Show & Tell: Seinfeld
Below is a clip from an episode of “Seinfeld,” an American sitcom from the 90s. The basic premise is a group of friends living together in NYC and the show revolves around the random happenings in their lives. In this episode Jerry Seinfeld (red shirt in the clip) has convinced his friend to invest money with an accountant. They see the accountant randomly at a restaurant and he cannot stop sniffling. The two obsess over this and are convinced the account is doing drugs – which would explain the sniffling. That is the context for the scene attached below.
Seinfeld is one of my parents favorite tv shows and as I was sitting with them a few nights ago as they were watching reruns I was struck by this scene. A very mindless show, I don’t usually do much thinking when I watch with my parents and I am far more entertained by their extreme amusement with the various happenings then with the actual content of the show itself. But this scene stood out to me because it brought me back to a lot of the conversations we had in class, specifically the discussion with Dr. Lozano-Alonso about the portrayal of Latin America in “I Love Lucy.” The episode of that show that we watched in class highlighted the portrayal of Latin America as exotic, feeding into the stereotype of Latin Americans amongst the United States public at the time. We discussed how this consumption of content about Latin America which is drastically misrepresented in the episode enforces stereotypes that are harmful. In many ways this clip from “Seinfeld” mirrors the content from “I Love Lucy” because it enforces the stereotype that all of South America is in the drug business and the only reason someone would travel to South America would be to deal in drugs. This comparison shows that despite the passing of forty years, not much changed in the portrayal of Latin America in the United States television media.
In this scene specifically Elaine acts as the voice of reason, pushing back against Jerry’s mini meltdown about his accountant being in South America. When Jerry asks who goes to South America (implying only people interested in drugs travel there) she responds with “people go to South America” attempting to remind Jerry that not everyone traveling to South America is in the drug business. Further, as Jerry continues to freak out Elaine comments “so because of a few bad apples you’re going to impugn an entire continent.” Here Elaine points out the obvious, that an entire continent should not be assumed to be participating in the illegal actions of certain groups. The accountant traveling to South America should not automatically be assumed to be in the drug business. That assumption perpetuates the stereotype of Latin Americans as drug dealers. However, her comment is not received well in the conversation as often comments are that push back against commonly held stereotypes.
The continuation of the portrayal of Latin American stereotypes in the media reinforces the public’s assumptions and judgements towards Latin Americans. We see in this clip that from the 1950s to the 1990s not much changed in the portrayal of Latin America. Yes, the stereotype being portrayed changed – Latin America went from an exotic place to a location on fit for a drug dealer - but that stereotype was still exploited for the purpose of comedy and profit. I believe that noticing moments like this while we are consuming any form of media is critical to understanding our consumption of cultural stereotypes. Being aware of the stereotypes we are consuming can help mitigate the negative impacts of these stereotypes and minimize their ability to travel far beyond the screen.
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