Talk:Ethnic stereotypes in popular culture

NPOV
This article has serious POV issues, apart from being just quite rubbish. The Music section in particular is horrendous, and the "list of stereotypes" is totally unsourced and smacks of original research. Please someone, sort this article out or arrange a mercy AFD. Soo 10:15, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
 * The topic does need to be covered here; it is notable and has been covered by many different sources. WP:NPOV states that lack of neutrality is not an excuse to delete an article.  Also, AfD isn't intended to be a substitute for Cleanup.  However, I'm completely in favor of deleting the list section unless/until it is sourced with specific examples.  We used to have an article on a similar topic at List of ethnic stereotypes, but it was deleted mainly for the reason you stated.  (The deletion discussion for that article is archived at Articles for deletion/List of ethnic stereotypes 2.) --Idont Havaname 04:12, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
 * After reading this article over, I'd have to say that Soo's claims are mostly unwarranted. This article is about stereotypes in popular culture -- the key phrase here being "popular culture".  I am sure there are not many peer reviewed journals that feature articles on this topic.  However, this article requires cleanup, and some of the entries don't belong.  There is no POV issue here though. 128.113.138.166
 * You don't need a peer-reviewed journal, just a suitable publication - like a film magazine, or IMDB, say. Topics that are not covered in any publication (and I include major websites in that) simply don't belong here. Soo 13:09, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

Here are a few head scratchers under the "List of stock film roles based on ethnic stereotypes:"
 * Green Frankenstein - "Green" is not a race or ethnicity, last time I checked
 * Hispanic Librarian - I have never encountered this as a stereotype. Most librarians seem to be depicted as elderly white women with anger management issues OR the "sexy" librarian.
 * Mexican Jew Lizard - I don't even know where to go about this one.
 * Athletic Midget Stripper - See note on "Mexican Jew Lizard"
 * Philipino Guynacologist - Spelling issue aside, I still don't see it.
 * Hi Soo--I'm removing the NPOV tag because it seems to me the issues you raise have been addressed. Garbage removed, people working on expanding, etc.  Quill 00:50, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
 * The NPOV is gone but the article is still rubbish. Example sentence: "Also, the current portrayal of women in rap music has drawn a lot of fire recently." I hope I don't need to explain exactly which policies this rampantly violates. Soo 10:14, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I think the NPOV tag needs to go back. There is no citation for any of this, and it's all very subjective.  Who decides that these are stereotypes?  This article is full of vague, unfounded generalizations, much like it's evil twin Ethnic stereotypes in American media.  And by the way, they both seem to be addressing the same topic, so I'm not sure why we need two articles that are this biased and without sources.  I really think both articles need to be deleted, as I'm not sure how a topic like this can be approached with citable sources and with NPOV.  Comments like this, for example, "Although cast in stereotypical roles, both Marla Gibbs and Robert Guillaume successfully played them against type. Yoko Shimada's character was well-rounded and erudite," are pointless editorializing that have no place in an encyclopedia, yet an article like this is a prime breeding ground for such drivel.--Derco 02:28, 24 April 2006 (UTC)
 * It's proving difficult to find any, to mention credible, sources for this. It seems that fact shows the importance of this article. My perspective is the potential for relevence but the need of effort to overcome the glaring NPOV issues.XirSponge 09:15, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Arab Terrorist Stock Role
What evidence is there that the "Arab Terrorist" is a stock film role? I can think of maybe three movies (True Lies, Executive Decision, The Siege) that have Arab terorrists, but the vast majority of films with terrorists cast them as American or Eastern European. I am removing this item from the list unless someone can cite a source for keeping it.--Daveswagon 03:55, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

WTF? How can one forget Chuck Norris in Delta Force!! Also, there is Black Sunday, the Little Drummer Girl, Wrong Is Right, or Wanted: Dead or Alive. It honestly just doesn't end there, TV also does the same. Maybe Octopussy too...

What is the formula for Arab Terrorist? For awhile it is based off wealthy Arabs funding the procurement of nuclear weapons from the Soviets. While the Middle Easterner was not always seen, Eastern European henchmen did most of the "leg work". To honestly say that "Arab Terrorist" is not a stock film role is quite humourous.

