Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

6-30-2012

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; PSN Subject Matter eJournals; Communication Studies Research Network; Law & Society eJournals; Law & Society: Public Law eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; CommRN Subject Matter eJournals; Humanities Network; Political Science Network; Political Behavior eJournals

Abstract

Examines the history of ethnic depiction and stereotypes for each of the major minority groups of color going back to colonial times Shows that the depiction of each group has shifted from period to period "” now featuring hapless smiling blacks for example now devious Asians or shootyouintheback Mexicans "” but is in each era generally unfavorable Puts forth a functional theory of racial stereotypes to explain the changes and offers an explanation "the empathic fallacy" to explain why improvement is so slow in coming

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