[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
as a kid when I was in grade 3 I wanted
to be a Disney princess for Halloween
like every little girl I wanted to be
Cinderella
when I told my friends they took one
look at me and laughed
they said granades you cannot be it
doesn’t he puts rolla ween you don’t
even look like one you don’t have her
hair her eyes or her skin color
I remember my favorite television shows
Kim Possible Lizzie McGuire and Bob the
Builder all these shows had one thing in
common and that was little or no racial
diversity my younger self felt distant
from these characters I wasn’t like them
I wasn’t the same color and like many
children are various kinds of
ethnicities I could not really now if
there ever was a character that did have
a role it was usually a very
stereotypical one a character that fell
under this category was a Punahou theme
up till in from The Simpsons he’s the
one who owns that old sister yeah now
the thing that bugged me about Appu was
he was a man with fractured English a
bizarre religious practices an arranged
marriage and an illegal immigration
status the day I found out he was voiced
by a man named Hank Azaria a Greek
Caucasian American I finally understood
after all these years why Appu being an
Indian sucked at his own accent he was a
brown man voiced by a white man voicing
a brown man many South Asians in America
felt insulted by this guy all these
ideas that they had about Appu they
related to the South Asian community and
this is not really quite the case it
wasn’t really applied to everybody now
thanks to up who I met a countless
number of non South Asian people who
came up to me with their depiction of an
Indian accent now I would give their
Indian accent maybe a seven or an eight
eight point five on a scale of a hundred
they thought that their Indian accent
would impress me but in reality it was
kind of offending so guys please don’t
try that now Apple was a man who
promoted all these stereotypical ideas
and I didn’t really like that and I
didn’t really support that now not
having enough people in the media has a
huge impact on beauty standards beauty
standards in India especially skin
lighting this is a huge thing where I
come from back in India
lots of people support this brand called
fair and lovely it sells fairness creams
and many little girls in India are
brought up with idea that fairness
equals beauty so they use these skin
lightening creams Bollywood India’s
thriving film industry has actresses
that are only fair and their fairness is
associated with beauty and little girls
they idolize these actresses so they use
this cream in order to look like them
which they don’t I don’t really think
these fairness creams actually work they
actually cause more harm than good than
they do now Baron Levine cells not only
parks for women but also for men so men
are also dragged into this idea that
white equals beauty the media has a huge
impact more than that we can think it
results in discrimination many people
tend to believe whatever they see in the
media an example of this would be
portraying Arabs and Muslims as
extremists and terrorists who are
violent and uncivilized
I was watching another TEDx talk in
which I learned that in the opening song
of Disney’s Aladdin there is a merchant
who sings where they cut off your ear if
they don’t like your face it’s barbaric
but hey it’s home now what would the
impact of this be on a child watching
the song or the movie or anything they
would think that anybody who was
middle-eastern who looked like that man
would want to hurt them now after 9/11
Muslims Muslims were pushed into the
global media people’s perceptions began
to change and this fuel the idea that
anybody
Middle Eastern was a threat now Muslims
were not the only targeted people are
they’re highly targeted minorities
include Hispanics and African Americans
and Sikhs Hispanics are constant given
the rules of uneducated janitors and
cleaning staff and african-americans are
caustic you in the walls of criminals
and gangsters and these people they
accept these rules because they don’t
really have any other ones that they can
accept there needs to be more talented
people that are of color they need to be
given more opportunities in order to fix
this so in order to fix this problem the
media is the main means of mass
communication it includes television
newspapers radios and the internet
everybody’s favorite
now all these begin shaping our
perception on race at a very young age
the things that we see and hear impact
the way that we think and that is why
many people believe what they see now
according to a study done at Templeton
University many children are affected by
what they see in the media if they are
shown as having more opportunities and
they’re and they’re over-represented
they think they can succeed more and if
they’re underrepresented they see
themselves as having fewer opportunities
has anybody here heard of the Clarke
doll experiment anybody at all no no
okay
oh two three for those of you haven’t
I’ll give a short explanation so
basically there is children of color
they’re told to sit down in front of
them there are two dolls that are placed
one of them is dark skinned and the
other one is light skinned and then
they’re asked a series of questions
ranging from which doll is the good doll
which doll is the bad doll which doll
looks like you and most of these times
that these children they answer with
that the dark skinned doll is bad and
they actually relate to the dark skinned
doll and they tend to become a little
sad after this experiment yeah yeah so
this experiment proves that the children
are quite actually affected by what they
see in the media min helmet on II a
professor at the University of Toronto
agrees saying quote ethnic minorities in
Canada do not see themselves being
in the media this perpetuates the
feelings of rejection trivializes their
contributions and devalue their roles as
citizens in their Nations now you guys
may be wondering who is in charge of
these shows that we watch according to a
report from Mattel from a reality
television there the report stated that
the breakdown of nbc’s new york senior
staff was 96% white now the pump would
this is that every time there is casting
for lead roles in a movie or a show
these people of higher positions
subconsciously choose their own race
over the other so this results in the
other races getting negative roles or
smaller roles and they usually release
to your typical also so also physical
media such as magazines lack diversity
in 2014 19 point 7 percent of covers had
some kind of person of color in the next
year this was bumped up by 0.1 percent
nineteen point eight now this is an
improvement but not one that is
appropriate in this age of
multiculturalism and diversity there
needs to be more people of color on
these magazines because these are the
things that we see every single day the
only way to remove these barriers is
have patience and persistence and what
we believe is right it is difficult to
enact drastic measures and towards more
people of color that make it to the top
ranks of the media and entertainment
industries many television shows
continue to portray these minorities
quite negatively and they place them as
inferior so let’s hope that 2017 is a
year of change change in the media or
change simply in the way that we think
thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
