Latino, Black And Middle-Eastern Immigrants Portrayed As Criminals On TV

Perception is reality. That phrase rings true for many, who accept what they hear and see at face value. And so, in a world influenced by pop culture, experts argue that how people are portrayed in the media can shape perceptions - often, in more negative than positive ways.

As the issue of immigration continues to dominate the current U.S. political discourse, how immigrants are portrayed on television is painting a picture that some viewers are accepting as fact.

“For many TV viewers, shows are their primary source of knowledge about these fellow Americans. And even for people who have personal experience with diverse communities, the repeated drumbeat of similar, often-problematic depictions shapes conscious and subconscious perceptions,” states Alan Jenkins, executive director of The Opportunity Agenda, a non-profit social justice communication lab that analyzed storylines associated with immigration and immigrants within popular television programs during the April 2014 to June 2016 television seasons. And that can influence attitudes, behavior and decision-making in hiring, policing, health care, education and other policies, he says.

In its report, “Power of Pop: Analyzing Portrayals of Immigrants in Popular Television,” researchers found that a significant portion of storylines tied to immigration or immigrants centered on some form of unlawful activity including murder, human trafficking, and drug dealing. In a racial and ethnic breakdown of those storylines, 50% of Latino immigrant characters were represented in an unlawful act and 38% were depicted as incarcerated, 33% of Black immigrants and 25% of Middle-Eastern immigrants were depicted as incarcerated, while only 9% of white immigrants were shown to commit an unlawful act.

“Popular culture can help to bring us together, or it can further drive us apart. And unfortunately, ‘The Power of Pop’ report tells us that television depictions are contributing more to division and discrimination right now than to unity and understanding. Those depictions too often deepen stereotypes, and make bias worse, instead of better,” says Jenkins.

Other findings of the report:

• When immigrants are depicted on television, white, European immigrants are overrepresented and immigrants of color are underrepresented.

• During the period studied, 66% of immigrant characters were white immigrants, with roughly 48% of those characters originating from European countries. • Immigrants of color are less likely than white immigrants to be cast in recurring roles.

• White immigrant characters on TV are more likely to be depicted in high-ranking or highly skilled professions, particularly in senior roles in the military, as doctors, and as scientists.

There is one positive insight gleaned from the study. According to the author, television comedies have emerged as a space where negative stereotypes about immigrants and anxieties related to demographic change are being challenged through humor. During the 2014-2016 seasons, Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang’s original Netflix series, Master of None and Eddie Huang’s depiction of the immigrant experience in ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat offer “more complete and varying depictions of immigrant communities.”

“Popular entertainment is playing a key role in shaping people's attitudes toward a variety of social issues, but is often overlooked in media research, which tends to focus on the news media. By conducting this research, we hoped to gain a deeper understanding of what the average American is consuming, identify both positive and negative trends, and provide practical recommendations for improving the current representation of immigrants,” explains opinion researcher and report author Lucy Odigie-Turley.

Some of those recommendations include advocating for “fresh storylines that reflect the diversity of the modern immigrant experience” and “scrutinizing tired immigrant stereotypes and tropes, the same way that writers and showrunners work to weed out overused jokes and tired narratives,” insists Jenkins.

He also suggests recruiting and hiring a more diverse team of writers, producers and directors, including first and second-generation immigrants, whose lived experiences can portray more realistic characterizations of immigrants - and minorities in general. That argument isn’t new. For years, minority advocacy organizations such as the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) have called on network executives to diversify its talent pool in front and behind the cameras.

"We believe creating change in the industry goes beyond just casting a Latino actor or hiring a Latino crew member," says NALIP executive director Ben Lopez. "It is about telling real stories that resonate with our community and giving these creators an opportunity to be more than just a statistic."

Diversity “would help television’s bottom line,” says Jenkins, pointing to the 2017 Hollywood Diversity Report issued by The Ralph Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA as evidence, which found that a diverse cast led to better ratings, citing popular shows such Empire (Fox), Black-ish (ABC) and Law and Order: SVU (NBC).

“There is no tradeoff in Hollywood today between diversity and profitability. Diversity is clearly a plus factor for the bottom line. Nor is there a tradeoff between diversity and quality,” state the authors of the Hollywood Diversity Report. “Quality storytelling plus rich, diverse performances equals box office and ratings success. Year after year, the evidence supporting this equation continues to mount.”