Five Ways to Reduce Racial Bias in Your Children
How do we combat racial prejudice? New research reveals how parents influence the formation of bias in children.
Children notice difference across racial lines. Even from a very young age, babies scan a face differently if it belongs to someone of a different race, suggesting that racial bias may be hardwired.
But noticing difference is not the same as having negative or positive beliefs around difference. Those types of judgments develop over time and are influenced by many things, including the social climate children grow up in and the experiences they have that confirm or disprove their biases.
This is where parenting comes in. Though it’s clear that parents are not solely responsible for biasing their kids one way or the other, science suggests that they do play a role—and an important one. In fact, their influence may extend well beyond a child’s early years and into adolescence.
Though how this works is not totally clear, recent research has shown that the process starts early and involves both explicit (deliberate) and implicit (unconscious) messages that parents send to their children. This is the good news: Parents can be a positive force in combating prejudice in their children. But the “bad news” is that kids can easily pick up prejudice from society at large unless parents do something about it.
Here are some of the ways that parents can help reduce negative bias in their children.
1. Expose kids to more positive images of other racial groups
Kids are immersed in negative stereotypes perpetuated by the media and culture, just as adults are. To counteract that, parents can expose kids through stories, books, and films to more positive, counter-stereotypical images of people from different racial and ethnic groups—including moral exemplars like Martin Luther King Jr. or Dolores Huerta. In studies with adults, this type of intervention has been shown over and over to be one of the most effective ways of decreasing bias.
Though less is known about how this might impact children specifically, at least one study suggests that they benefit, too. Researchers presented white and Asian children ages 5-12 with four positive vignettes involving admirable black people (such as firefighters or doctors), admirable white people, or flowers and then measured the kids’ implicit biases towards black people. Being exposed to the positive vignettes significantly reduced implicit bias in children nine years of age and older—though not in the younger children.
According to lead author Antonya Gonzalez, this study suggests that showing older kids positive images of black people may counteract negative stereotypes in society.
“Hearing these stories, the kids are internalizing an association between the group they’re hearing about and positivity, and that counteracts the stereotypical associations that they may already have,” she says.
However, just because younger children were not moved by the stories in her experiment doesn’t mean we shouldn’t expose younger kids to positive images, as well, Gonzalez believes.
“If there were more exposure and more exemplars, there’s a chance that might be enough to change associations” in younger kids, too, she says.
2. Help your kids develop cross-group friendships
Research suggests that cross-race friendships are an important factor in decreasing prejudice, probably because they help decrease stress and fears of rejection that may occur in cross-group situations. Having a friend from another group may also remove barriers to empathy and caring, which in turn decreases prejudice.
Research shows that having contact with different racial or social groups—especially when that contact is warm and positive—helps to decrease prejudice and to encourage more cross-group friendships. In a study with school kids of various ages, students who had higher levels of cross-race contact—including cross-race friendships—were more likely to see the way race plays a role in social exclusion and to view that behavior negatively.
In a longitudinal study with adolescents, those who had cross-group friendships were less likely to develop biases against immigrants in their community, even if their parents or peers were biased. These studies suggest that cross-group friendships might help mitigate biases that could otherwise form.
In one study, German teens who established a cross-group friendship during a three-year period demonstrated lower prejudice toward immigrants at the end of the study than those who hadn’t. In addition, the teens were more likely to develop cross-group friendships when there were more kids from different groups and more positive social norms concerning cross-group friendships in their community. This suggests that opportunity—meaning, living in diverse neighborhoods or going to integrated schools—is important.
Psychologist Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton encourages parents to take an active role in supporting cross-race friendships in their kids by organizing play-dates, inviting kids over to their houses, offering rides to sporting events, and creating other opportunities for their kids’ cross-group friendships to form.
“The default is to do these things with people with whom you already have an affinity,” he says. “You need to help scaffold these social experiences for your kids and be more intentional if you want to be sure that cross-group friendships happen.”
3. Cultivate cross-group friendships yourself
Parents can help normalize cross-group friendships by role-modeling them for their kids. This may seem superfluous, but research has shown that children’s racial attitudes are less tied to parents’ explicit messages around race than to the racial makeup of the parents’ social network.
Why does having cross-race friendships have such a strong impact on bias? Mendoza-Denton says that when you develop a cross-race friendship, you incorporate your friend’s struggles, motivations, and thoughts into your own self-concept—not in a way that’s confusing, but more expansive. For example, he says, you start to feel what they feel and empathize with them: maybe sweating when they give a talk or suffering when they experience heartbreak. And that experience of “inclusion of the other in the self” decreases bias against that person’s social group.
“It’s so much more organic to reduce bias by developing intergroup friendships, because it changes your attitudes through a very human mechanism, which is the interpersonal,” says Mendoza-Denton.
Though adding people to your social group based simply on race is probably unwise, it’s possible to search for common interests with people of different backgrounds, making it more likely that a friendship will happen naturally. Once friendship grows, empathy develops organically, says Mendoza-Denton.
4. Talk explicitly about race and the effects of racism
Many black parents give explicit instructions to their kids about the importance of race in society and what they can do to mitigate any bias they encounter. But well-meaning white parents are less likely to bring up race with their children, perhaps fearing that doing so would mean they don’t value egalitarianism or believe in a “post-race” society. The problem with that approach is that not talking about race can create a vacuum of information, which leads children to absorb biases around them—often in ways that are counter to parents’ own held values.
In one study, researchers had white parents read books depicting racial issues to their preschool-aged children (under the guise of studying the effects of literature on learning) while being videotaped. Racial attitudes were measured and compared afterwards in both parents and their children.
Later analyses of the videos showed that many parents avoided mention of race—even if their children asked about it—and used “colorblind” approaches to the issues raised in the book. For example, they might say, “It’s important to be nice to everyone” rather than something about race. Though the parents assumed their kids would absorb their colorblind ideals and hold favorable views of African-Americans, the children’s views weren’t in line with these expectations, suggesting that a colorblind approach does not decrease biased attitudes in kids.
