(Below is a research paper my wife and I submitted a few years ago for an ‘Inter-cultural Communications’ class, back when a sitcom called COMMUNITY was being aired on NBC. Other than The Simpsons, this was virtually the only show of this genre I had watched since the days of Cosby Show / Family Ties / Cheers / Night Court in the mid 80s. The insights are still valid, particularly in light of recent scandals and the mostly symbolic efforts to make Hollywood more ‘inclusive’).

The Role of Community in Negating Stereotypes

Introduction

Previous research documents the percentage of minorities and portrayals of racial stereotypes in American television programming (Heintz-Knowles, Chen, Miller, Haufler, 2000; Mastro, 2000). There is a lack of published research demonstrating how race, and established racial stereotypes, may be used in American television programming as a vehicle for encouraging programming consumers to re-think these stereotypes. The primary objective of this research is to demonstrate that Community uses racial stereotypes as a means of negating the power of the stereotypes that may be held by the viewer.  The secondary objective is to illustrate how Community is an unusually diverse program, which is not the norm either, according to the available research (Signorelli, 2009).

Community’s cast of characters represents a diversity of race, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. The program uses stereotyping of all of the above, but it makes fun of the stereotypes and confronts them head on, with the purpose of reflecting the stereotypes back to the audience. By embracing stereotypes and clearly demonstrating stereotypical behavior, the producers Dan Harmon, Krasnoff & Foster, use intelligent, well- written humor to bring attention to issues of diversity and intercultural relationships, while confronting them in a casual, real-world way, and without preaching to the audience. Still, the non-stereotypical aspects of some of the characters seem to reflect a different, more subtle form of stereotyping on the part of the show’s producers.  The paper will preview the literature, describe the method of research, provide the research results, and summarize how the research supports the thesis.

Literature Review

Scholarly research on the portrayal of race in prime-time television programming indicates that diversity is rare (Mastro, 2000). Further, the research shows that persons of color are portrayed in isolation and that there are “relatively few opportunities for viewers to observe all races mingling and working together” (Signorelli, 2009, p. 333). Asians continue to be “marginalized and stereotyped” in prime time programming, if they are represented at all (Deo, Lee, Chin, Milman, & Yuen, 2008). Research suggests that the Native American demographic remains virtually non-existent on US television (Mastro, 2000). Recent research also reflects an increase in the proportion of white characters found in prime time television shows (Signorelli, 2009).

Researchers have shown that roles for minorities on prime time television have increased slightly in the last decade (Mastro, 2000). Research on racial distribution for prime time characters reveals that African Americans at least had achieved parity with their population, with around 11% to16% of characters being African American (Mastro, 2000).

Asian representations were less than 1% (Mastro, 2000). “Televised portrayals of other racial minorities remain relatively uncommon” (Mastro, 2000, p.690). In a study of mixed race programs, “Asian Pacific American characters were seen the least frequently” (Heintz-Knowles, Chen, Miller, Haufler, 2000). One prevalent stereotype that exists on US televison is that of the “model minority” yet sexually unattractive Asian male (Deo, Lee, Chin, Milman, & Yuen, 2002, p.154).

Stereotypes are prevalent in television programming. In order for a stereotype “to be effective, a stereotype must be anticipated by the conditioned perceptions of the beholder as well as in the imagination of the imagemaker” (Dates & Mascaro, 2005, p. 50). Research points to the origins of racial and ethnic stereotyping in cinema and television and concludes that it may be influenced by “the ethnic identity of producers” (Dates & Mascaro, Fall 1999, p.1). Research has pointed out that there has been a change in the ethnic and racial makeup of today’s film and television producers, “from the Jewish roots of Hollywood’s ‘founding fathers’ to the rise of producers and directors of color” (Dates & Mascaro, Fall 1999, p.1).

Previous research has indicated that White Americans who are not exposed to diverse ethnic or racial groups in their day-to-day lives tend to form their opinions of other racial and ethnic groups through the media they consume (Mastro & Kopacz, 2006). If this is true then “representation of race assumes increasing importance” (Mastro & Kopacz, 2006, p.1). Research has also demonstrated that media consumption by African American adolescents influences their perceptions of their race and their self esteem particularly because in general, adolescents’ media usage is quite high compared to other age groups (Ward, 2004). In other words, “the potential for televised images to influence intergroup comparison is highly conceivable” (Mastro, 2003, p.99). Television can be used to provide positive images which would help media consumers to improve their self-esteem about being a member of a particular group (Mastro, 2003, p.99).

