It is true that there exists racial stereotyping on television just like it used to be many decades ago. In the sitcom 2 Broke Girls aired on CBS is one good example of such shows that depict stereotyping and prejudice. The characters include Kat Dennings, Caroline Wesbox Channing, Earl, Oleg, Han Lee and Sophie Kachinsky. The story revolves around two waitresses who have a dream of one day opening a cupcake business.
The program portrays some characters in a stereotypical manner in terms of race. A good example is the character Han Lee. To cover up for the mess caused by his poor portrayal, they went on to bring in a new Asian character in order to portray him in a better way because of the backlash they received from the Asian community. Han is depicted as very desperate and pathetic. He is out of touch too as he speaks very broken English. This portrayal is stereotypical and may lead to racial prejudice because the members of the Asian community as depicted as less competent in spoken English are dirty and irresponsible in society.
Stereotypes change the perception of people and how they treat the people they relate to the stereotyped television characters. This particularly affects young children who will tend to make fun of others who belong to the stereotyped groups (Sparks 2012). Grownups on the other hand tend to believe that the persons depicted in the programs have the same traits as the individuals they meet in real life in case they have not related with such persons on real life basis (Sparks 2012). This means that people will hold misrepresentations of the characters and this will in the long run dictate how they will treat the misrepresented members of our society.
Reference
Sparks, G. (2012).Media Effects Research: A Basic Overview. Belmont: Cengage Learning