In fact, research suggests that parents need to be much more explicit about racism and its effects. When white parents were asked to have race-related discussions with their kids—either with or without watching educational videos about race—their children showed more favorable attitudes toward racial outgroup members only if their parents discussed race directly. Interestingly, though, the researchers had trouble getting the parents to have these discussions—even when instructed to do so as part of the study. Apparently, there are psychological barriers to discussing race among many Caucasian parents.
How can parents overcome these? It’s not easy, says Mendoza-Denton, because if you aren’t comfortable, you will avoid the topic. He suggests that parents need to increase their own comfort first by developing connections to people from other racial groups. That will make it easier for parents to have these conversations without resorting to fear and avoidance.
If you can overcome your own discomfort, there are many children’s books that expose kids to the values and experiences of different groups and could be conversation starters. Or you may want to follow Allison Briscoe-Smith’s advice on how to use the movie Zootopia to talk to your children about racial prejudice.
5. Work to combat biases in yourself
Research clearly shows that the impact of parent bias on kids shouldn’t be underestimated. Although explicit biases have negative effects on kids, implicit bias can also impact children.
In one study, researchers found that very young children exhibited more explicit negative bias if their mothers held implicit biases—regardless of their explicit messaging. There can be a mismatch between what parents say and their unconscious reactions toward minority groups—and children seem to pick up on this.
Though implicit biases may seem an impossible thing to control—after all, they are supposed to be unconscious—they are quite changeable with conscious effort. Research suggests that automatic biases can be countered by deliberate attempts to counter them, exposure to moral exemplars, or positive cross-race interactions. In other words, much of what influences children may also influence you.
Becoming more aware of subtle prejudices may be the first step, and you can always take an implicit bias test if you want to learn about yourself. But Mendoza-Denton believes that this information is most useful in parents who are truly willing to attend to their biases; otherwise, learning about their implicit biases could possibly backfire, making them feel exposed and defensive and increasing their avoidance of the issue.
In addition to developing cross-race friendships, he advises parents to read books, watch films, and consume media not aimed at them. For example, to understand the viewpoints and experiences of blacks, a white parent might read Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book Between the World and Me, or see the movie I Am Not Your Negro. Doing so may counter bias by enriching understanding of another’s point of view, especially if they are motivated to foster that understanding.
Parents may think that there is very little they can do to influence their children’s biases or feel that prejudice-reduction is a daunting task. But if we are to impact bias in the long-term, we must come to grips with how bias is transmitted early in life and fed by a system of segregation and negative societal views. Parents, it turns out, can make an important contribution.
Jill Suttie, Psy.D
This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
The Importance of Authentic Asian American Representation in Hollywood
The Importance of Authentic Asian American Representation in Hollywood
Ages 5-10 were my Full-House-obsessed years. I considered myself an honorary Tanner. Then it was what my parents referred to as “The Inappropriate Show,” also known as Saturday Night Live. They thought it was too mature for my little sister and me, but we loved it. The Office got me through stressful high school times and now I quote it without thinking. However, amidst the joy these shows brought me, as a Korean-American I have been continually let down by the lack of representation of Asians in Hollywood. It makes me angry -- shattering the meek, silent-in- the-midst-of-unfairness, and the rarely impassioned portrait that the media has painted of people like me. Despite attempts at diversity in Hollywood movies and TV, Asian characters have often been portrayed as weak, nerdy, exotic, incompetent, powerless, and are seldom in the spotlight as leads, just like black television and film characters.
Notable progress has been made, however, in the past few years with the successes of Crazy Rich Asians, ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, and Netflix’s Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. Asians in Hollywood are portraying the Asian American community in a more authentic light than before; but while progress is exciting, there is still more to do when it comes to true representation of Asian TV characters and Asian movie characters on-screen and behind the scenes. What we view on-screen reaches far beyond entertainment; diversity in film and TV also impacts mental health, identity, and race relations as they pertain to Asian Americans. Content creators and industry decision-makers must change how Asians are portrayed in the media, as they have an opportunity and a duty to yield this powerfully influential medium in a more responsible manner. Avoiding racism, gender stereotypes of girl and boy characters, and other negative images are key.
Effect on Children
Personal identity is heavily influenced by the media, starting from a young age. Film and television have become avenues for imprinting stories in history. When it comes to authentic Asian movie and TV characters, the absence is noteworthy. The pride I felt watching Crazy Rich Asians’ all-Asian cast surprised me as if the sudden surge in representation alerted me to its prior absence in Hollywood. Asian children will subconsciously internalize an omission of Asian faces in the content they watch as an indication of their perceived invisibility or the box they are subjected to in the workplace and the world. Research shows that people exhibit feelings like shame and anxiety when viewing stereotypical representations of their racial group, even those framed as exaggeration or parody, and Asian stereotypes in movies and TV have been far too visible for far too long. While Hollywood has since moved away from the glaring racism of characters such as Long Duk Dong, the foreign exchange student in 16 Candles, Asian actors continue to be typecast and are still underrepresented in major film roles.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Personal identity is heavily influenced by the media, starting from a young age
• Content creators and industry decision-makers must change how Asians are portrayed in the media
Model Minority Myth
In today’s society, Asian characters in movies and TV are often stereotyped as over-achievers who obtain financial and educational stability: the 4.0 students, doctors, and Tiger-parents. Asian-Americans have been framed as the “model minority” within American culture -- the minority group that worked its way to success. This myth implies that other minority groups are lesser-than or do not work as hard, and also negates the ever-present discrimination that Asians and other minority groups experience. Such Asian stereotypes in film and TV shows also suggest that Asians belong to one homogenous group that shares the same attributes, when in fact, there are many subsections of the Asian community - composed of individuals each with their own stories and struggles. The effects of this perpetuated stereotype in the media, depicted by Asian actors but often driven by white writers and directors, jump from the screen into reality. Racial bias, even nonverbal, can be imprinted on people through the screen. It is perplexing how Asians are viewed as diligent and hardworking, yet rarely with strong leadership qualities or charisma. The scarcity of positions of power among Asian film and TV characters is reflected in many aspects of life. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, Asians are the least likely group to be promoted to management in the United States. While this can also be attributed to different cultural values and other factors, a lack of diverse representation in media is influential in reinforcing these attitudes and perceptions.
