Comedian speaks to students about media’s perceptions and stereotypes of cultures
Posted on April 17, 2008
Who has the right to say the N-word? Who does society allow to say it? Chris Rock? How about Michael Richards? Both are comedians. Why does society accept Rock saying the N-word when it scolds Richards for it? Is it simply because Rock is black?
“It is a complicated question,” said Teja Arboleda, an Emmy award-winning producer, actor and comedian. “In the end it probably matters to most people that [Chris Rock] has dark skin which makes it acceptable to use the N-word.”
Arboleda asked questions Monday night at Festival about who can say what during his lecture “Crossing the Line: Comedians, Politicians and Shock Jocks.” He spoke of his own multicultured background and experiences.
“When Chris Rock uses the N-word…he reinforces the stereotype that black people use the N-word all the time,” said Arboleda. “That’s where it becomes complicated. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking freedom of speech but that’s like saying ‘because the Constitution allows us to bear arms I can walk around with a flamethrower.’”
Arboleda, who has African American, Native American, Filipinos, German, Danish and Chinese heritage, went over categories including culture, race, class, sexual orientation, appearance, and religion in his presentation.
“The world puts us in this box; the world tells us that we belong in a particular box, but we don’t always fit,” Arboleda said.
Discussions on race dominated the lecture as Arboleda challenged the audiences’ conceptions of what is acceptable and why. He wanted to know if it was possible to restrict speech so no one could cross the line.
“We can’t legally restrict speech,” junior Chiquita King said. “It’s an ethical thing and the guidelines can’t be written down.”
Arboleda spoke at length about how people perceive others. Within three to six seconds as you pass someone on the street, your brain decides who that person is, said Arboleda.
To prove a point, Arboleda had students describe the race of 12 faces made using software called Morph. He asked why certain features signified different races.
“In America we are racist because we believe in the concept of race,” he said.
Approximately 45 students listened to Arboleda as he tried to convince them to cast aside stereotypes they see in the media. He blamed the media for intentionally perpetuating stereotypes.
“The problem is not America,” Arboleda said. “The problem is the media, the media puts us into specific categories.”
Certain types of characters on TV shows are shown a certain way, causing Americans to view certain types of people a certain way according to Arboleda.
“Sitcoms, and I know this because this is a fact from a producer’s standpoint, are required to follow the archetypical characters and stereotypical characters,” Arboleda said. “You have the gay guy who is usually very feminine, very rarely do you have gay characters in television that happens to be a person.”
A Harvard study released in 1998 supports Arboleda’s assertion that the media portray certain groups in certain ways. It found that a majority of music videos portray black men as aggressors. Black people were depicted as aggressors in 25 percent of the violent videos and 95 percent of those were men.
Columbia professor Michael Eric Dyson called the study, “lamentable but predictable proof that television reinforces the perception that blacks are predators and should be viewed with suspicion.”
In a report on media and race from 2000, Robert Entman of North Carolina State called interracial romances on TV shows such as “ER,” “Ally McBeal,” and “The West Wing” tentative steps reflecting ambivalence about interracial romance. After the “ER” romance of Peter Benton, a black character, and Elizabeth Corday, a white character, ended, audience protests showed that evidence audiences were more accepting of interracial couples, according to Entman.
Arboleda ended the night trying to answer the question of how to describe America to foreigners.
“You can’t stereotype America, it’s too big,” he said. “Someone from San Francisco is not going to have the same culture as someone from Akron, Ohio.”