Although not the focus of this paper, it is important to note that the representation of women in Community is at 38% and is in line with an estimate found in the research, which is 39% (Greenberg & Worrell, 2007).

Methods

Content analysis was conducted on four episodes of the prime-time NBC television program, Community, which is set in Greendale, Colorado at Greendale Community College. Community premiered on Thursday, September 17, 2009 to mostly positive reviews. We watched over twenty episodes of the program from season one. We chose four episodes from season one, including:  Pilot Episode, Spanish 101, Introduction to Film, and Football, Feminism and You. We selected these particular episodes for their race references and racial stereotyping content, and because these episodes best represent the process of turning stereotypes around, making fun of them, and reflecting them back to the viewer.

Results

Representations of diversity and inter-racial relationships on the whole are still very rare, and it is significant that there are no Hispanic characters of either sex featured on Community, as main characters or in minor roles. This seems unusual considering that the State of Colorado’s Racial and Ethnic Minorities website (www.cde.state.co.us) indicates that Hispanic residents make up a higher proportion of residents in that state than in the nation as a whole (nearly 20%), and that Black residents make up only 3.9% of Colorado’s population, which is less than one half of the proportion of blacks in the nation. We considered that a personal bias on behalf of the producers may account for the lack of any Latino characters on the show, but there is no way to prove this. The show’s producer, Dan Harmon, is a white male, so the research of Dates & Mascaro documenting how racial stereotyping is influenced by the ethnicity of the producers may be relevant (Fall 1999). There is also a complete absence of any Native American characters on the show, and research indicates that this demographic remains virtually non-existent on US television (Mastro, 2000).

Community has one Asian American character, representing 12.5% of the central cast members. Content analysis conducted for Community indicates that this program far exceeds the racial distributions found in the research. Numbers for Community are as follows: 12.5% Asian, 50% White, 25% African American, and 12.5% Palestinian or Arab/Middle Eastern. It is notable that the percentage of white characters in Community is significantly lower than research findings, which is 80% (Signorelli, 2009).

Community strives to embrace and ridicule racial stereotyping, thereby nullifying the negative effect of the stereotype. Negating stereotypes for the purpose of delivering a pro-social message results in the characters learning a lesson at the end of each show, and hopefully the viewers also learn something about the way they view other races.

Dan Harmon is the creator of Community. He came up with the idea for the show during a personal experience with diversity, and he is represented through the character Jeff Winger. Harmon tried to salvage his relationship with his girlfriend by attending Glendale Community College in Southern California by taking a Spanish class with her. He became involved with a diverse group of people whom he would normally not have associated with. He found that he developed very fond feelings for all of them. Harmon utilizes what were his preconceived notions about race and ethnicity and creates wonderfully rich and sympathetic characters. The hope is that the audience will come with its own preconceived notions, and will be challenged to change some or all of those ideas during the 24-minute show.

Community’s central characters are members of a study group, which was formed inadvertently through the effort of the main character, Jeff Winger, to get a date with another of the main characters, Britta Perry. Knowing what Jeff had in mind, Britta invited Abed Nadir to join, who then invited everyone else. The other study group members, all of whom are main characters, are Troy Barnes, Shirley Bennett, Annie Edison, and Pierce Hawthorne. The study group centers around their Spanish 101 class, which is un-stereotypically taught by a Chinese-American man whose character is named Señor Chang, played by Ken Jeong, a Korean-American. Chang’s character is not a “model minority” (Deo, et al, 2002, p.154), which contradicts Asian stereotypes. On the other hand, Chang is depicted as sexually undesirable, which research shows to be a common stereotype of Asian males in television (Deo, et al, 2002).

Greendale Community College’s Dean Pelton is a minor peripheral character, but he represents a protected group in that he is sexually ambiguous, so he is also important for the diversity of the cast.

The character named Abed Nadir is an extremely rare case on U.S. television. Abed is a student of Palestinian/American descent. He is Muslim, socially awkward, and is suspected to have Asperger’s Syndrome because he is entirely unemotional. Abed is played by actor Danny Pudi who is actually of Indian and Polish decent, and is not a Muslim.

Annie Edison is 18 years old and Jewish and the group only discovers this fact when Shirley hosts a Christmas party in the episode Comparative Religion (not analyzed in this paper). She is an uptight, high-achiever who spent her last year of high school in rehabilitation for prescription drug dependency. Her character has had a crush on Troy, who is African American, since high school. Annie is played by Alison Brie.

Britta Perry is played by Julliard-trained Gillian Jacobs. She is a blonde, white, twenty-eight year old high school dropout. She is an atheist, vegetarian, and a former member of the Peace Corps. Her character is quite strident in her views and is very critical of others, while giving lip service to cultural sensitivity.

