Rat Race: Has society changed or are we more racist than ever?

With the election of Barack Obama as President, many have commented that the nation is overcoming its race issues, however there has also been no signs of real progress. We have yet to see a decline in racially charged crimes and just recently a judge in Louisiana refused to marry a biracial couple. Furthermore, Disney just recently created a movie with their first ever African American princess, needless to say the cartoon movie was set in the 1940's, the princess has a southern accent and is surrounded by supporting characters who use poor grammar and slang. With such poor examples of racial diversity like that in the media, can we honestly say that progress is being made in the battle against racial prejudice?

As I contemplated this question myself, I searched on many different networks for shows that incorporate a variety of races without creating the "token black guy" effect. Unfortunately, I could not find one. Some of my favorite shows are Law and Order: SVU, Grey's Anatomy and The Game. Two of which-- Grey's and Law and Order have "token" races; both have one asian character and one black character. The asian characters on both are made to be the most intelligent and the black characters are lighter skinned men who have "made it out of the hood". On the other hand, there is "The Game" which was first aired on the CW but was cancelled because it was unpopular, however when BET picked up the series, ratings went through the roof and the rights to the show were bought by BET. Sadly, the truth is that there are two kinds of shows; one where there are token races, strategically placed in stereotypical roles or the latter, sitcoms that are centered around one race and thus only popularized by that race, such as "Meet the Browns". Below you can see the trailer for the disney movie and judge for yourself if it fits the media's stereotypical roles with race.

Although these racial prejudices are still very much alive in the media, I truly believe that all it takes to fix the problem is to have one giant media source

display and race and human relationships in an accurate and fair light. It may be a ways off, but there is always the hope the intellect and human

understanding will override any media conglomerate looking to make money.