History Analysis / RaceTropes

'''Arabs:''' Still AcceptableTargets, something that can even be seen here on TV Tropes, unfortunately. Almost always portrayed as brutal terrorists. If not terrorists, Arabs will be billionaires or belly dancers... although those depictions have become far less common after 9/11. Generally depicted as the only people living in the Middle East, apart from Israelis. Old Jewish stereotypes like the big-nosed miser are now frequently applied to Arabs. Positive portrayals are very rare, except again in Europe where they are given positive roles a little more often - particularly in France where Arabic and North African (Algerian and Moroccan) people are a significant minority. Since 9/11 almost every media work with Arab villains now includes a TokenMinority Muslim good guy, who is usually misunderstood. Sometimes writers mistake Turks, Persians, or even Afghans for Arabs out of sheer ignorance.

'''Europeans:''' Make up the lion's share of western media. The first image that pops up into a westerner's mind upon hearing the word "hero" will probably be a white man (though the main villain, if native to a Western country like America, will nigh inevitably be white as well). Due to the influence of western culture and politics, white people tend to be vastly over-represented in global media. In western media, white people are almost always portrayed as superior to other races (except morally, in which case they might need to be shown the light by a NobleSavage (''Film/{{Avatar}}''), a down to earth person of color (''Film/BringingDownTheHouse''), or a black man playing God incarnate (''Film/BruceAlmighty'' or ''Film/{{Bedazzled|2000}}'').) The most pronounced example of this trend is the MightyWhitey, who surpasses all non-whites around him and sometimes snags TheChiefsDaughter for his trouble. Over the years, efforts have been made to diversify western media and eliminate the racism, though it's an ongoing debate as to how successful these efforts have been. Even in nonfiction, [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome white people seem to get more attention than anyone else]]. Diversified casts, often aimed at minority audiences, usually have at least a TokenWhite character, who is often TheLancer. Because white people are considered to have all the power in western society, they are AcceptableTargets, usually as a form of [[WhiteDudeBlackDude comedy]]. What also must be taken into consideration is that certain ''types'' of what we now call "white" people were historically not depicted very often because they were thought of as "not white enough", or in some cases not white at all. In general, only Anglo-Saxons, Germanic, Scandinavians, Baltic Slavs, Russians from the western side of Russia, and the French (except when [[LatinLover their "Latin" traits were being played up]]) have been the only European groups thought of as unambiguously "white" throughout the entire history of American popular media. Eastern Europeans (especially Russians) are still often stereotyped as DirtyCommunists (in the US) or poor, job stealing nuisances (in the UK).

'''Europeans:''' Make up the lion's share of western media. The first image that pops up into a westerner's mind upon hearing the word "hero" will probably be a white man (though the main villain, if native to a Western country like America, will nigh inevitably be white as well). Due to the influence of western culture and politics, white people tend to be vastly over-represented in global media. In western media, white people are almost always portrayed as superior to other races (except morally, in which case they might need to be shown the light by a NobleSavage (''Film/{{Avatar}}''), a down to earth person of color (''Film/BringingDownTheHouse''), or a black man playing God incarnate (''Film/BruceAlmighty'' or ''Film/{{Bedazzled|2000}}'').) The most pronounced example of this trend is the MightyWhitey, who surpasses all non-whites around him and sometimes snags TheChiefsDaughter for his trouble. Over the years, efforts have been made to diversify western media and eliminate the racism, though it's an ongoing debate as to how successful these efforts have been. Even in nonfiction, [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome white people seem to get more attention than anyone else]]. Diversified casts, often aimed at minority audiences, usually have at least a TokenWhite character, who is often TheLancer. Because white people are considered to have all the power in western society, they are AcceptableEthnicTargets, usually as a form of [[WhiteDudeBlackDude comedy]]. What also must be taken into consideration is that certain ''types'' of what we now call "white" people were historically not depicted very often because they were thought of as "not white enough", or in some cases not white at all. In general, only Anglo-Saxons, Germanic, Scandinavians, Baltic Slavs, Russians from the western side of Russia, and the French (except when [[LatinLover their "Latin" traits were being played up]]) have been the only European groups thought of as unambiguously "white" throughout the entire history of American popular media. Eastern Europeans (especially Russians) are still often stereotyped as DirtyCommunists (in the US) or poor, job stealing nuisances (in the UK).

