“You, the
intelligent Black, would seemingly have two options – both of them bad.”[1]
What does a TV series like TopBoy do
to reinforce/challenge stereotypical representation of ethnic
minorities as criminals?
Ethnic
minorities have ‘accused all broadcasters of tokenism and stereotyping,
screening exaggerated’[2]
extreme representations that fail to reflect modern ethnic minorities. The mass
media had already established ‘the link between ‘filth’ and ethnic minorities’[3] since the 19th century.
Gramsci’s view on hegemony can be applied to both elements of old and new
racist stereotypes in the current media, thus racism still pervades our society
due to the images shown. TopBoy (2011)
represent black youths’ daily lifestyle, in North London, which involves gang culture,
poverty and lack of opportunity where Ronan Bennett, the director, wanted to
produce something ‘honest’. This is represented in a historic text Babylon (1981) and also TopBoy and shows why ethnic minorities
resort to brutality of the streets. From the representations being reinforced
and challenged through TopBoy, the
audience is highly critical as it ‘continually misrepresent[s]’ [4]ethnic
minorities which may ‘strengthen the lines of division in a community’.[5]
Stereotypes
help media industries to represent ‘codes that give audiences a quick, common
understanding of a person or group of people’[6]
which can reinforce negative stereotypes. Hall argues ethnic minorities are
represented in three categories: troublemakers, entertainers and dependent, it
can be applied to a historic point of view thirty years before TopBoy; Babylon (1981). Babylon represents ethnic minorities as
working class entertainers. Franco Rosso, the director, based the view around
the racial divide of London and the lack of opportunities available to black
people and poverty, which is also represented in TopBoy.
TopBoy supports Hall’s
theory as the David had lost his job and gets beaten up which led to David to
be seen as a ‘troublemaker,’ reinforcing negative stereotypes. Also, by aggressively
responding to racist remarks made throughout by the community, for example ‘go
back to where you’re from’, shows them to be entertaining the white community
and also reflected the ‘zeitgeist’ as it reflected black people were seen as
slaves, which can be also called ‘dependent’ on the middle class. However, Hall
can be criticised as in TopBoy Dushane
and family friend offer Ra’nell money but rejects it which connotes ethnic
minorities are not dependent and these labels do not fit.
Official statistics show that “black people are 26 times more
likely to be stopped and searched”[7] considering they
constitute less than nine per cent of the population in England, the media has
perpetuated negative stereotypes of, in particular, black people. TopBoy reinforce negative stereotypes of
ethnic minorities being as criminal as they characters Dushane and Sully have
to pay back Raikes a large sum, where they resort to illegitimate ways,
reinforcing the lack of legitimate opportunities for ethnic minorities. However, Gilroy describes the view of ethnic
minorities as criminals to be ‘mythical’ due to the ‘result of distorted
media attention’[8]
and the police and criminal justice system acting on these racist stereotypes,
victimising ethnic minorities. TopBoy show
an integration within black people as Dushane says to Ra’Nell “if anyone is
bullying you, disrespecting you let me know init, ill sort it out”. Ethnic
minorities show their status through actions, which is evident through ‘ill
sort this out’; this is supported ‘the coon Caricature’ as in both TopBoy and Babylon show ethnic minorities such as black people to act and
speak in similar ways which is reinforcing dominant stereotypes of youths.
Nonetheless, minorities have ‘long attempted to
convince industry decision-makers to seek better balance in news coverage of
minorities’[9] to
reduce negativism in societies because when ethnic communities become active in
responding the mass media coverage victimises those who are being targeted,
creating sympathy. “Although black people are often portrayed as criminals to
be feared, they 36 times more likely than white person to be a victim of a
violent attack”[10]
However, the BBC represents Asian characters as ‘unnaturally smart’[11].