I haven't done my homework, but I'd even wager that formula is what kept Steven Segal employed all these years...

Validity of this article
The subject is a serious one; there is no question that it is a serious topic in film and literature and has been explored by social and film historians. As to the list, which was meant to be a serious listing of a few stock character roles, well, it's dismaying to see what it degenerated into. I have moved it rather than deleted, I had not seen the comment that the list of ethnic stereo types had already been deleted, and I have no objection to someone deleting the stock role list since, although valid, it apparently can't be discussed to any appreciable degree in a wiki environment.

As to the music section; I agree it needs improvement, but isn't that why it's a section-stub?

Quill 21:32, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

What a truly crap article

Cleanup? Expand, rather
I'm thinking that the cleanup message should be removed--we need an 'expand this article' message if such a thing exists, but the general approach seems fine.

Then again, the whole point of stubs is that they should be expanded, so....

Quill 00:52, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

Not verified
Much of this article is unsourced, so I have added the "not verified" thing. Something needs to be done with this article (like, find some sources). Personally I have other problems with it as well (many of the same that I have with Ethnic stereotypes in American media, which is currently in the AfD process), but at the very least this article needs some sources.--Derco 23:30, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
 * If sources are not going to be added to this article, it should be deleted.--Derco 04:08, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

actors of color?
Shouldn't this say something less wishy-washy?--Greasysteve13 05:50, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Video Games
This recently added section is the only contribution by User:Tomroes ... I was going to try to clean it up, and then realized that it's just a bunch of unverified original research. Rather than just revert it, I tagged it. Maybe an administrator will take the initiative to delete it along with the spam "Reference" they also added. --141.156.232.179 16:05, 27 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It's not spam. I'm a Master student at University of Amsterdam. The facts are actually correct, I wrote my BA thesis about the subject of arab stereotypes in video games. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tomroes (talk • contribs) 21:57, 27 September 2006


 * I tried to fix this section a bit (eliminated redirects, removed duplicate links) and did some cosmetics like correcting comma faults. Other than that, it looks like Original Research to me, too ... and just what does a thesis on Arab stereotypes have to do with a paragraph that mentions African Americans (non-hyphenated, BTW) not once, but three times?


 * OTOH, it's dubious because the only link provided as a citation kinda looks like spam ... it points to a page from the publisher's site that sells the 36-page study, rather than offering anything that provides real information, like a free PDF version would. (BTW, is your thesis available online?) Anyway, "I'm here to explain it, not to defend it." --141.156.240.102 22:54, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

List of "significant" stereotypical characters in television
I thought that this list was becoming a cruft-magnet when somebody added "Apu from The Simpsons" ... I mean, the title of the section says "significant stereotypical characters", not "my favorite examples" of them! And what's up with all these TNA/WWE wrestling characters, like "The Mexicools"?

Then I realized that there is an article for Apu Nahasapeemapetilon as well as for "The Mexicools" (who were not linked, although their individual members were), and it suddenly hit me ... IF A CHARACTER DOES NOT HAVE A WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE, THEN THEY ARE NOT SIGNIFICANT AND SHOULD BE DELETED. (Bye, bye, "Indian chief from How the West Was Won (mini-series)"!)

I have tried to reorganize the list as (roughly) chronological and loosely connected, e.g., put the cartoons/Muppets together and the wrestlers together. Now I'm going to go back and try to link character names (there's an article on Hop Sing) and eliminate any that fail this simple test ... I hope that other Wikignomes agree with me and will spread the practice as a rule for fighting fancruft in lists.

And I almost changed "significant" to "notable" in the title but I guess having an article to link is the sole qualifier whatever you call it. &mdash;72.75.93.205 (talk | contribs) 21:47, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Adding "angry white boy" to music section.
I've noticed that a stereotype of people who listen to metal/punk/rock music is that they are mostly white adolescent males with anger issues. I was wondering if I should add this to the music section or not. Dementus 03:54, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Background
Please see Deletion review/Log/2009 January 9 and Articles for deletion/Ethnic stereotypes in popular culture for background on this page. lifebaka++ 15:44, 13 January 2009 (UTC)