The main character, Jeff Winger, is a brash, twenty-something white male played by Joel McHale. Jeff is a former lawyer who has been disbarred because his degree was issued by the University of Colombia (the country), not Columbia University. He is an arrogant, self-centered manipulator. Through his involvement with the study group, he becomes a more sympathetic character, and a quasi-father figure for the group.

The character named Pierce Hawthorn is a sixty-something, well-to-do white man who displays the ‘old school’ white ethnocentric way of thinking and who operates mostly through the use of racial and ethnic stereotypes. Pierce is played by veteran actor (and former Saturday Night Live cast member), Chevy Chase.

Shirley Bennett is a thirty-something, African American housewife and mother of twin boys. She is a devout Christian who acts very nice outwardly, although she has underlying anger issues and is extremely rigid and intolerant of other religions and cultures. She is played by Yvette Nicole Brown.

Finally, there is Troy Barnes, played by Donald Glover. Troy is an eighteen year-old African American male whose last taste of glory was playing quarterback for the local high school football team. He is mildly narcissistic, quite full of himself, and not particularly bright. Of all the characters besides Abed, he is the most emotionally remote.

The criteria for choosing the following four episodes are described earlier in this paper. Content analysis was conducted to quantify the number of times race or racial stereotyping occurs in each episode. What follows is a brief description of each episode, and an example or two of race or racial stereotyping. Table 1 summarizes the content analysis.

            The Pilot serves to set up the basis for the study group relationships and to introduce all of the main characters. Jeff is trying to score with Britta and tricks her into letting him tutor her in Spanish. She invites Abed, who invites everyone else. Jeff tries to bail out on the group when he realizes his plans have been thwarted, but ends up staying and states that “This is no longer just a study group. This is a community.” An example of a race reference is

when Jeff is speaking to a middle-aged black woman in the school cafeteria and says, “I was raised on TV and was conditioned to believe that every black woman over 50 is a cosmic mentor.”

            Spanish 101 introduces us to Señor Chang on the first day of class. He tells the class that it really bothers him when people always ask him why he teaches Spanish.

“Why you? Why not math? Why not photography? Why not martial arts?

Surely there must be something in my nature to instruct you in something that’s ancient and secret. I don’t wanna have any conversations about what a mysterious, inscrutable man I am (pulling on a fake goatee). Like, oh, building a wall that you can see from outer space. (Yelling) I am a Spanish genius!”

Another storyline in this episode is a conversational speaking assignment for Señor Chang’s class. Classmates are placed in teams of two and are supposed to memorize a five sentence dialogue, but Pierce is desperate for Jeff’s friendship and creates an entirely inappropriate “epic” to perform instead.  Jeff tries to bail out on the project, but finding out that Pierce just wanted his friendship, Jeff sacrifices his hopes of a passing grade and joins Pierce to do their presentation that includes race references such as wearing tiny sombreros, ponchos, and holding marachas and marionettes and dancing around.  Next they switch to wearing afro-wigs and white gloves and do an Al Jolson dance.  Chang gives them an F and an F minus.

            Introduction to Film not only provides several instances of race references and racial stereotyping dialogue, it also goes into detail about Abed’s Asperger’s Syndrome, and how it affected his family. Abed would like to study film, but Abed’s father will not pay for any classes that are not related to business. Abed says his dad thinks that “all media is western propaganda that negatively stereotypes Arabs.” Troy says, “He should see Aladdin. Jafar was a badass.” Britta decides to get involved by paying for Abed to take an Introduction to Film class. As she takes out her checkbook Shirley says, “Isn’t Abed’s dad a hardcore Muslim? They’re not as understanding as Christians. You could get your head cut off with a salami sword.” Annie says, “Shirley, that is the most racist thing I ever heard.” The scene changes and Abed has begun making his film and one day Abed’s father walks up and says angrily, “You want to get involved in my family’s business? Where do I find Mr. Britta?” Britta faces Abed’s dad and says, “I’m Mr. Britta. That’s right. I’m a woman with rights and you can see my whole face.” Abed’s dad says, “Oh I get it. Because I’m Arab I must hate women. Let me tell you something – I love women, but I am getting a major B-vibe from you. At the end of the program, Abed’s dad, Jeff and Britta watch Abed’s film which expresses his emotional pain over his parents’ divorce, and his belief that it was entirely his fault because of his social disorder. His father says that it is hard to understand his son but if film helps him to be understood he will pay for the class, but “falafel” is a back up.

