In my research essay I find out if racism is getting better or worse in North America. I find out if people are more or less racist than they were, and I find out what the popular media’s take on other cultures and races is.
There appears to be a racist feeling against Muslims in America
This is a sentiment that has been kicking around the USA since 9/11, and it is still part of American life at the moment because treats of terrorism in the USA are muting the freedom of speech and expression that the country used to enjoy. There are now distinct parallels between Iran and the USA in the way that freedom of expression and freedom of speech are severely limited. Even Facebook has started blocking pictures of the prophet Muhammad despite the fact the social media network claims it is not a Muslim social media network.
There appears to be a racist feeling against Hispanics in North America
There is a lot of negative feeling against Hispanic people in North America. This is partially because Hispanic people make up as much as 20% of the population in the US and a great many of them immigrated into the country within the last 50 years. This is a culture shock to most Americans, which is part of the reason for the racist sentiment.
There is far less racist feeling against black people in America
The USA is a nation that is known for racism against black people, and even though there are still 12yr old boys being shot and black men being strangled to death in the street, there is now far less racism against black people than ever before in the North America.
Pandering to races seems to be as big as ever
The popular media now panders to other races more than ever. The biggest examples regard pandering to the Chinese. For example, movies such as Transformers sequels have scenes in China to pander to the Chinese. The same goes for movies such as The Penguins of Madagascar (and many more). There are also a lot of movies that pander to the Hispanic crowd, and this is especially true of animated movies. In Toy Story 3, Buzz Lightyear speaks Spanish for a third of the movie. A guy in Despicable Me 2 is Spanish and a big tattoo of the Mexican flag is literally pushed into the screen. Turbo also has a very strong Hispanic element with most of the movie being based on Hispanic people despite the fact that the snails all have American accents.
Analysis
It seems that the popular media are pandering to races that are believed to have money. They are tapping the Hispanic market in North America because there are now so many Hispanic people in the US. They are also pandering to people in China because there is a lot of money to be made from selling movies to them. Racism has gone up in some cases, such as with Muslims and Hispanics, and has gone done with regards to black people.
Conclusion
Racism seems to have gone neither up nor down, but seems to have switched its focus. Where it once focused on black people, it now focuses on Hispanic people and Muslim people. There is also a lot of pandering to other races within popular media, especially within movies and animated films/features.
