To Satire or Not to Satire is the Question.

Racism has long played an enormous role in American society whether we like to agree on it or not. As the years began to progress so did the development of equal rights for all. Although, many believe that racism has been long gone; I can surely disagree. I think stereotyping evolved from racism and is a new form of discrimination.  I think some people still have certain views of other cultures and races, but since discriminating and being racist towards another person is illegal in the United States, I believe people have turned to stereotyping. What makes stereotyping so prevalent in our society is the fact that people joke around about stereotypes because many state that they are” not true” or because it “ doesn't apply to all.” Most of our media revolves around stereotyping and using satire as their main form of entertainment. Shows cast certain characters to embrace certain stereotypes about cultures and subcultures. The reason why television shows and movies portray certain characters or demonstrate certain characteristics is so that the audiences can somehow relate to what is being said. Now, we have to question whether audiences relate to the satire that are being portrayed through certain characters because they can interpret stereotypes in-depth and fully grasp the meaning of what is being poked at or if because somehow they believe in the stereotype or have said those things about another person or those comments have been geared towards them or believe it’s true. I think many comedians have had success because of their ridicule towards stereotyping cultures. One show I can think of that always stereotyped in almost all episodes is the George Lopez show. In one episode, George Lopez is asked by his son’s baseball coach if the son could stay at home and not participate in the upcoming game because he was bad at the sport. When George comes home he finds his son baking cookies for the team. This worries George because he doesn't want his son to be a homemaker because boys are suppose to be good at sports and not enjoy baking cookies for his male teammates. Or the comedian Katt Williams who also focuses a lot of his pieces on stereotyping cultures and Kevin Hart who focuses a lot on the typical person in prison and people’s height (since he is pretty small ).