Featured here are three clips from television's "Family Guy" which depict various racial stereotypes: the bad Asian driver, the athletic African-American, and the Muslim terrorist. "Family Guy" frequently depicts these same stereotypes, as well as others, and these are three shining examples.
The first clip combines the stereotypes of both Asian and female drivers, both reputed to be careless and dangerous. The Asian woman, who speaks heavily-accented, broken English, cuts across several lanes of traffic without signalling, causing several crashes. The clip reduces all women, all Asians, and all Asian women to bad drivers who endanger others. Coming from a satirical television program, this is meant to be humorous and unrealistic. However, if this stereotype were to be acknowledged by the Department of Motor Vehicles, it would probably result in unequal testing methods for Asians and women. Perhaps an employee of the DMV will personally treat Asians and women unequally after watching this clip, even subconsciously.
The second clip makes assumptions about both black and white athletes. The white runners are given a head-start because they are assumed to be athletically inferior to their black counterparts. The clip also assumes inherent athleticism in African-Americans by depicting all of the black runners beating the white runners, despite their head-start. The clip also shows the white runners as being afraid of black men, despite it clearly being a race and the black men clearly being fellow runners. The clip shows all black men as being fast runners, and all white men as being afraid of black men. Again, this is meant to be funny and not "serious." But it could nonetheless discourage white athletes, or enforce the belief that all black men are fast.
In the final clip, Peter references his "Palestinian alarm clock," which shouts "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is Great!") and then explodes. Not only does this reinforce the stereotype of Muslim terrorists, but it also reduces all Palestinians to being both Muslim and terrorists. Not all Palestinians are Muslim, not all Muslims are terrorists, and not all terrorists are religiously-affiliated. After the 9/11 attacks, the Arab/Muslim terrorist became an extremely pervasive stereotype, which besides the obvious offense, also equates Arabs to Muslims. That same mix-up between Arab ethnicity and Muslim religion occurs in this clip, which laminates the Muslim terrorist stereotype onto the Palestinian nationality. This stereotype depicts Islam as being a violent, intolerant religion, and has already caused severe prejudices to arise in the real-world, like heightened screening for Arabic, Middle-Eastern, or even just dark-skinned people at airports.
"Family Guy" is a satirical show which makes fun of just about everyone at one point or another, but that should not prevent viewers from consciously recognizing and dismissing these stereotypes when they appear on the show. It is unreasonable to expect viewers not to laugh at things that are funny, despite the irreverence of the humor. But it is certainly not unreasonable to expect viewers to distinguish between satire and reality. It is OK to laugh at racial jokes if one remembers they are just that: jokes. Unfortunately, these stereotypes are often believed and disseminated in real-life, causing prejudice and hate. "Family Guy" is by no means the only distributor of racial humor, but it is an extremely popular, influential source for that humor. I personally love "Family Guy" and would change absolutely nothing about the show, but that is because I believe it to be my own personal responsibility not to let satire color my actual opinions of people and races.
There are precedents of TV humor resulting in real-world discrimination. "Southpark" is notorious for its anti-Ginger humor, stating people with red hair and freckles (Gingers) are creepy and soulless. The episode entitled "Ginger Kids" aired in 2005, but just as recently as 2010 their were real incidents of beatings of red-haired students. There was an event on the social media site, Facebook, called "National Kick a Ginger Day" which resulted in such beatings. Below is a news report about one such incident.
Such past incidents make it clear that while these jokes may be funny, it is far too easy for them to become much more than just jokes. It would be equally wrong to simply censor out potentially-offensive material, but it cannot be disputed that such humor is often far from harmless. Television writers and directors are almost never held at fault for the damage their programs cause, nor should they be held at fault necessarily. Just as it is each citizen's responsibility to restrict themselves from crime when no one is watching, it should be each viewer's responsibility to carefully evaluate their own thoughts and opinions. Racism may be influenced by entertainment and popular media, but at the end of the day, racism resides in the heart and mind of the individual.
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