Commentary: Reality TV reinforces racial stereotypes

When television cameras jockeyed for position to record video of Omarosa Manigault Stallworth’s registration at United Theological Seminary on Monday, Aug. 17, it probably seemed all too familiar for the veteran of three different reality television shows.

Stallworth, a Central State University graduate, returned to the area this week to enter the Dayton seminary’s doctorate of ministry program. And thanks to the celebrity status she gained from popular reality programs “The Apprentice,” “Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Surreal Life,” news crews were on hand.

Stallworth’s announced intention to do missionary work in Haiti has drawn derision from some celebrity gossip sites perhaps because she built a reputation as a villainess through her reality show appearances.

But how real are the characters presented in reality television?

“What is presented to you in a reality television program is an intentional construction; it’s not natural reality,” said Dennis Greene, a professor of law at the University of Dayton and a former vice president of production and features at Columbia Pictures.

“When reality show producers begin a show, they know where they want to end up,” Greene said. “They choose the setting and the conditions. They choose contestant A, B, C, D and E because they think the interactions between those particular people are going to give them whatever dramatic result they’re looking for.

“And, of course, you never see all the footage that was shot. If they shot 10 hours to get one hour of programming, the process of editing gives them enormous control.”

According to essayists in “Critical Studies in Media Communication,” one of the things that reality television producers tend to do is to choose contestants, manipulate situations and use editing to reinforce racial stereotypes.

In an October 2008 issue devoted to the subject, theorist Robin Boylorn argued that black women are recruited and their content edited to conform to images through the history of movies and television. One predominant stereotype is the black woman as “aggressive, loud, rude and pushy. Other negative images include divas, hoochies, weepers, waifs, antagonizers, shrills, welfare queens and freaks.”

The essayists said reality show depictions tend to portray black males as aggressive and potentially dangerous, and producers often combine contestants cast as “angry, black urban man” in situations with “rural southern bigoted white man” in hopes of sparking dramatic conflict.

Essayist Katrina Bell-Jordan said, for instance, that in “MTV’s The Real World: Denver,” black housemate Tyrie introduced himself as having a sexual alter ego and a violent alter ego that was “my Incredible Hulk to my Bruce Banner.”

Bell-Jordan said, “Sadly, the characterization of his personas correspond to widespread perceptions of the sexual bravado and hyper masculinity of black males.”

The contestant was arrested during the season, adding to the impression of black male criminality, Bell-Jordan wrote.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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