Introduction

As I observe social media and view how minorities are portrayed through film, I couldn't help but wonder how the representations of certain groups can influence the way that our society views them. As a film mayor I had to study D.W. Griffith and his masterpiece "Birth of a Nation", a film which pushed the medium forward however very suggestive and racist, so much in fact that it revived the KKK after years of being inactive. I wondered that if a movie was able to revive the KKK what else would the medium be able to do. Film has always been usted as a tool to manipulate audiences, examples such as nazi propaganda for the Olympics to objectifying women and creating multiple stereotypes about minorities. So I came up with a question "How does the portrayal and representation of minorities in film influence our society?"

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How does the portrayal and representation of minorities in film influence our society?

Sociologists and many scientific data backup the concept of stereotypes, and show that many of the generalizations may lead to an idea known as self fulfilling prophecies. The concept is built around the fact that when certain behavior or situation correlate to making a person believe that a stereotype or a preconditioned idea is reinforced by very anecdotal evidence, when in reality the empirical data points otherwise. This is why I believe that Film is so important, especially impacting to younger ages where kids can't yet differentiate between fantasy and reality. This is why It is very important to keep in mind the impact of cinema and media in general, as if we portray a certain minority or group of people in a certain way it can reinforce their preconditioned ideas of this group and cause discrimination in mass. Such is the case in D.W Griffith's, birth of a nation 1912. Where the film portrayed african americans as rapists and with a very negative connotation, and presen...
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