Friday, March 1, 2013

Funny....or Racist?

I am an avid Modern Family fan. But I remembered one episode that I thought was really funny the first time I saw it it, but now, I'm not sure it sits right with me anymore. In this episode, Cameron and Mitchel are trying to get Lilly into a very prestigious pre-school. They think that because they are gay and that Lilly is Asian, they will have an advantage. But when they walk into the pre-school, they see a couple who they think will have even more of an advantage. To increase their chances, Cameron pretends to be Native American. He proceeds to portray the stereotypical Native American.

The first time I saw this episode, I thought it was really funny. I never really thought much about it. But after doing research and blogging, I realized that things in the media like this lead to some of the discrimination towards Native Americans in our country. The media generally portrays just the stereotype of Native Americans. Think back to old western movies you may have seen? The Native Americans were usually portrayed as either savage people with no morals of exotic foreigners that did not belong in the area. I think that images like these lead to ignorance of the Native American culture. I believe that most of the discrimination in our world is the product of discrimination and inequality.
Our society is usually extremely politically correct. Do you think this video is racist or just funny?

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