Tokenism Behind the Scenes
What we see on-screen should not be the only aspect of representation examined. The majority of successful endeavors featuring Asian actors and stories were backed by Asians in Hollywood behind the scenes. More Asian studio heads, casting directors, producers, writers, showrunners, and filmmakers means more advocacy and support for Asian stories and Asian TV and film characters. Great strides have been made and writers’ room representation has significantly improved; however, discrimination still exists here. To promote more diverse representation in media, large networks host diversity training programs in which writers of color have the opportunity to be staffed on television shows. The networks and studios subsidize writers’ salaries, incentivizing shows to employ these essentially free “diversity hires.” It is common for showrunners to let these writers go after their wages are no longer paid for, communicating that Asian writers are only hirable when free. Diversity in numbers is insufficient as long as Asians in Hollywood are not receiving the same opportunities to succeed in this industry.
On YouTube, people produce their own content with virtually zero gatekeeping. It is no coincidence that Asian content creators have become some of the most popular and prevalent faces on the platform, with millions of subscribers and views. From beauty guru Michelle Phan to comedy YouTuber NigaHiga, there is tangible proof that when given a fair opportunity, the Asian community thrives and reaches incredibly far.
Financial Benefits
If the moral facet of equal Asian representation in Hollywood is not enough to motivate content creators and gatekeepers, there is data that supports financial incentives for more Asian TV characters and Asian movie characters. Asians are the fastest-growing racial group in the country with a buying power of $1 trillion in 2018. They lead the nation in internet connectivity, enabling them to consume Asian stories on TV (and Asian movies via home video) via broadband and subscription video on demand faster than any other group nationwide. An average Asian household will watch about 23 hours of television per week, and the percentage with subscriptions to services such as Netflix and Hulu surpasses that of the remaining population. It is clear that Asians possess considerable buying power in the US and make up a large, expanding segment of media audiences.
Hearing Bowen Yang, SNL’s first Asian cast member after 45 seasons, refer to himself as the “Lizzo of China” while playing a government official on Weekend Update, filled me with pride. It was not until I saw myself on-screen that I realized I had been missing this feeling my whole life, and I needed to see, hear and read about more Asians in Hollywood. There is more work to do, more stories to tell, always. There’s great power in representation. My Asian-Americanness is of value, and I expect the country in which I live to reflect the same.
Actionable Insights
Write Asian movie and TV characters that defy stereotypes, even if stereotypes are seemingly “positive.”
Portray more Asian diversity — all groups that are part of the Asian community are unique with distinct stories, cultures, and struggles. This includes groups like the Bhutanese and Burmese that suffer from a poverty rate that is twice as high as the national average, yet experience the repercussions of the model minority myth.
Feature more Asian TV and movie characters in positions of power and leadership on-screen.
Hire more Asians in behind-the-scenes positions: writers, directors, studio executives, casting directors, producers, showrunners, filmmakers. Rich and authentic stories come from those who can speak from experience and incorporate essential nuances to the characters and their interactions with the world around them.
Avoid framing content created by and featuring Asians solely as “Asian films.” While still taking their cultures into account, remember that Asians are normal people who have more to offer than just the fact that they are Asian.
Nicole Park
CSS Intern
Why it’s so important for kids to see diverse TV and movie characters
This article originally appeared on The Conversation.
The hype surrounding “Black Panther” has been as hyperbolic as any feat its characters might perform, with the film being praised for its layered story and what’s been described as its “Afrofuturist” cast. And “Black Panther” will be joined by “A Wrinkle in Time,” another film with blockbuster potential and an interracial cast.
But no matter how much money or how many awards films like “Black Panther” and “A Wrinkle in Time” amass, our research strongly suggests another reason they’re important: Children need a diverse universe of media images. And for the most part, they haven’t had one.
Some progress, but …
In the 1970s, Boston University communications professor F. Earle Barcus began publishing the results of content analyses he had conducted on children’s television. His findings showed large disparities between the numbers of male and female characters and between the numbers of white and non-white characters. In a 1983 study, Barcus analyzed over 1,100 characters in 20 children’s television programs and found that only 42 were black. Just 47 others belonged to some group other than white.
Since then, researchers have consistently found that the animated worlds children see on television are out of sync with their real environments.
Over the past seven years, we’ve continued studying this topic at the Children’s Television Project (CTV) at Tufts University, documenting images of different races, gender and ethnicities in the most popular children’s animated series. We’ve also taken steps to try to understand why stereotyped portrayals still exist well into the 21st century. Finally, we’re starting to develop ways to study and collect data about how children process the images they’re exposed to on TV.
In order to categorize the images children see, we’ve developed a system for coding the race, ethnic identity, gender and age of primary and secondary characters in children’s animated television shows. We’ve also included a sociolinguistic component to the analysis, because we know that children are absorbing both sights and sounds as they process media.
The good news is that the world of children’s animated television is more diverse than it used to be. For example, we’ve found that female characters account for just under one-third of all characters. Discouraging as this may appear, it’s a significant improvement from the 1:6 ratio that F. Earle Barcus had previously found, and better than the 1:4 ratio that communications professors Teresa Thompson and Eugenia Zerbinos found in the 1990s.
There’s more racial and ethnic diversity, too. Black characters account for 5.6 percent of our total sample of over 1,500 characters. (A study conducted in 1972 by researchers Gilbert Mendelson and Morissa Young for Action for Children’s Television found that over 60 percent of the TV shows in their sample had no racial minority characters at all.) There are many more Asian or Asian-American characters (11.6 percent), though this likely due to the prevalence of a few popular cartoons featuring mostly Asian characters such as “Legend of Korra.”
The bad news is that there’s still a ways to go. African-Americans represent an estimated 13.3 percent of the U.S. population. Meanwhile, Hispanic or Latinos make up 17.8 percent of the population, but we’ve found Latino characters only made up 1.4 percent of our sample.
Furthermore, stereotypes persist in both how characters are drawn and how they talk, with “bad guys” using non-American accents and dialects. We see this in characters like Dr. Doofenshmirtz from “Phineas and Ferb” or Nightmare Moon on “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.”
