Representation Of Ethnicity

In our lesson today we were studying representation of Ethnicity, we considered many different ethnic groups and the main stereotypes that people portray people of those ethnic groups to be.
MEXICAN - Wearing sombrero's, Wearing ponchos, Eating nachos&Tortillas, Drinking tequila slammers and to be family orientated.
IRISH - Drink Guiness, Grow&eat potatoes, Leprecorns, Good jockeys, Ginger, To be gypsies, To be called Paddy.
INDIAN - To eat curry, To wera Hijab, To have henna, To have arranged marriages and have lots of kids.
AMERICAN - To be overweight, To be underweight, To be fake, To be ignorant, To be racist&patriotic.
ENGLISH - To be snobs, To drink tea, To drive Mini Coopers, To be a 'Chav', Union Jack and to eat Fish&Chips.
BLACK PEOPLE - To wear bandanas, To be athletic, To be a hooligan, To be violent & related to drugs and drug dealing.
MUSLIMS - To wear headcoverings & To be terrorists.
Alot of these sterotypes for different Ethnic groups have a lot to do with media representation and how audiences and viewers of programmes are fed stereotypical interpretations for the serparate ethnic groups.
After watching short clips of numerous Tv drama's, we were asked to pick a clip from one programme and concentrate on how Ethnicity is represented. The Tv programme i chose to use was skins, i chose to study Ethnicity within skins, as its a programme i know and have watched and one i feel that shows a large range of Ethnic backgrounds within the storyline, and as you can see from the picture below, also has a range of different Ethnic characters.

The episode i chose to watch was Episode 3, from series 3, where Thomas arrives alone in the Uk from congo, his family are due to arrive in a few days, and he has to find somewhere for them to live, he finds an abandoned flat on an estate, little does he know its owned by local gangsterm Jonny White, his new landlord, who isn't going to let him live there for free. After fending for himself, and trying to protect his family, he has a few encounters with some new friends & comes up with an unconvetional money making scheme to solve all of his problems. There are many negative stereotypes in this episode against black people, it shows how Thomas tries to take advantage of his friends Aunt, and how he gets involved in drugs and drug dealing trying to make money for him and his family. However it also shows how hes athletic, independant and shows how he would do anything he could to look after his family.