           Football, Feminism and You is mostly about Troy. The Dean comes into the study group area and says, “There is one of every kind of you. How diverse.” He proceeds to try to recruit Troy to be the quarterback for the football team. The team is called the Human Beings. Jeff decides to help the Dean recruit Troy and has a conversation with him.

Jeff:, “You’re a football player. It’s in your blood.” Troy: “That’s racist.” Jeff: “Your soul?” Troy: “That’s racist.” Jeff: “Your eyes?” Troy: “That’s gay.” Jeff: “That’s homophobic.” Troy: “That’s black.” Jeff: “That’s racist.”

Shift to the Dean’s office where Pierce and the Dean are, “developing the perfect mascot. No stereotypical identifiers from any race or gender.” Jeff walks in as Pierce says, “I think if we add a little Felicia Rashad we’ll be in better shape.” The Dean says, “Yeah. You’re right. That beige is a little light.” They notice Jeff and proudly point out their charts of racial, facial features they are avoiding. Jeff says, “Is that Seal?” Dean Farrell says, “That is our human color wheel. It goes from Seal to Seal’s teeth.” Dean asks Jeff’s opinion and Jeff says, “I think not being racist is the new racism” and leaves. Pierce says he is going to get some coffee and asks Dean if he wants some and the Dean says he’d like a “Desmond Tutu with just enough cream to make it a Lou Diamond Phillips” to which Pierce replies, “La Bamba. I got it.”

Table 1

Episodes	Race	Racial Stereotypes
Pilot	4	2
Spanish 101	0	10
Introduction to Film	3	9
Football, Feminism and You	12	4

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that Community does not follow the typical racial stereotyping evident in most prime-time television programs (Heintz-Knowles, Chen, Miller, Haufler, 2000). Community appears to be the antithesis to most of the research because the characters do not, for the most part, represent commonly accepted stereotypes of their races and almost every racial demographic is represented, with the exception of Hispanics.

It would be interesting to find out what the demographics are of the audience that watches Community. If there was more programming available such as Community perhaps white people, black adolescents, and other ethnic and racial groups would have a more balanced view of racial and ethnic differences and similarities. Community is so in-your-face with its racial references and racial stereotyping dialogue, that the ridiculousness of the stereotypes are made obvious even to a viewer like Pierce. This program in no way supports racial stereotyping, but mocks it. Also, the characters are developed in such a way that they defy standard stereotyping. For instance, Jewish people are not usually portrayed as having substance abuse problems, but Annie spent time in a drug rehabilitation clinic. Annie is not a stereotypical Jew. Abed is not portrayed as religious, violent, or anti-American, which is the stereotype of Arabs in our media. He is gentle, unemotional, and makes sense of the world through references to movies and TV. Señor Chang is not presented as a “model minority”, but is shown to be sexually undesirable (Deo, et al, 2002). If other new television programming embraced the incredibly diverse example of Community, then perhaps such programs could be used in America as a vehicle for encouraging television programming consumers to re-think these stereotypes.

References

Dates, J. & Mascaro, T. (2005). African Americans in film and television: twentieth-century Lessons for a new millennium. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 33, p.50.

Dates, J. & Mascaro, T. (1999, Fall). Race and ethnicity in the media. Velvet Light Trap, p.1.

Deo, M., Lee, J., Chin, C., Milman, N., & Yuen, N. (2008). Missing in action: “framing” race on prime-time television. Social Justice, 35, p.154.

Greenberg, B. & Worrell, T. (2007). New faces on television: A 12-season replication. The Howard Journal of Communications.

Heintz-Knowles, K., Chen, P., Miller, P., & Haufler, A. (2000). Fall colors II: exploring the Quality of diverse portrayals of prime time television. U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Education, Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC).

Mastro, D. (2000). The portrayal of racial minorities on prime time television. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44, p.690.

Mastro, D. (2003). A social identity approach to understanding the impact of television messages. Communication Monographs, 70, p.99.

Mastro, D. & Kopacz, M. (2006). Media representations of race, prototypicality, and policy Reasoning: an application of self-categorization theory. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 50, p.305.

Signorelli, Nancy. (2009). Minorities representation in prime time: 2000 to 2008. Communication Research Reports, 26, p. 333.

The State of Colorado’s Racial and Ethnic Minorities, March 2002. Prepared By Participants in the Seminar on Minority Politics The Department of Political Science, The University of Denver. Retrieved November 20, 2010 from http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeadult/download/pdf/StateOfCOsRacialEthicMinorities.pdf

Ward, M. (2004). Wading through the stereotypes: positive and negative associations between Media use and black adolescents’ conceptions of self. Developmental Psychology.