To try to understand why stereotyping persists, we’ve interviewed some of the people who write, direct, cast and provide vocal talent for children’s animated programming. While we haven’t completed this part of the study, it seems that economic pressures compel the creators of children’s animated programming to rely on stereotyping as a kind of shorthand.
For example, one director of a popular children’s animated show told us, “If something’s worked before, you tend to just use it again,” even if that “something” is stereotyped. An African-American voice actor reported being in auditions where he was told to make something sound “urban,” a code word for a more stereotyped African-American dialect.
Kids, quick to judge
But the real question is why this all matters.
Studies from many fields have shown that it’s important for children to see characters who not only look like themselves and their families, but also sound like them.
There’s a relationship between low self-esteem and negative media portrayals of racial groups, in addition to an association between poor self-esteem and the paucity of portrayals of a particular group. Others have found that media misrepresentations of ethnic groups can cause confusion about aspects of their identity among children of these groups.
In our study of how children process the sights and sounds of animated worlds, we developed a method in which we show children images of diverse animated faces and play voices that use different dialects. We then ask kids to tell us if the person is a good person, a bad person, or if they can’t tell. We follow this up by asking them why they think what they do.
Though we’re not far enough along yet in our research to provide definitive answers to our questions, we do have some preliminary findings.
First and foremost, kids notice differences.
We’ve found that first- and second-grade children, when presented with a variety of drawn cartoon character faces they haven’t seen before, have no problem sorting them into “good” and “bad” characters.
In fact, many children have clearly developed ideas and are able to tell us lengthy stories about why they think a particular character might be a hero or villain with minimal information. Sometimes this seems to be based on their belief that a character looks like another media character they’ve seen. They’ll then make the assumption that a face they’re shown looks like “a princess” or “someone who goes to jail.” With the lack of diversity in the world of children’s television, it’s not surprising that kids would make associations with so little information. But it’s also a bit alarming – given what we know about the prevalence of stereotyping – that children seem so quick to make attributions of who’s good and who’s evil.
It’s important that children not only have a diverse universe of characters but also that these characters have diverse characteristics. It’s okay for characters to have non-American accents, but good guys – not just bad guys – should have them too. The heroes can be male and female, and non-white characters don’t have to be relegated to the role of sidekick: They can assume leading roles.
This brings us back to why these new films are so groundbreaking. Yes, “Black Panther” is demonstrating that a film about a black superhero can shatter box- office records. Yes, “A Wrinkle in Time” is the first $100 million movie directed by a woman of color.
But beyond all that, these films break the mold by showing the complexity and variety of black male and female experiences.
If more movies, TV shows and animated series follow suit, perhaps we will finally move beyond the underdeveloped and stereotyped characters that children have been exposed to for far too long.
Actionable Insights
1. Children internalize stereotypes featured in programming they consume, influencing the way they judge and interact with others. Children should not easily be able to identify the “good guys” and the “bad guys” in your story through a reliance on biases.
2. When featuring characters with non-American accents, avoid falling into the trope of these individuals serving solely as the villains. Instead, show that both “good” and “bad” characters can speak with a non-American accent or dialect. A character’s cultural background does not determine their morality.
3. Showcase more diverse characters in leading roles, particularly non-white characters often relegated to acting as side-kicks. Tokenism can be especially harmful to children of color, causing identity confusion and poor self-esteem. All children benefit from seeing that anyone, regardless of their identity, can be the lead character in a story.
4. Heroes should not exclusively be male characters. Feature more women and female-identifying characters in heroic roles that thoughtfully showcase their strengths, weaknesses, and struggles.
5. Remember that featuring diverse characters is not enough. Attention must also be paid to featuring varied characteristics and more vivid backstories.
Senior lecturer, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts University
Editor and General Manager, The Conversation
Associate Professor, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, Tufts University
Professor of the Practice, Department of Drama and Dance, Tufts University
This article originally appeared on The Conversation.
How to move beyond tokenism in kids TV
With kids watching more content than ever, the industry should consider how it can create a more diverse on-screen landscape, writes Kevin Clark.
In April 1968, Harriett Glickman, a mother and former school teacher, wrote Charles Schulz to encourage the addition of a Black character to his “Peanuts” comic strip. The story of Glickman’s interactions with Schulz were recounted upon her death in March of this year. Schulz liked the idea but had reservations. He worried how a Black character would be received.
This was not the first time Schulz had considered questions concerning racial diversity in comic strips. A few years prior, he had discussed the issue with African American cartoonist Morrie Turner, whom Schulz had mentored. Schulz encouraged Turner to create a comic strip with diverse characters. Turner’s first attempt, Dinky Fellas, featured all-Black characters. Unfortunately, only one daily newspaper published it. In 1965, Turner changed the strip’s name to Wee Pals and added white characters. It became the first American syndicated comic strip featuring diverse characters.
Ultimately, Schulz took the step in July 1968 to add a Black character, Franklin Armstrong, to the already popular Peanuts gang. Schulz got some pushback, but also cheers.
What Glickman, Turner and Schulz did meant a lot to Black people. I applaud their vision and courage. More than 50 years later, we need the same level of courage to move media forward for all children, beyond what was done in 1968.
When my kids were growing up, it was challenging finding content for my daughter with authentic, high-quality images of Black girls. I was also frustrated seeing my young son with such a limited menu of children’s television shows which portrayed someone like himself as the main character.
With schools closed because of COVID-19, some children are spending a lot of time watching television at home. Think about what they are seeing.
There are still not enough authentic, multi-dimensional characters representing diverse perspectives in children’s media. I want children who are rich and poor, of all hues, of all faiths to see themselves in the media they consume. I want the media that children consume to help them understand others who don’t look or sound like them, who have different cultures, religions or economic status. Every child should internalize the idea that all things are possible for everyone, before broader societal narratives lead them to a different and intractable conclusion. To make this happen the aperture of the various media groups must be widened.
These aren’t new ideas. Indeed, many of the ways in which we need to widen the media groups have been oft discussed. But they bear repeating as movement is still lacking.
