Gatson CAPs #5

As usual after reading the blog prompt and the chapter I started to really think about the way pop culture effects our views of other ethnicities or cultures more in depth.  Popular culture refers to cultural products that most people share and know about, including TV, music, videos, and magazines.  This whole week my roommates and I have been watching Prison Break. When I watch Prison Break with this prompt in mind I definitely feel as though it enhances stereotypes with its characters to create the story.  “Negative portrayals are remembered more than positive portrayals, are more arousing and therefore are more influential in the development of stereotypes (Martin & Nakayama 2012, p.371)  If someone from another country were to watch prison break their thoughts would probably follow the previous statement. 

·      Michael Scofield is the well educated leader of the group, who actually wanted to go to prison to break out his falsely accused brother.

·      Fernando Sucre is a very religious rosary wearing Puerto Rican with a thick accent, who is either constantly praying or bringing up a religious figure anytime they do something wrong.

·      John Abruzzi is of Italian descent and runs a mob family.  He has connects everywhere and is extremely wealthy.

·      “C-Note” is an African American in prison after being caught transporting drugs.

·      T-Bag is a racist southern man from a trailer park in Alabama born out of incest.

Every single one of the main characters back-story is based on stereotype after stereotype.  White man= Intelligent, Latino=religious, Italian=mob boss, African American=drug dealer, Southerner=Racist, inbred, redneck. Some aspects of their characters do break the common mold but the majority of the time they are dead on. 

As far as resisting goes towards this show I would say it is a very unique situation since the show is about inmates it is showing the worst of the worst.  In some ways they did balance stereotypes because they didn’t make every inmate an aggressive black male and they showed contrast within a certain race.  Out of all three white males in the show each had a different story, one was labeled a genius while the other is labeled as stupid.  The background stories they assign the characters also gives a better explanation as to who they are and why they turned out how they did so you don’t make snapshot judgments.

References

Martin, N. J., & Nakayama, K. T. (2012). Intercultural Communication in Contexts. Chicago: McGraw Hill .