'''Arabs:''' Still AcceptableEthnicTargets, something that can even be seen here on TV Tropes, unfortunately. Almost always portrayed as brutal terrorists. If not terrorists, Arabs will be billionaires or belly dancers... although those depictions have become far less common after 9/11. Generally depicted as the only people living in the Middle East, apart from Israelis. Old Jewish stereotypes like the big-nosed miser are now frequently applied to Arabs. Positive portrayals are very rare, except again in Europe where they are given positive roles a little more often - particularly in France where Arabic and North African (Algerian and Moroccan) people are a significant minority. Since 9/11 almost every media work with Arab villains now includes a TokenMinority Muslim good guy, who is usually misunderstood. Sometimes writers mistake Turks, Persians, or even Afghans for Arabs out of sheer ignorance.

'''Jews:''' Perhaps over-represented as a "minority," Jews pop up all over the place in literature, film, and television, especially in the USA. This is most likely due to the significant influence that Jewish culture has had in the arts, especially in Los Angeles and New York. Writers often [[YouHaveToHaveJews include a Jew]], even if they don't plan on doing anything with the character's faith, just to make sure that Judaism is represented somehow. Don't expect there to be any distinction made between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism. Media depictions of a bris and bar mitzvahs are common when Jews are involved in the storyline, but it is incredibly uncommon for a girl's bat mitzvah to ever be depicted, let alone even mentioned. Good luck getting one past the [[InformedJudaism informed]] or [[AmbiguouslyJewish ambiguous]] markers, though, and don't expect to find any Israelis or [[AllJewsAreAshkenazi non-Ashkenazim]]. Overly stereotyped as having dark hair and pale skin, despite there being plenty of blond/blonde haired and blue eyed Jews, red-headed Jews[[note]]In fact, in some parts of the world, red hair was historically seen as a Jewish trait -- famous real and fictional red-haired Jews include [[Literature/TheBible David, Esau, Judas, Mary Magdalene]], [[Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice Shylock]], [[Literature/OliverTwist Fagin]], [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kyle and Sheila Broflovski]], [[ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} Kate Kane]], [[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel Art Garfunkel]], Creator/GeneWilder, Music/DannyElfman, and Creator/SethGreen.[[/note]], green eyed Jews, mixed-race Jews, African American Jews, Hispanic Jews, East African Jews and converts from all over the world. Most media Jews are just white people with Judaism added as a character trait.

'''East Asians:''' Vastly underrepresented in American media. This is most notably evident in TV shows or movies taking place in cities with a very significant Asian population in real life but few, if any, Asian characters. The few representations that do exist are mired in stereotypes. Viewed as the "model minority" in real life, portrayed as having no financial problems, and not experiencing racism. Historically, they were referred to as model minorities because they were less likely to be vocal about mistreatment like other minorities, such as Blacks and Hispanics over Jim Crow, or Jews over Antisemitism. In reality, there are Asian groups who are considerably worse off than whites, but the model minority myth largely overrides this. Asian depictions are split between [[AsianAndNerdy smart, hopelessly nerdy guys]] (but ''never'' {{otaku}}, mind you) with a knack for technology or {{Funny Foreigner}}s who speak [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish broken English]] (the AsianStoreOwner is one such minor comic role). Though we've come a long way since the YellowPeril, we still have a long way to go. For example: the Asian man will never, ever, get the girl. At most he will receive a remark regarding his small penis. Their womenfolk, on the other hand, are hyper-sexualized demons in the sack and will almost always fall for the white guy or even the black guy (MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow). They are shown as switching to "Chinese" when one relative makes outlandish remarks about any non-Chinese nearby. There's never any distinction made between Mandarin and Cantonese, there's just this one, magical Chinese language. Oh, and [[IKnowKarate they all know martial arts]]. No distinction is made between different East Asian countries, completely oblivious to the conflicts of imperialism between China, Japan and Korea. The inverse of blacks, East Asians, even born and raised Asian-Americans, they are all perceived as the [[InterchangeableAsianCultures same uniform mass of squinty-eyed foreigners]] who [[IdenticalLookingAsians are identical]].