Move away from tokenism and embrace the culture. Too often a group of characters are put together simply to show diversity. It leads to flat characters. Giving a character an ethnic name, mentioning she celebrates Ramadan, or coloring her tan does not lead to a relatable experience for children. The characters must have accurately portrayed issues, customs, dialogue, and emotions that lead the viewer, no matter who they are, to a visceral connection. An example of this is the Oscar Award-winning animated short film, Hair Love, which is beautifully conceived and resonates with multiple audiences.
Believe that with quality work, the audience will come. There is a pervasive fear in the industry that there will not be enough viewership, nationally and, many argue, internationally, for work that features ethnically diverse characters or issues. The national and international demographics suggest the viewers are there. Generation Z, makes up 32% of the world’s population, and is the most ethnically diverse in history. According to PEW research, nearly half (48%) of Gen Z identifies as racially or ethnically diverse. And they have an estimated purchasing power of US$44 billion annually, according to the National Retail Federation. What’s more, shows that feature authentically diverse characters are not only for people who belong to that particular group, but are for all people—if the work is well done.
Enlist a diversity of writers, producers, animators, voice talent, and creative execs to develop and green-light, authentic shows that enrich everyone. In addition to inclusive writer’s rooms, crews, and characters, inclusion needs to exist at all levels of production and decision making. Creative executives are heavily involved in decisions that may lead to shows being greenlit and/or receiving the resources needed to be successful.
Currently, there are no statistics on the ethnic diversity of behind-the-scenes staff and executives in children’s media. However, we do know that only 13% of Hollywood writers are people of color. In kids television in the United States, men make up 71% of creators, 53% of writers, 80% of directors and 64% of producers, while in Canada, men make up 62% of creators, 63% of writers, 82% of directors and 57% of producers. Bottom line, it’s difficult to write or make decisions about things with which you are unfamiliar.
Examine the entire slate of offerings in light of the world’s changing demographics. Make sure the suite of media offerings represents the demographic realities of what children, their families, and communities really need and care about in a global context. To that end, children’s media should provide opportunities for children to see themselves and their communities, while also being exposed to and learn about the lives, customs, and perspectives of others.
Let’s thank Harriett Glickman, Morrie Turner, Charles Schulz, and Franklin for a great start. Now let’s move beyond Franklin. I think they’d all be proud to be the initiators of a bigger legacy.
Kevin Clark, Ph.D.
Professor of Learning Technologies and Director of the Center for Digital Media Innovation and Diversity at George Mason University and a children’s media consultant.
This post originally appeared on KidScreen
https://kidscreen.com/2020/05/25/how-to-move-beyond-tokenism-in-kids-tv/
[c] Brunico Communications Ltd. Reprinted with permission.
How to avoid picking up prejudice from the media
News, entertainment, and social media shape how we behave toward different groups of people. How can we limit negative influences?
This is an article written from our friends and colleagues at the Greater Good Science Center that can shed some light on avoiding prejudice in the media.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, killing more than a thousand people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
That was terrible. But news media may have turned this natural disaster into a disaster for American race relations by repeatedly broadcasting images of black people who were often described as “looting” in the catastrophic wake of the storm. According to a study by James Johnson and colleagues, these types of images may lead white people to endorse harsh treatment of black evacuees (by, for example, not allowing them to seek refuge in another parish). Participants were not any less likely to help white evacuees, suggesting that racial stereotypes of blacks as criminals may have played a role.
News media aren’t the only problem. In another study, the researchers found that exposure to hyper-sexualized rap music (as compared to non-sexualized rap music or no music) led participants to feel less empathy for a young black woman who was pregnant and in need of assistance—which was not the case for a young white woman in a similar situation. Why? Because exposure to the hyper-sexualized rap music seemed to have activated a stereotype that black women are more sexually promiscuous.
Other minority groups—“out-groups” in relation to the majority—are portrayed negatively in media as well. Research shows that Latinos are often depicted as low status, criminal, and as sexual objects, while East Asians and Native American characters are rarely seen in the media. When they are, East Asian characters are commonly depicted as devious villains and Native American characters tend to be depicted as animalistic and savage. Middle Easterners are often portrayed as terrorists in both news and entertainment media. These stereotypic depictions can lead us to feel and behave more negatively toward these groups.
Yes, media have historically shown minority groups in a negative light, and these portrayals can exacerbate prejudice and discriminatory behaviors. But sometimes media are our only way of connecting with minority groups at all. Indeed, media may be the only contact some people have with minority groups, especially those living in homogenous communities.
Here are steps we can all take to limit the negative impact of stereotypes in the media—and maximize the positive benefits media may have on our attitudes toward out-groups.
When media impact is positive
In a study we conducted at the University of Toronto, people reported on how much they saw different social groups (like Latin Americans, the elderly, and gays and lesbians) in the media each day for 10 days. We also asked them report on all the direct social interactions they had with these groups each day, and their attitudes toward them.
We found that media contact consistently predicted more positive attitudes toward social out-groups. Importantly, seeing groups in the media was a stronger and more reliable predictor of positive intergroup attitudes than directly interacting with these groups.
This is likely because people were not having direct social interactions with many different out-group members very often, but they were frequently seeing a wide range of out-groups in the media. Even in Toronto, one of the most diverse cities in the world, people report few direct social interactions with out-group members. This demonstrates just how important media is for providing opportunities for cross-group contact.
Our findings echo the results of other experiments. In a series of studies, Edward Schippa and colleagues found that watching media interactions with gay and transgender characters were related to more positive attitudes toward gay men and transgender people in general. They call this dynamic the parasocial contact hypothesis, which states that we can have one-sided interactions with media characters, perceiving them as real people and feeling like we could know them in real life. When we have these interactions with out-group media characters, we may feel better about the out-group as a whole.
But we’re not just being exposed to different groups through media—we’re also being exposed to interactions between members of different social groups. When we watch other members of our group have positive interactions with out-group members, we learn that positive interaction is possible. This appears to reduce our own concerns about interacting with the out-group.
