Research shows that representation isn’t just a matter of affirmation–it can have concrete impacts on our biases, aspirations and mental health.

Growing up just a few miles from the Hollywood studios, I never saw myself on screen. As a young immigrant, the obscurity I felt whenever I turned on the TV made me feel like a guest in my own country. As I now know, on-screen images can shape how we view reality. This doesn’t bode well for people of color and women when Hollywood has a history of excluding, stereotyping and segregating us. Throughout my 20 year career as a sociologist beginning at UCLA, my research on Hollywood has focused on what racism looks like in the film and television industry, and how this can have psychological and societal ramifications. Here is what I’ve found:  

Self-esteem is one of the major points of vulnerability when it comes to media invisibility and stereotypes. One study demonstrates how television exposure predicts a decrease in self-esteem among white and Black girls and Black boys, but leads to an increase among white boys. Native American adolescents and young adults, who display the highest suicide rates in the United States, pay a cost in lower self-esteem and mood when exposed to media images of Native American mascots. The most recent Super Bowl revealed how Kansas City Chiefs fans continue to perpetuate stereotyped  imagery of Native Americans with “Tomahawk Chop” chants and face paint/costumes, despite widespread protest from tribal communities. These problematic representations correlate with the racial and gender biases in Hollywood, which casts only white men as heroes, while erasing or subordinating other groups as villains, sidekicks and sexual objects. Especially vulnerable are children of color—Black, Hispanic, and Asian 8- to 18-year-olds—who consume an average of four and a half more hours of media a day than white youth do.

When groups are invisible or underrepresented in the media, members of those groups can struggle to figure out their place in the world. This can limit their professional and personal aspirations when they lack on-screen role models. One study of research on Native American students found that media exposure led Native American high school and college students to have decreased self-esteem, decreased community worth and diminished achievement possibilities. The researchers conclude that, to “reduce the negative impact of these constraining American Indian mascot representations is to either eliminate them or to create, distribute, and institutionalize a broader array of social representations of American Indians.” As a society, we cannot dismiss the media’s biased and exclusionary portrayals as mere entertainment if we are to take seriously their impact on our youth. 

Studies show that racial bias can be transmitted via television. One study showed that seeing Black characters receiving negative non-verbal gestures (facial expressions and body language) on popular TV shows increased viewers’ race biases. Another study demonstrated how Latino stereotypes in the media can lead audiences to negatively associate immigration with increased unemployment and crime. Some examples of stereotypes include “illegal” becoming a “primary marker of Mexicans in the United States” along with the notion that Latinos are unassimilable because they do not share “American values.” This can increase animosity towards Latinx immigrants and asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America, with real life impact. Popular media can also exacerbate pre-existing racism. One study shows that people who perceive that they live in a neighborhood with a high percentage of Black people are more likely to fear crime after watching scripted crime dramas than those who do not hold that perception. Racism, when packaged as entertainment, can skew the way viewers understand and categorize people on screen and off.  

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Given all of these troubling findings, it’s clear that we need more complex portrayals of people of color and women, including positive images. And research shows that change is possible. One study found that Japanese international students were more likely to hold positive views of Black people when exposed to positive Black images on television. Viewers can also guard themselves against negative media effects. Besides choosing content that elevates rather than diminishes people of color and women in general, viewers can also learn more about their own histories and find role models in real life. One study found that greater awareness of Black identity and history among Black youth diminished the negative effects of stereotyped images compared to Black youth who lacked the same knowledge. 

In recent years, Hollywood has grown more inclusive–with more women and people of color playing film leads and television regulars. With the box office success and accolades of films like Black Panther, Coco, and Crazy Rich Asians, people of color are poised to express the full diversity and humanity through storytelling. But this is just the beginning. Many groups still lag behind their actual U.S. population numbers–particularly women of color–and some continue to face stereotypes and segregation. There remains work to be done, given the lack of actors of color nominated for acting Oscars in 2020 despite talented performances from Awkwafina, Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Murphy, Lupita Nyong’o, Alfre Woodard, and Shuzhen Zhao, among others. Cynthia Erivo, nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Harriet, is the only nominee of color out of a total of 20 acting nominations. Hollywood needs to open its doors wider so that we have positive portrayals of, and role models for people of color, women and all those in the margins.