Asian parents to have high expectations on their children which are positive
representations of Asians through the media and arguably over-represented due
to recent events such as 9/11 and Bradford riots, as these show not every Asian
is successful legitimately. An increase of Islamic fundamentalism has brought
negative representations for Asians as they are stereotyped to be ‘terrorist’
and represented as criminals within society.
In
addition, the media can produce moral panics through stereotypes: “A moral
panic refers to the reaction of a group of people based on the false belief
that another sub-culture or a group poses danger to the society”[12].
Cohen identified three central elements: ‘exaggeration, prediction and
symbolisation’[13].
The media has been accused to exaggerate the violence and the number of people
involved, which is not shown in TopBoy as
interviews show you cannot do something without the ‘feds’ being around. The
moral panic was central around ‘boundaries of crises’[14],
when society does not know the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable
behaviour. Babylon (1981) shows black
people finding their rights by attacking racism which created moral panic
within society, arguably creating self-fulfilling prophecy in today’s society,
which shows ethnic minorities to be criminals. Babylon was directed by a Black male where it can be argued does
not reinforce negative stereotypes of ethnic minorities.
Hall et
al neo-Marxist, argues moral panics arise ‘in relation to members of ethnic
minorities, drug use, raves, single mothers and out of control youths’[15],
which is shown in TopBoy as Ra’Nell
has a single mother and drugs are being used throughout, and also distracts the
attention away from the crisis of capitalism and the exploitation within the
two divisions: proletariats and the bourgeoisie. Cohen also argues that
simple facts being reported is ‘enough to generate concern, anxiety or panic’[16]
Therefore, Cohen argues the mass media create new and problematic social groups
which are usually associated with ethnic minorities.
Music genre usually addressed to grime and rap music, are criticised for
encouraging violence and criminality. There are numerous ways in which the
media might possibly cause their audience to become criminals, imitation may
occur by providing deviant role models, resulting to copycat behaviour as
“black students are the heaviest TV watchers’[17], they
are being transmitted knowledge of criminal techniques. The negative labels on
their audience has been studied and shown the exposure of media violence has at
‘most a small and limited negative effects on the audiences’[18]. In TopBoy
not all of the ethnic minority characters are shown to be involved in crime as
the protagonist, Ra’Nell, who tries to avoid a lifestyle full of drugs and
criminal activity. His actions cause the narrative disequilibrium as he
subverts against expected actions, which shows the directors are trying to
portray an alternative view, excluding criminal activity. However, Lea and
Young say ‘the mass media help to increase the sense of relative deprivation’[19] which encourages violence and
criminality as the media represent everyone having a ‘good life’ and they feel
marginalised as they cannot afford these materialistic lifestyles.
On the other hand, TopBoy do
not glamorise in the first five minutes of the
first series, the London eye and the estates around are the main aspects of the
shot were we automatically assume crime and drug use occurs. The clothing used
throughout TopBoy is mainly
tracksuits and hoodies which connote the day-to-day clothing for those on the
streets where the audience can identify how people look if they are involved in
criminal activity. By dominant ideologies such as clothing and settings being
repeated creates typification (Schutz), a view that everyone knows without
thinking about, associated with ethnic minorities, drug use is related to
ethnic minorities. The setting is not glamorised either as there is no green
screen, all the shots are based in Hackney which suggest the realism; showing ‘an accurate portrayal’[20] of an ordinary lifestyle in North London
which consist of both negative and positive representations within ethnic
minorities. However, they take a postmodernist approach by basing TopBoy around estates yet recording with
a HD-camera glamorises the settings.
In TopBoy, authority and power is
represented through objects such as guns, and if he felt his authority being
challenged he had the weapon to regain his status. Therefore, ‘whether
intentionally or unintentionally, both the news and the entertainment media
‘teach’ the public about minorities’[21]
and these views are social constructed due to self-fulfilling prophecy and
historical reconstruction. Messerschmidt (1993) argues that masculinity is
socially constructed or ‘accomplished’ and men have to constantly work to
construct that label by others, there are two types of masculinity ‘hegemonic’
and ‘subordination’ where ethnic minorities in the lower-class have an
expectation of a reasonable job and may use gang membership and violence to
express their masculinity.