'''Native Americans:''' Good luck seeing them beyond a few {{Noble Savage}}s and Disney/{{Pocahontas}}, unless you make a side-trip to [[InjunCountry a casino]]. Their religion and culture will most likely be [[ReligionIsMagic simplified]] to earthy nature-worship and "[[MagicalNativeAmerican magic]]." Exception: Canadian television where they are more common (often in roles where being aboriginal is incidental to the character). If the character is female, she may be an IndianMaiden and/or a NubileSavage.

'''Jews:''' Perhaps over-represented as a "minority," Jews pop up all over the place in literature, film, and television, especially in the USA. This is most likely due to the significant influence that Jewish culture has had in the arts, especially in Los Angeles and New York. Writers often [[YouHaveToHaveJews include a Jew]], even if they don't plan on doing anything with the character's faith, just to make sure that Judaism is represented somehow. Don't expect there to be any distinction made between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism. Media depictions of a bris and bar mitzvahs are common when Jews are involved in the storyline, but it is incredibly uncommon for a girl's bat mitzvah to ever be depicted, let alone even mentioned. Good luck getting one past the [[InformedJudaism informed]] or [[AmbiguouslyJewish ambiguous]] markers, though, and don't expect to find any Israelis or [[AllJewsAreAshkenazi non-Ashkenazim]]. Overly stereotyped as having dark hair and pale skin, despite there being plenty of blond/blonde haired and blue eyed Jews, red-headed Jews[[note]]In fact, in some parts of the world, red hair was historically seen as a Jewish trait -- famous real and fictional red-haired Jews include [[Literature/TheBible David, Esau, Judas, Mary Magdalene]], [[Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice Shylock]], [[Literature/OliverTwist Fagin]], [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kyle and Sheila Broflovski]], [[Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem Queenie Goldstein]], [[ComicBook/{{Batwoman}} Kate Kane]], [[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel Art Garfunkel]], Creator/GeneWilder, Music/DannyElfman, and Creator/SethGreen.[[/note]], green eyed Jews, mixed-race Jews, African American Jews, Hispanic Jews, East African Jews and converts from all over the world. Most media Jews are just white people with Judaism added as a character trait.

'''Arabs:''' Still an AcceptableTarget, something that can even be seen here on TV Tropes, unfortunately. Almost always portrayed as brutal terrorists. If not terrorists, Arabs will be billionaires or belly dancers... although those depictions have become far less common after 9/11. Generally depicted as the only people living in the Middle East, apart from Israelis. Old Jewish stereotypes like the big-nosed miser are now frequently applied to Arabs. Positive portrayals are very rare, except again in Europe where they are given positive roles a little more often - particularly in France where Arabic and North African (Algerian and Moroccan) people are a significant minority. Since 9/11 almost every media work with Arab villains now includes a TokenMinority Muslim good guy, who is usually misunderstood. Sometimes writers mistake Turks, Persians, or even Afghans for Arabs out of sheer ignorance.