Indeed, studies have found that when people consume media that include positive interactions between in-group and out-group characters, they seem to feel more positively toward those groups, and they show more interest in interacting with members of those groups.
How to minimize the impact of negative stereotypes
It is clear that seeing groups presented in a positive way is important for improving intergroup attitudes—and, clearly, if journalists and media-makers want to have a positive impact on society, they should think carefully about how they portray minorities.
However, if we as individuals are not able to avoid seeing negative depictions of minority groups, then it’s important to find ways to buffer ourselves—and our children—against their effects.
The first step is to recognize negative stereotypes in the media when you see them, label them as stereotypes, and resist their influence on how you respond to the group. There is some evidence that actively challenging stereotypic responses when they occur is an important tool in combating our explicit and implicit prejudices.
Moreover, you can deliberately expose yourself to more diverse representations of other groups.
Studies have found that people who have had more social interaction with minority group members are less likely to be affected by negative media depictions of these groups. This may be explained by the fact that they have more varied representations of what members of this groups are like, and therefore do not allow a single, negative representation to shape how they treat people from that group. Even if you are not able to do this by directly interacting with minority group members, you can consume media with counter-stereotypical depictions of these groups. Doing this repeatedly over time may reduce the extent to which you rely on stereotypes to shape your attitudes and behavior toward these groups, similar to the way direct social interaction does.
We can use these same strategies with our children in order to minimize the negative impact of stereotypes. First, we need to explain to our children what stereotypes are and why they are harmful. When you consume media with your child, you can point out stereotypes when you see them and explain to your child why that stereotype is not representative of the group. You should also encourage your child to consume media with counter-stereotypic examples of out-group members and positive interactions between members of diverse groups.
While some news coverage during and after Hurricane Katrina activated and reinforced stereotypes, much of it had the opposite effect, raising awareness about racial inequality. For example, several articles discussed how race influenced the response of the US government and the media to this horrible tragedy. This hopefully created greater awareness of racial inequality and issues facing the black community for those who read these articles.
Although stereotypes are still broadcast to us through media, we can resist their influence when we acknowledge that they exist and that they are a problem. Moreover, we can use media as a tool to come into contact with different social groups that we may otherwise not have contact with and to learn about their experiences. In doing so, we may reduce our prejudices and foster more egalitarian attitudes in ourselves and our children.
Amanda Sharples, PhD
Elizabeth Page-Gould, PhD
This article originally appeared on Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.
Challenging Racism on the Screen
Challenging Racism on the Screen
When one hears the term “white supremacist,” it might call to mind vivid film depictions like Edward Norton’s vicious neo-Nazi skinhead in American History X or the ineffectual Ku Klux Klansmen that Quentin Tarantino used for a laugh in Django Unchained. But modern white supremacists are just as apt to hide behind anonymous online hate manifestos before enacting solitary attacks as they are to rally in public with swastika flags and white hoods; and narrow representations of visual villains in film and television don’t adequately prepare us for the insidious realities of everyday extremism.
Moreover, when film and television reflect images of “bad racists” as those who wear symbols of prejudice with pride while verbally and physically assaulting people of color, this extreme imagery leads to the false comfort that as long as we’re not acting out with explicit bias, we are not engaged in racism. This good/bad binary limits our understanding of what racism is and how white people participate in it.
Studies done by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity have shown that everyone possesses implicit racial biases, even if they “do not necessarily align with our declared beliefs or even reflect the stances we would explicitly endorse.” So what shapes these implicit biases from an early age? One of many factors is the narrative content we consume in film and television. You don’t have to look far to find racist stereotypes perpetuated on the screen; but some of the most problematic narratives actually emerge out of films that purport to be on the racially progressive “good” side of the spectrum.
For example, the recent Oscar-winning film Green Book was widely criticized for perpetuating the “magical negro” stereotype, offering a buddy comedy in which the one-dimensional wise black character merely serves to help the white man grow in his fully-fleshed-out journey.
Another stereotypical narrative is the “white savior,” as exemplified in The Blind Side: the story of a middle-class white woman who “rescues” a young black man from a world where every black person is rendered impoverished and/or criminal. And she does so by guiding him towards an arena where whites can accept a black man’s success: sports.
While some filmmakers might defend their work by claiming it’s “historically accurate” or “based on a true story,” these defenses shut down the larger conversation about the creative choices storytellers often make to either glorify or simplify human characters along racial lines.
These well-intentioned but ultimately misguided films demonstrate why it is crucial to change the way we dramatize racism in film and television to encompass both the nuanced offenses as well as some guiding light solutions.
In order to effectively challenge racism on screen, here are some actionable story insights for writers.
1. When portraying white supremacist characters, avoid caricatures that allow the audience to distance themselves without self-reflection. Instead, shine a light on the sinister reality of everyday racists and extremists who might not wear their prejudice on their sleeves.
2. When depicting characters engaged in racist behavior, show the subtler ways in which racism operates (e.g. using coded “us” vs.“them” terminology, as when talking about “safe” vs. “sketchy” neighborhoods as a veiled commentary on how many people of color live in these areas) – and have this racism identified and called out by another white character.
3. Write a story arc for a white character who is openly coming to terms with their own white fragility and privilege; and then growing to consciously engage with racism and challenge white supremacy.
4. Portray people of color as fully realized characters with rich inner and outer lives, rather than stunted stereotypes in service of a white character’s journey.
While these story-focused insights are a great jumping off point, I would encourage every writer to do the work not just within their creative writing, but also within themselves. In order to undo centuries of racial conditioning, we need to engage with and internalize more inclusive perspectives. Although the film and television industry is starting to have more active conversations about diversity and inclusion, the 2019 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report shows that only 12.6% of writers and 7.8% of directors are people of color.
For this reason, I offer a few more actionable insights that entail putting down the pen to do some larger work.
Accept that racism is an issue for white people to actively engage with and educate yourself with books like White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, and The New Jim Crow.
Proactively foster both creative and personal relationships across the racial divide.
Advocate for more diversity and representation for people of color behind the camera and on the screen.
If you witness racism on set or in a writers’ room, speak up and make yourself an ally.