The
representations of the youths in TopBoy
are shown negatively as they are seen as drug users and involved in criminal
activities and aggressive behaviour, but could also reflect accuracy in Hackney
society. It can argue that the representations are somewhat positive as when
Dris calls his friends when the group rob them, they run to them which connotes
unity within the society. Also it is multi-narrative as it goes back to a young
boy, Ra'Nell, in an estate watching over all this violence, but he has a
depressed lone-parent after having an abusive husband, to Ra’nell the violence
outside is no different to what he saw when he was younger. TopBoy starts with a disequilibrium
where two black youths got robbed by other black males, Todorov’s theory, which
reinforced negative stereotypes on ethnic minorities of being criminals.
Ra’nell is taking care of his mother shows an alternative representation of
black youths, relating back to Marxism and how the media controls us by having
the media represent the reality in life, through stereotypes of a certain
group. By representing black people as them being criminals may cause a moral
panic as it shows what is happening around London and the audience may link
back recent events with situations raised in TopBoy for example The London Riots.
Ethnic minority males are usually
shown to be criminals within the media, which is supported through TopBoy as the groups consist of mainly
men and also through official statistics. The
British Crime Survey had shown ‘historically, the consistent pattern has been
that women are less likely to offend than men’[22].
Both Topboy and Babylon represent ‘gangs’ that consist mainly of men which could
reinforce the negative stereotypes on ethnic males. News coverage usually shows
males than women who have committed a crime which could suggest the reasons for
why stereotypes of ethnic males are more likely to commit a crime compared to
ethnic women.
The New Right
believe children brought up in lone-parent households subvert to crime as they
have a ‘lack of role models’[23] and ‘responsible for crime’[24], usually within ethnic minority
families. In TopBoy, many of the
characters came from a nuclear family which contradicts New Rights theory
however, the protagonist Ra’nell, who is from a lone-parent family, subverts
his attention away from criminal activity, even though he did and still does
not have a strong role model. This connotes that TopBoy does not reinforce
ethnic minorities being criminals and challenges these stereotypes. Also, many
ethnic minorities such as Asian families have nuclear families which shows’
having a lack of role models does not affect whether or not children resort to
criminal activities.
Channel 4
is a commercial broadcaster which ‘distinctive education content for young
people, often tackling subjects’[25], for example TopBoy educates us about
stereotypes and how life is in different parts on London, which includes ‘peak
time programmes and online services’. TopBoy,
which was shown three months after the London riots (2011), reinforced yet
challenged negative stereotypes on ethnic minorities. By challenging
stereotypes of ethnic minorities they are ‘reflecting the diversity of Britain;
culturally and geographically’[26]
and are trying to show Britain through the ‘voices of a new generation’[27].
Channel 4 have been highly criticised TopBoy,
as it ‘lacked realism’[28] however as the director took two years
interviewing East London and reinventing his life which he believes for it to
be highly realistic. The producer and director portrayed an alternative view
within TopBoy which is you can live on an estate and not be involved in crime;
therefore they challenged the audiences view on those who live on estates. Babylon, on the other hand, was a view
shown from a black person of black people’s lives in the 1980s therefore did
not lack realism and did not show ethnic minorities as criminals.
Channel 4
have reinforced negative stereotypes as TopBoy
is in an area where there is a higher population of blacks than Asians.Therefore,
the reproduce accurate representations of youths in that area but also show an
alternative view through ethnic minorities not going into crime and being
stereotyped as the typical ‘criminal’. Due to ethnic minorities been seen as
criminials, Dyer (1993) states that “how we are seen determines in part how we
are treated; how we treat others is based on how we see them; such seeing comes
from representations.[29] The BBC who produce Eastenders are there to entertain, inform and educate the audience,
they show Asians to be smart which could indicate what Asians’ master status is
and challenges the recent stereotypes of Asians being ‘terrorists’ and
criminals.
