In terms of racial depictions in films and television, the police procedural often has the toughest time offering nuanced and delicate representation of minorities. Blacks and Latinos have a culturally coded perception as being more likely to commit crime and engage in dangerous activities. As a result, they are also often unfairly represented in crime dramas and police procedurals as being the ‘bad guys.’ By extension, the predominantly white or white-coded good guy cops are tasked to take them down. In the case of the new show Chicago PD, and its second episode “Wrong Side of the Bars,” the show exhibits some of the worst kind of stereotyping of Latinos. This episode falls into unfortunate stereotypes and frightful caricatures that only serve to represent most/all Latinos as criminals, resulting in a television show that fails to provide very meaningful representations of race, particularly Latinos, to the medium.
In terms of the show’s overall construction of race, there are only two nonwhite member of the primary cast and main team – Latino detective Antonio Dawson (Jon Seda) and Asian analyst Sheldon Jin (Archie Kao). In many depictions of Latino types on television, according to Mastro and Behm-Morawitz, “the [Latino] law enforcer is articulate, well-groomed, and respected”; in the case of Antonio, this is somewhat the case (111). He is the secondary lead of the show, and displays all of the mannerisms of a properly socialized middle-class cop, apart from a certain fiery ethnic anger that takes over in certain desperate situations. Antonio, as opposed to the other Latinos in the show, is “the good one,” the exception to the unwritten rule of barbaric Latinos – in this episode, he even lets his aggression out after his son is kidnapped by a Mexican cartel henchman he has the chance to torture. Jin, meanwhile, is the clichéd bookish Asian, meekly conveying exposition while the other members of the team engage in the real legwork. The rest of the primary cast are all white, mostly male, depicting the Chicago police force as a primarily white institution. The single exception is the police lieutenant, who is African-American, and is presented fairly even-handedly, if skewing too much toward the stoic, wise black authority figure that is so often shown. In essence, the racial makeup of the primary cast is unreasonably white for the ethnically diverse city of Chicago, and the minorities are stereotypically presented.
The primary villains of this episode are particularly coded in race. In this episode, the villains are a Latino gang led by a particularly unstable individual nicknamed “El Pulpo”, Spanish for “The Octopus”. He begins the episode already in jail, but the team must track down Ernesto (played by Andrew Saenz), one of El Pulpo’s henchman. According to Mastro and Behm-Morawitz, “The [Latino] criminal is typically a male identified by his youthful appearance, aggressive nature, dishonesty, and unkempt appearances” (111). This stereotype is certainly upheld here, as Ernesto and El Pulpo alike fit this image. Both are young, tough Latino criminals, who are fast and tough, both requiring at least one, if not several, chase scenes before being brought in. They have either shaggy beards or long, stringy hair. In short, the Latino villains of the piece are not motivated by socioeconomic troubles, but are shown as sadistic, mindless killers who have no sympathy or remorse for their fellow man.
Shows like Chicago PD seem to demonstrate Latino criminals as objects to be ridiculed for their flamboyant gestures and inability to work in legitimate businesses. In television police dramas, Latinos are often, according to Mastro and Behm-Morawitz, “the least intelligent, most verbally aggressive, [embody] the lowest work ethic, and[are] the most ridiculed” (126). This means that El Pulpo is established early on to be a violent man who cuts off people’s heads and displays them to mock the police. Ernesto demonstrates a particular aversion to law enforcement, pretending for quite some time that he does not speak English, only responding to queries by police with abogado – “lawyer” in Spanish. This speaks to the stereotype of Latinos also having a poor or uncertain grasp of English. This particular depiction of Latino’s use of language again follows up on the aggressive, laconic stereotype of the silent Latino gangster. It is only after sustained torture by Antonio and his superior that he gives up the needed information, also depicting him as cowardly; while the torture is presented as morally ambiguous, it is shown to be a necessary evil as well. In short, Latinos in shows like these are stereotypically unintelligent and morally ambiguous, portraying them in a negative way.
In conclusion, “Wrong Side of the Bars” depicts a Chicago that is primarily white, save for token representations of several minority races that are slightly insulting and play on stereotypes. The Latino characters in particular are given an unfair treatment, being demonized as horrific monsters who are willing to decapitate and kill children. According to Mastro and Behm-Morawitz, “Latinos have historically been confined to a narrow set of stereotypic, oftentimes negative, characterizations” (111). Having these kinds of representations still on screen furthers these stereotypes and clichés of the hard-hitting police drama genre. By focusing so clearly on Latino villains, and the distinct differences in behavior between Ernesto and Antonio, ‘good’ behavior is clearly coded to Antonio’s white colleagues, while ‘bad’ behavior is the purview of all the other Latinos on the show. As a result of all this, racial minorities on television have a long way to go to increase the even-handedness of their representation, both in number and in character.
Works Cited
Chappelle, Joe (dir.) “Wrong Side of the Bars” (episode.) Chicago PD. Jan. 15, 2014. NBC.
Mastro, Dana E., and Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz. “Latino Representation on Primetime
Television.” J&MC Quarterly 82(1) (Spring 2006): 110.