'''Europeans:''' Make up the lion's share of western media. The first image that pops up into a westerner's mind upon hearing the word "hero" will probably be a white man (though the main villain, if native to a Western country like America, will nigh inevitably be white as well). Due to the influence of western culture and politics, white people tend to be vastly over-represented in global media. In western media, white people are almost always portrayed as superior to other races (except morally, in which case they might need to be shown the light by a NobleSavage (Film/{{Avatar}}), a down to earth person of color (''Film/BringingDowntheHouse''), or a black man playing God incarnate (''Film/BruceAlmighty'' or ''Film/{{Bedazzled|2000}}'').) The most pronounced example of this trend is the MightyWhitey, who surpasses all non-whites around him and sometimes snags TheChiefsDaughter for his trouble. Over the years, efforts have been made to diversify western media and eliminate the racism, though it's an ongoing debate as to how successful these efforts have been. Even in nonfiction, [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome white people seem to get more attention than anyone else]]. Diversified casts, often aimed at minority audiences, usually have at least a TokenWhite character, who is often TheLancer. Because white people are considered to have all the power in western society, they are AcceptableEthnicTargets, usually as a form of [[WhiteDudeBlackDude comedy]]. What also must be taken into consideration is that certain ''types'' of what we now call "white" people were historically not depicted very often because they were thought of as "not white enough", or in some cases not white at all. In general, only Anglo-Saxons, Germanic, Scandinavians, Baltic Slavs, Russians from the western side of Russia, and the French (except when [[LatinLover their "Latin" traits were being played up]]) have been the only European groups thought of as unambiguously "white" throughout the entire history of American popular media. Eastern Europeans (especially Russians) are still often stereotyped as DirtyCommunists (in the US) or poor, job stealing nuisances (in the UK).

'''South Asians:''' Will occasionally appear as [[AsianStoreOwner corner shop owners]] or doctors, or cab drivers on U.S. TV. A handful may be portrayed as computer scientists or other science researchers, but all of them have a veddy veddy thick accent. Good luck finding South Asian women, and when they do appear, they tend to have very few lines. If a South Asian woman is portrayed as either having or being a {{love interest}}, expect the man to be [[MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow white]]. If she's already married, expect her husband to also be South Asian. All movie and TV South Asians are Hindu, and expect a number of [[LampshadeHanging lampshades to be hung]] on aspects of the Hindu religion. Muslim and Sikh South Asians are vanishingly rare on TV, although Sikh-style turbans frequently appear on "Hindu" characters. More prominent in European Media, particularly in Britain where they are the second largest minority group (In Britain, the term "Asian" generally means South Asian rather than East Asian and East Asian people are called "Oriental". Also, the AsianStoreOwner stereotype is switched to (usually) Pakistanis.).
* Note that the likes of ''Series/HolbyCity'' and ''{{Series/Emmerdale}}'' is one of the many positive portrayals of South Asians,

'''Jews:''' Perhaps over-represented as a "minority," Jews pop up all over the place in literature, film, and television, especially in the USA. This is most likely due to the significant influence that Jewish culture has had in the arts, especially in Los Angeles and New York. Writers often [[YouHaveToHaveJews include a Jew]], even if they don't plan on doing anything with the character's faith, just to make sure that Judaism is represented somehow. Don't expect there to be any distinction made between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism. Media depictions of a bris and bar mitzvahs are common when Jews are involved in the storyline, but it is incredibly uncommon for a girl's bat mitzvah to ever be depicted, let alone even mentioned. Good luck getting one past the [[InformedJudaism informed]] or [[AmbiguouslyJewish ambiguous]] markers, though, and don't expect to find any Israelis or [[AllJewsAreAshkenazi non-Ashkenazim]]. Overly stereotyped as having dark hair and pale skin, despite there being plenty of blond/blonde haired and blue eyed Jews, red-headed Jews[[note]]In fact, in some parts of the world, red hair was historically seen as a Jewish trait -- famous real and fictional red-haired Jews include [[Literature/TheBible David, Esau, Judas, Mary Magdalene]], [[Theatre/TheMerchantOfVenice Shylock]], [[Literature/OliverTwist Fagin]], [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark Kyle and Sheila Broflovski]], [[Film/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem Queenie Goldstein]], [[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel Art Garfunkel]], Creator/GeneWilder, Music/DannyElfman, and Creator/SethGreen.[[/note]], green eyed Jews, mixed-race Jews, African American Jews, Hispanic Jews, East African Jews and converts from all over the world. Most media Jews are just white people with Judaism added as a character trait.