight to take

night classes with other white people, are scolded for visiting the “white section only” in the

library, and discriminated in the workplace. It was intresting to see that the minority had big

roles in this movie and only saw a white man as one of the dominant roles. Although the white

was never portrayed negatively for their actions in the film for their racist actions instead these

african americans were portrayed negatively for their desire to have the same opportunities. To

see how even in a film tributed to the minorities the white was not a background character they

still had a strong presence and were not daemonized for the racism against the minority.

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Another example of minority in the media was a Dove commercial that caused

controversy back in 2017. Although the commercial was only three seconds long it made a bad
representation about the women of color. The commercial is about Dove soap and it shows a

women of color that is wearing a brown shirt to match her skin tone who as perceived washes

herself and becomes a white women. The video also shows an asian women all three wore shirts

similar to their skin tones but the idea that was implemented was that white women are better.

Many claimed that this was subliminal message implying that white women were better than

women of color. Although the Dove beauty company claimed that their intentions were to not

misrepresent the women of color the damage had already been done. It's unfortunate that the

minority is constantly dealing with racism and stereotypes in our society. “ Historically, most

whites have not been content to exploit African Americans and other Americans of color and

then to just admit candidly that such action is crass exploitation for their own individual and

group advantage” (Feagin 26). My analysis about this commercial was awakening because

although the negative portrayal of minorities was clear we are often exposed to racism

unwillingly.

To conclude, minority groups are often incorrectly singled out from society when in

reality they are a majority of our populations. I think it's important for us to be enlightened about

the different issues of racism and discrimination against the minorities so that we are not

affected by the subliminal messages of the media. Often we are paying views and money to

shows and films that exploit people of minority. Unfortunate minorities continues to deal with

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racism in our society but if we become more informed about these issues perhaps someday not to

far we could help eliminate this issues and become a voice for the less fortunate.