Everybody Hates Chris Character Analysis

The year is 2016 and American society is open-minded to so many issues, except televised stereotypes. Racial and gender stereotypes are continually reinforced by social media and television, it has played a major role in the way society views one another. Enabling stereotypes that have been associated with a person of specific race or gender in the media promotes prejudice. Meaning society expects that person to act a certain way based on what they have witnessed on television or social media. . A perfect example of how television shows incorporate stereotypes based on ethnicity is the tv show “Everybody Hates Chris “which is about a working class African-American family that lives in a poor urban neighborhood in New York. Chris Rock is the

Stereotypes are making it hard for women of color to be seen in a positive light on and off the screen. For example, Tichina Arnold who is Rochelle from Everybody Hates Chris, plays a mother who is short-tempered, strict, and loud but successfully runs the household on a tight budget. Rochelle fits the stereotype that black woman are ghetto, angry, loud, obnoxious, strict, and humorous. Rochelle expresses these qualities repeatedly throughout the show but mostly when is disciplining her children. Not only does she fall into the typical black mother punishment style, but she falls into the welfare receiving black mom category. Because Rochelle and her family live in “the projects”, and don’t make enough money to support themselves, they receive government assistance that helps them buy groceries. Rochelle portrays a black women trying to overcome all of those even though she still has stereotypical “black qualities” and has shown that she has the power by being independent and going out and getting a job and bringing money home. Black women continue to face stereotypes regarding issues of race, gender, class, power, and ideology because of all the “imagery [that] mock and dehumanize black men women and children. Historically such media images functioned as visual propaganda, working to convince whites black people were not quite human” (404). This is why there are so many negative clichés about people of color, white people created them, black people fell into them because they constantly saw it around them. The show “Everybody Hates Chris” shows many black stereotypes in poor urban streets and schools. Chris had to deal with kids staring at him in school because he was the only black student. White students that attended the school were scared of him and he faced racial discrimination because of the