Brian McAuley, MFA
WGA Screenwriter
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University School of the Arts
Collaborator of the Center for Scholars and Storytellers
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this blog belong solely to the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers.
Scoring Points with Athletic Characters
Scoring Points with Athletic Characters
Tough. Driven. Focused. Determined. Winner.
Dumb jock. Butch. One-dimensional. Bully.
All of the above describe athletic characters we commonly see on TV and in movies. While we have started to move past so many stereotypes in the media it seems the role of the ‘athlete’ hasn’t caught up. Unfortunately, I’m sure we have all seen the far too common scene where a ‘jock’ pushes a ‘nerd’ into the lockers many times.
Some of the most common stereotypes seen onscreen portray athletes as self-absorbed, bullies, ‘dumb jocks’, one-dimensional and selfish. However, in reality, athletes are incredibly diverse and have the potential to display a number of positive traits. For example, research has found that student athletes have better leadership skills than non-athletes and kids and teens who partake in team sports develop important social skills including empathy and leadership. Furthermore, one study found that compared to non-athletes, student athletes had higher school attendance, graduation rates, and lower dropout rates. These findings should not be simplified to “athletes are smarter or better than non-athletes”, but rather athletes are not simply ‘dumb jocks’ who are only good at one thing, sports. Within sport, they learn specific skills and develop certain qualities such as motivation, discipline, determination, and time management that help them succeed not only in sports, but in school and other domains as well.
One other very common misconception in the media is that most athletes onscreen are boys. Girls are often are portrayed as 1) being bad at sports, 2) simply not athletic at all or 3) participating in only stereotypical ‘feminine’ sports (i.e., cheerleading, dance), which is very problematic. Young girls are constantly being bombarded with characters and messages that suggest they will be viewed as butch, unattractive and masculine if they participate in sports. In fact, research has found that children (8-10-years-old) are aware of gender stereotypes that are prevalent in sport. This awareness actually affects their behavior and participation in certain sports such that girls avoid more masculine sports to fit the social norms related to gender.
As creators of characters that kids love to watch (and emulate), you have the power to create characters and settings that go beyond the common stereotypes we still see onscreen. You have the power to not only entertain kids, but to inspire them as well.
Here are some actionable insights to help you do this!
Expand your repertoire. There are so many unique physical activities that aren’t necessarily competitive sports but are quite common such as hiking, yoga, dance, bowling, paddling, skiing and frisbee. By showing children a range of physical activities and sports, you are not only introducing them to activities they are likely not exposed to, but you are also showing them that there is a sport for everyone!
Show being sporty or active as attainable. An athlete does not always have to be extremely talented or super strong to participate in sports or physical activities. Thus, showing a range of diverse characters participating in sports and having fun may help encourage children to participate in activities they may think they ‘aren’t good enough for’
Break out of old gender stereotypes. Firstly, not all female athletes have to be portrayed as butch or masculine. You can show girls being tough, focused, and successful and still show them being girly and fashionable (Or not!). Secondly, not all male athletes have to be portrayed as strong or aggressive. You can show boys who are more fragile and not aggressive and enjoy participating in more stereotypical ‘feminine’ sports such as skating (Or not!). Having complex characters with a range of athletic abilities and interests is imperative to help children see that participating in sports is not only for certain types of people with only certain qualities and talents.
Cut the scenes where athletes (and all kids) hide how smart they are. In real life, kids who excel in school are often respected and admired and kids should not be observing characters being ashamed of their intelligence or ‘good grades’. Athletes should not be portrayed as one-dimensional such that they do not only have to be good at sports, but they can also be good at school as well.
Show the other sides to athletes. A lot of athletes are high achievers, leaders, extremely well spoken, and outgoing. They can also be very creative, musical, and involved in the community. Showing all aspects of a character is very important.
Show kids being active. A lot of characters on screen are either an ‘athlete’, or they do nothing. Show your characters partaking in a range of physical activities or sports and explain how important and fun exercising can be!
Athletic scenes are full of potential for conflict, drama, and comedy, without falling back on a narrow view of athletes. Moving beyond athletic stereotypes will not only give you tons of material to work with but you’ll have an inspired and devoted audience!
Sue Comeau, B.Sc. (Kin), M.A., CSEP-CEP
Writes on fitness and healthy lifestyle, and is the author of The F.I.T. Files, for kids.
More Realistic Physical Representations in Media Will Support Youth Mental Health
More Realistic Physical Representations in Media Will Support Youth Mental Health
HIGHLIGHTS
• A CSS study found that the majority of human characters in children’s television in the US and Canada, especially females, were portrayed as thin or very thin.
• Studies show young women have a significantly more negative view of their body
• Exposure to sexualizing media leads to self-objectification in both men and women.
For many years, parents, child advocates, and mental health professionals have expressed their concerns about the influence of mass media on children and adolescents’ perceptions of body image, body satisfaction, and self-esteem. Over the past decade, with the rise of digital media and young people’s nearly constant engagement with media and technology, there has been an increasing alarm. Sadly, the media is filled with unrealistic representations of what our bodies should look like and do not accurately reflect the range of body shapes we see within our society—female characters and models often have bodies that are smaller and thinner than average, and males are often shown as physically strong and muscular. On top of this, these characters are often portrayed as being successful, accepted, sexually desirable, and happy while overweight characters are commonly used as comic relief, are often ridiculed in social situations and regarded as unattractive.
A recent report looking at children’s television in both the US and Canada showed that the majority of human characters in children’s television, especially females, were portrayed as thin or very thin. In addition, female characters were nearly twice as likely to be sexualized in the US based on factors such as revealing or flattering clothing, long eyelashes, and sensual lips.
While many things can contribute to one’s body satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) and self-esteem, several research studies have established that children and youth are indeed vulnerable to mass media images and messages that encourage and reinforce distorted body images and unhealthy perceptions about dietary health.
In one striking example, a landmark study over the period that television was introduced to a community in Fiji demonstrated the dramatic effect these images had on young adolescent girls, showing how they internalized the Western images of beauty, resulting in disordered eating habits and patterns. Moreover, a meta-analysis of 25 experimental studies examined the immediate effect of exposure to a variety of images and found that body image, especially for females younger than 19, was significantly more negative after seeing thin media characters than after seeing average or plus-size media characters or inanimate objects.
