A couple of weeks ago the movie the Longest Yard came out and I was surprised how much it was like the first movie that was so long ago (I've seen it a few times on TV). In this one, the minorities were stereotyped, Chris Rock said "nigger" thousands of times to make everyone laugh, the guards were all white and the gay cheerleaders were all minorities. It was supposed to be a spoof, and many people movie writers agree with that. However, I feel like Cortes. Here is a movie that was pushed for kids (although rated PG-13) that includes gay jokes and sexual humor with minorities. I have read about the prison system in the U.S. with a too high percentage of minorities over whites and about other discrimination in this country. I do not think that movies like this help.
Cortes says that one of the most important things to do is to have better classes in schools that look at these types of stereotypes and multiculturalism. He states, "Our children 'are not blank slates. The mass media provide an ongoing forum for multicultural education. If schools don't get involved in teaching about diversity they have abandoned that teaching to other sources."
He says that school educators have to recognize the problem, pay attention to how the media is giving information, explore what this is doing to the students and learn how the media feels...
Then they have to find ways to put this into the courses.
I have read that the population in the United States is greatly changing. For this paper, I looked up some statistics. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce Norman Mineta says that America's population will increase 50% over the next 50 years. Almost 90% of the increase is minorities. In California, the number of Asians and Hispanics is growing rapidly. Los Angeles just elected a Hispanic mayor. Also, there are other groups that are not shown on TV like the Native Americans.
Cortes' book has a lot of information. It was too much for just one time reading. Teachers should read it, because their students have to know that things they see on television and read in magazines could include stereotypes about other people. The media is teaching whites wrong information and not showing minorities correctly or enough. If Cortes does another book, it should be on the way that schools can put this information into their classes. He says that some schools try to include this subject, but it is not consistent or not given enough time. It would be helpful for teachers to see what schools are doing to cover this in the right way.
Reference
Cortes, C.E. The Children Are Watching: How the Media Teach About Diversity. New York: Teachers College Press, 2000.
