By Anthony Vines
Consider this scenario. You turn on the television one night during the prime time hours lets say sometime between 9:00pm and 10:00pm, and you see a young Asian woman walking down a street dressed like a hooker telling a young man she'll "love him long time." You turn to another channel and you see a young Black man wearing the latest in Hip Hop fashion sitting in a business board room eating a bucket of chicken and a slice of watermelon. Soon after you turn from that channel, you see a commercial for an S. U. V where ten Hispanics attempt to squeeze into a back seat. How do these situations make you feel? Do they make you laugh, or do they make you feel uncomfortable? How you answer these question may reveal how well you filter out certain mass media messages that are transmitted to you on a daily basis whether you realize it or not. Day-to-day, stereotypical messages are transmitted to us through television on how people behave and interact with one another, and whether we accept these messages as truths depend on how media literate we are. Where is the line of just how far the television shows, commercial ads, and feature length films can take the stereotypes however, or are these stereotypes acceptable as long as they're all in good fun and not purposely hurtful? In this project we intend on answering this question by thoroughly analyzing the television sitcoms Good Times, Different Strokes, All American Girl, and the George Lopez Show and at the end, after hearing all of our arguments, you can decide on just how well minorities are portrayed on television.

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