Representation of Ethnicity

Lesson objective

To define ethnicity and analyse its representation in TV drama.

Starter

1. Define ‘ethnicity’.

2. What ethnicity would you class yourself as and why?

3. What are some broad ethnic stereotypes you have seen in TV Dramas?

Ethnicity refers to…

…share cultural practices, perspectives and distinctions that set apart one group of people from another. It is a shared cultural heritage and are a sense of ancestry, history, language, religion.

Alvarado (1987)(Note taking time)

• Identified a number of stereotypes of black people in film.

• Typecasting - assigning actors limited roles due to their appearance or accent;

• This typecasting was satirised in a scene from a film called Hollywood Shuffle (1987) in a scene called ‘Black Acting School’; warning - this scene has very strong language but is illustrative of the the typecast roles assigned to black people.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoqmCwp95Q8

Alvarado (1987) identified four main types 1. The humorous, providing

comic relief.

2. The exotic; other cultures presented as unusual and exotic in their traditions and ways of living.

3. The pitied; objects of pity and vulnerability.

4. The dangerous; criminal, gangster and usually coupled with a binary opposition such as the respectable white character.

Tokenism• To combat the under-

representation of black characters, producers attempted to address the balance leading to accusations of tokenism.

• Tokenism - the placing of a character (usually a minority) so that a text appears multi-cultural.

• South Park chose to highlight this by naming their black child character ‘Token’.

Common Stereotypes• In your books, using the

following ethnicities as headings, write down key stereotypes according the ethnicity;

• White

• Black

• Asian

• Eastern-European

Ethnicity – Exam SkillsLesson objective

To write 2 x detailed paragraphs regarding representation of ethnicity from the clip using the structure from previous lessons.

Starter

You have 10 minutes maximum to:

• Go to bitstrips.com- Under create click comic and put ‘1’ in number of boxes.- Use the pre-set characters, settings and props to represent stereotypes of the ethnicity you have given.Screenshot the final one and send to sderrick1@swakeleys.org.uk

Black

VillainsSide-kicks

Not trustworthyGangstersHumorous

Good at singing, soulful, dancing – creative industries

Athleticism Religious – gospel, loud church services

High unemploymentGhettos

Housing estateDie young, violent youth culture

Don’t value education – reputation, street-wiseSexual

White

HeroicChavs – common

Rule the governmentLeadership roles

NunsPresident, prime minister

Can be chavvy through to poshAlways win and succeed

Middle or upper class

Eastern-European

Sexual – prostitutesPoverty

Gypsies – travellers, negative reputationDesperate

Exploited – as people, gullible Dodgy

MysteriousIllegal – immigrants

Want to make money – ‘stealing jobs’Polish shops – taking over the high street

Accents

Asian

DoctorsIntelligent

Take-away shopsStart as working class, want children to be a

higher classValue education

Religious – dominant in their livesOften normal although sometimes appear

different to British cultureStereotype of strong accents

Discuss the Representation of Ethnicity in the following

Extract

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG5GJQjyGo

• Hotel Babylon

Step 1

• Note taking method;

1. Write down units of drama, chronologically AFTER the first viewing, in a list.

2. Leave one line gaps if you’ve forgotten the details.

1. This happened at the start.2. Secondly this3. 4. This happened5. 6. Ended like this.

Step 22. Add any other units of drama during second screening

At the end draw 4 columns landscape on the page with C(amera), E(diting),

S(ound) MES (mise- en-scene) at the top.

Add the units of Drama down the

side, with a few lines distance.

1. This happened at the start.2. Secondly this3. This happened at this point4. This happened5. This happened just before the end6. Ended like this.

During the second screening

C E SMES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.After second

screening

Step 3

• During third screening, write detailed notes for sections 1, 3 and 5.

• You will fill in 1 whilst 2 is running, 3 whilst 4 is running etc…

1. This happened at the start.2. Secondly this3. This happened at this point4. This happened5. This happened just before the end6. Ended like this.

C E SMES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

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Step 4

• Fill in the remaining units of Drama during the final screening.

1. This happened at the start.2. Secondly this3. This happened at this point4. This happened5. This happened just before the end6. Ended like this.

C E SMES

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

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