For my next media portfolio item I chose to write about an episode of one of my favorite shows Family Guy. Most people are at least aware of Family Guy but for those who haven’t seen it I’ll just say that it’s about a dysfunctional Rhode Island Family that has many problems one of which is that the father of the family, Peter Griffin, is completely ignorant. He makes asinine sweeping generalization about all races, both sexes, religions, any group that you can imagine and in turn the fact that he is so ignorant it is a reflection of average middle-class white males. In the episode that I chose, “Peter Griffin: Husband, Father… Brother?” Peter finds out that he has a black ancestor that was actually enslaved by his wife’s rich family. This discovery causes many problems with his in-laws but it also causes Peter to make stereotypes about himself and his newfound “brethren.” I chose this episode because it is full of racial stereotypes and because Family Guy is one of my favorite shows and it’s something that is around me all the time.
This episode, as I explained, is based on Peter’s assumptions and learned stereotypes of African Americans. When he first finds out, he’s not sure what to do because he doesn’t know how to be “black.” So he explores the community and winds up winning over all of the African Americans of the area by giving a Martin Luther King-esque speech about popular television shows that star black characters. Also there are many cut-scenes throughout the episode that show Peter’s ancestor Nate Griffin escaping from the plantation and having a family with the slave-owner’s daughter. I feel that all of these things reflect what Johnson says about oppression because it’s because of Peter’s white privilege that he doesn’t know anything about black culture. He’s never had to pay attention to it to fit in. Also I have to say that the writers of this show definitely don’t take the path of least resistance, because they write a lot of things into the show that are controversial and offensive that many people don’t want to hear, but they say it anyway because it’s something that exists in our culture rather we want to admit it or not.
Many people are disgusted by shows such as Family Guy, which target groups of people for cheap laughs (South Park and American Dad are other examples). In a world of political correctness, it’s taboo to say anything left of acceptable and can be punishable by law. But as Johnson said at one point in his novel, oppression and privilege will never end if we never talk about it and bring those problems to the fore-front of everyone’s attention. By ignoring that stereotypes still exist, no one is fixing the problem. By ignoring them, no one is changing. Without change, there will never be progress (change is really the definition of progress). I feel that shows like Family Guy can and do get away with some of the things they say and show because they make fun of every culture. While the writers are looking for laughs at the expense of a group of people, they don’t oppress only one group, or one group more than others really. Family Guy has made fun of Rednecks, Jewish faith, the Catholic Church, Native American casinos, African Americans, sex fiends. If you can categorize a person into a group, he or she has been the butt of the joke at some point.
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