Popular culture has played a significant role in how race has been viewed over time. Different races and
ethnicities have frequently been portrayed as stereotypes.
Popular culture can have a profound effect on how an audience views racial issues. For example, The
Cosby Show, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992, was the first time that a successful U.S. television
show had portrayed an African-American family as upper middle class.
One of the show’s premises was that it did not deal primarily with race issues. Although themes such as
the Civil Rights Movement and African-American art and music were present, it was the representation of
an African-American family as professionals with the same family issues as white American families that
shifted perceptions of race. What about Latin Americans and South Americans? What about Romani,
sometimes referred to as "travelers" or "traveling communities"?
Have popular culture representations of race and ethnicity pushed the issue of equality forward? Or have
they reinforced stereotypical ideas of race, thereby slowing down society’s acceptance of a broader
understanding of racial and ethnic equality?
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