Over half
of ethnic minorities have said ‘they learn a lot from TV’[30]
which is beneficial when TopBoy challenge
negative stereotypes because television is a ‘primarily a vehicle for
entertainment but also as a learning tool and a point of entry into the wider
world’[31]
. On the other hand, racism on television programmes in the UK exploded in 2007
as Shilpa Shetty was subjected to ‘vicious racial slurs’ in the Big Brother house, in 2007. This
created an outcry in India as there were a large number of objections to both
her treatment and Channel 4’s decision to broadcast these scenes. This led to a
national debate reaching the House of Commons, as it did not show UK’s
multi-cultural society. From this incident Channel 4 became sensitive due to
the number of allegations of their programmes, which suggests that because
Channel 4 has already been highly criticised about racism they wanted to a
contrasted view that does not reinforce stereotypical behaviour through ethnic
minorities.
According
to the hypodermic needle, information from the media is being shot like a
‘magic bullet’[32] which suggests ethnic minorities are
most vulnerable, as they are easily influenced by what they see from television
programmes. TopBoy Ra’nell is
continuously told to ‘step up and be a man’ which connotes males that do not
want to fight are not classified as a ‘man’. This shows negative information is
being perpetuated throughout TopBoy and
affecting ethnic minority’s actions, and are ‘most likely to see television as
a reflection of real life’[33].
Minorities are reliant on what is shown and gather information from programmes
of different social groups and not from personal experience. However, TopBoy reinforced dominant ideologies,
such as teenage pregnancy and drug using within ethnic minorities which
connotes the audience are able to change these representations by not copying
them.
By analysing historical and contemporary
texts, it is evident to see that these representative images have strengthened
the issue of racial stereotyping where “the repetition of stereotypes and the
absence of plausible alternative means that the values wrapped up in the
stereotype come to appear as ‘common sense’”[34]. Steven Neale says “genre are instance of
repetition and difference” which shows there are dominant and alternative
ideologies being continuously perpetuated.
This concludes ethnic stereotypes maintain the hegemonic control and reinforces
the status quo and being amplified.
Word count: 2190
Work Cited:
Bibliography
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Valerie, and Simone Bull. Media and
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Wall, Peter (2006) A2 media studies: the
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Moving Text:
TopBoy (UK- 2011 presented
Channel 4)
Babylon (USA)
Eastenders (UK- 2009 BBC)
Internet
Stereotypes
Top Soaps Accused Of Stereotyping
Ethnic Minorities
Media stereotyping
Life changed for ethnic
minorities?
‘Race’, ethnicity and crime
Minorities and the Media
Yann Demange: Being a teenage boy
in London now is scary
Negativity reinforced by police
Example of moral panic
Theory on different types of
families
channel 4 trying to educate us
TopBoy examples
Ethnicity
Has stereotypes changed in todays
society
Work Consulted:
Internet
IMDb- Babylon
Moral Panic from
Negative Racial Stereotypes in
the Media from
Racial and Ethnic
Stereotypes from
The Hypodermic Needle Theory and
The Mass Media from
Black landmarks being described
on EastEnder
New racism
Books:
Alia, V., & Bull, S. (2005).
Media and Ethnic Minorities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
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Benyahia, S., & Wall, P. (2010). A2 Media Studies The Essential Introduction
for WJEC.. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Bennet, Peter. Slater, Jerry.
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Casey, B. (2002). Television
studies: the key concepts. London: Routledge.
Cottle, S. (2000). Ethnic
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University Press.
Laughey, D.
Malik, S. (1998). Representing
black Britain: black images on British television from 1936 to the present
day.. SAGE, 2002: : Open University Press.
Williams, K. (2003). Understanding media theory. London:
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