Exposure to hundreds and thousands of these inaccurate and unrealistic images over time sends the message that they are common and normal within society, when in fact, they are difficult if not impossible for most people to achieve. In fact, these images are almost always digitally manipulated, modified and enhanced to achieve this ‘ideal’ body image, creating an even larger gap between reality and what we see in the media. The impact of not being able to look like these characters in the media is associated with decreased self-esteem, body satisfaction, depression, and eating disorders.
Moreover, exposure to sexualizing media leads to self-objectification in both men and women – which feeds a destructive cycle of measuring self-esteem by physical appearance. At a time when rates of anxiety, depression and suicide are on a steep rise, especially among young women and girls, putting a stop to these distorted media representations is long overdue and more important than ever.
While the problem remains significant, we have seen some positive improvements in advertising and marketing campaigns in recent years. For example, Aerie, the lingerie retailer, created a campaign, #AerieREAL, which intends to promote body positivity by using raw, un-retouched images that feature models of different racial backgrounds and body types and more recently, models with disabilities and other medical issues. Similarly, Dove’s Girls Self Esteem campaign has a similar mission. Many popular retail brands, such as Target, Old Navy, Nike, and Forever 21, have followed suit by incorporating a diversity of body types and/or scaling back on re-touching photos in their advertising.
In TV and film, avoiding these distorted physical stereotypes is still the exception, not the rule. There are a handful of shows making a solid effort to promote more “body positivity” through inclusion of a variety of body types and characters, but they are unfortunately few and far between. We need to see much more of this – and urgently – especially for any hope of stemming the tide of rising rates of anxiety, depression and suicide among our youth.
Inclusive and realistic portrayals can promote body acceptance and reinforce self-esteem – and wellness should be prioritized over ratings. If done well, the ensuing culture shift should open the door for a new era of creative, representative content that viewers can relate to and embrace.
To contribute to positive body diversity in media, here are some actionable insights for content creators:
Offer more realistic cultural standards of beauty through a diversity of body types and experiences.
Avoid characters fixating on weight loss and beauty.
Create characters who model body positivity and acceptance.
Deviate from cultural norms of women needing to be slender and men, strong and muscular.
Offer an alternative narrative to one featuring women and girls as sexual objects and men as fixated on female physical characteristics above all others.
Show characters who deviate from the cultural norms of beauty as romantically desirable and socially accepted, not just as sidekicks or comic relief.
Vicki Harrison, MSW
Program Director, Center for Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing
Stanford Psychiatry Center for Youth Mental Health & Wellbeing
Adrianna Ruggiero
Senior Research Coordinator for CSS
Movie Review: Monsters and Men
I had the privilege of attending the premiere of the new feature film, Monsters and Men, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 6th. Set in Brooklyn, Monsters and Men almost feels like three short films merged together, each following a separate protagonist’s storyline, woven together by a far too common scenario that has shaken us to our core the past few years — the unnecessary fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer.
All three protagonists are African-American. The first is a young dad who witnesses the shooting and captures it on tape, and subsequently experiences the unjust consequences of releasing the tape. The second is a police officer in the same division as the officer who shot the man, put in the position of having to defend his loyalty to his police community to his clearly hurting black community. And finally, the third is a teenager with a promising future with a baseball scholarship, who risks it all by getting involved with protest groups against police brutality, mirroring timely race issues within the NFL. All three storylines lack resolution, an unsettling yet realistic scenario for these characters and those in similar situations.
This thought-provoking film is a quintessential example of how media coupled with impactful storytelling can used to transport the viewer into not just another world, but someone else’s shoes. In Monsters and Men, this was achieved through director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s inclusion of first-person perspectives, and his brilliant script which imparts empathy for all three protagonists’ storylines.
Movies can undoubtedly influence and shape viewers perspectives, but this is particularly true for young audiences, due to their developing minds, worldviews, and morals. This is one reason why movies that perpetuate unhelpful stereotypes are particularly problematic. Therefore, when it comes to race, content creators should strive for responsibly embedded realistic portrayals and counter-stereotypical depictions.
Fictional movies that are inspired by current events, such as Monsters and Men, offer an ideal entrypoint for introducing your teenager to these sensitive topics which are both timely and important. The fictional storyline also removes part of the taboo nature that can prevent people from talking about race relations, and slightly cushions the topic for particularly sensitive young viewers.
As a content creator, imagine a teen and parents co-viewing this film . What a fantastic launching pad for families to discuss the movie’s content and its relation to real-world events. It’s good to make content that is great, but when it’s great and impactful… even better!
Colleen Russo Johnson, PhD; Senior Fellow of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers
For more information on Monsters and Men, which comes out September 28th, see TIFF’s Synopsis:https://www.tiff.net/tiff/monsters-and-men/
Flip the Script: Reducing Unconscious Race Bias
“You can’t solve a problem unless you talk about.” Beverly Daniel Tatum
Unconscious biases develop our first year of life. These biases affect how we act in ways we may not always understand and recognize. Until we start acknowledging these biases and discussing them without blame, shame OR guilt, they will persist and shape our behavior and culture.
A surprising study found that black boys as young as 10 are seen as less innocent than white boys. Race identification, and the pride or shame associated with it, begins as young as 4-5 years of age. Representation affects our biases and also our own self-concepts in positive and negative ways. For example,
A study of nearly 400 children found that the more TV white boys watch, the higher their self esteem. The opposite was true for white and black girls and black boys.
In fact, just watching a racist scene on video increases blood pressure, long after the scene is over. Fortunately, storytellers can do something about this:
Show characters that identify discrimination and talk about it openly.
Portray positive role models from a variety of backgrounds.
Showing a narrative that is the opposite of what is expected (for example, black heroes and white villains) has been shown to decrease unconscious bias by 40%.
It’s time to flip the script.
Yalda T. Uhls, Ph.D.
Founder and Executive Director of The Center for Scholars & Storytellers