as a kid when I was in grade 3 I wanted
to be a Disney princess for Halloween
like every little girl I wanted to be
Cinderella
when I told my friends they took one
look at me and laughed
they said granades you cannot be it
doesn’t he puts rolla ween you don’t
even look like one you don’t have her
hair her eyes or her skin color
I remember my favorite television shows
Kim Possible Lizzie McGuire and Bob the
Builder all these shows had one thing in
common and that was little or no racial
diversity my younger self felt distant
from these characters I wasn’t like them
I wasn’t the same color and like many
children are various kinds of
ethnicities I could not really now if
there ever was a character that did have
a role it was usually a very
stereotypical one a character that fell
under this category was a Punahou theme
up till in from The Simpsons he’s the
one who owns that old sister yeah now
the thing that bugged me about Appu was
he was a man with fractured English a
bizarre religious practices an arranged
marriage and an illegal immigration
status the day I found out he was voiced
by a man named Hank Azaria a Greek
Caucasian American I finally understood
after all these years why Appu being an
Indian sucked at his own accent he was a
brown man voiced by a white man voicing
a brown man many South Asians in America
felt insulted by this guy all these
ideas that they had about Appu they
related to the South Asian community and
this is not really quite the case it
wasn’t really applied to everybody now
thanks to up who I met a countless
number of non South Asian people who
came up to me with their depiction of an
Indian accent now I would give their
Indian accent maybe a seven or an eight
eight point five on a scale of a hundred
they thought that their Indian accent
would impress me but in reality it was
kind of offending so guys please don’t
try that now Apple was a man who
promoted all these stereotypical ideas
and I didn’t really like that and I
didn’t really support that now not
having enough people in the media has a
huge impact on beauty standards beauty
standards in India especially skin
lighting this is a huge thing where I
come from back in India
lots of people support this brand called
fair and lovely it sells fairness creams
and many little girls in India are
brought up with idea that fairness
equals beauty so they use these skin
lightening creams Bollywood India’s
thriving film industry has actresses
that are only fair and their fairness is
associated with beauty and little girls
they idolize these actresses so they use
this cream in order to look like them
which they don’t I don’t really think
these fairness creams actually work they
actually cause more harm than good than
they do now Baron Levine cells not only
parks for women but also for men so men
are also dragged into this idea that
white equals beauty the media has a huge
impact more than that we can think it
results in discrimination many people
tend to believe whatever they see in the
media an example of this would be
portraying Arabs and Muslims as
extremists and terrorists who are
violent and uncivilized
I was watching another TEDx talk in
which I learned that in the opening song
of Disney’s Aladdin there is a merchant
who sings where they cut off your ear if
they don’t like your face it’s barbaric
but hey it’s home now what would the
impact of this be on a child watching
the song or the movie or anything they
would think that anybody who was
middle-eastern who looked like that man
would want to hurt them now after 9/11
Muslims Muslims were pushed into the
global media people’s perceptions began
to change and this fuel the idea that
anybody
Middle Eastern was a threat now Muslims
were not the only targeted people are
they’re highly targeted minorities
include Hispanics and African Americans
and Sikhs Hispanics are constant given
the rules of uneducated janitors and
cleaning staff and african-americans are
caustic you in the walls of criminals
and gangsters and these people they
accept these rules because they don’t
really have any other ones that they can
accept there needs to be more talented
people that are of color they need to be
given more opportunities in order to fix
this so in order to fix this problem the
media is the main means of mass
communication it includes television
newspapers radios and the internet
everybody’s favorite
now all these begin shaping our
perception on race at a very young age
the things that we see and hear impact
the way that we think and that is why
many people believe what they see now
according to a study done at Templeton
University many children are affected by
what they see in the media if they are
shown as having more opportunities and
they’re and they’re over-represented
they think they can succeed more and if
they’re underrepresented they see
themselves as having fewer opportunities
has anybody here heard of the Clarke
doll experiment anybody at all no no
okay
oh two three for those of you haven’t
I’ll give a short explanation so
basically there is children of color
they’re told to sit down in front of
them there are two dolls that are placed
one of them is dark skinned and the
other one is light skinned and then
they’re asked a series of questions
ranging from which doll is the good doll
which doll is the bad doll which doll
looks like you and most of these times
that these children they answer with
that the dark skinned doll is bad and
they actually relate to the dark skinned
doll and they tend to become a little
sad after this experiment yeah yeah so
this experiment proves that the children
are quite actually affected by what they
see in the media min helmet on II a
professor at the University of Toronto
agrees saying quote ethnic minorities in
Canada do not see themselves being
in the media this perpetuates the
feelings of rejection trivializes their
contributions and devalue their roles as
citizens in their Nations now you guys
may be wondering who is in charge of
these shows that we watch according to a
report from Mattel from a reality
television there the report stated that
the breakdown of nbc’s new york senior
staff was 96% white now the pump would
this is that every time there is casting
for lead roles in a movie or a show
these people of higher positions
subconsciously choose their own race
over the other so this results in the
other races getting negative roles or
smaller roles and they usually release
to your typical also so also physical
media such as magazines lack diversity
in 2014 19 point 7 percent of covers had
some kind of person of color in the next
year this was bumped up by 0.1 percent
nineteen point eight now this is an
improvement but not one that is
appropriate in this age of
multiculturalism and diversity there
needs to be more people of color on
these magazines because these are the
things that we see every single day the
only way to remove these barriers is
have patience and persistence and what
we believe is right it is difficult to
enact drastic measures and towards more
people of color that make it to the top
ranks of the media and entertainment
industries many television shows
continue to portray these minorities
quite negatively and they place them as
inferior so let’s hope that 2017 is a
year of change change in the media or
change simply in the way that we think
thank you
[Applause]
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