Wynter, L. (2002) p.142

George Gerbner, Bell Atlantic Professor of Telecommuication at Temple University in Philadelphia, compared the proportion of bad/successful to bad/unsuccessful characters by race in 1982 to 1992 versus 1995 to 1997 and observed:

“The pattern reported in the prior study. . . has changed from casting non-white characters disproportionately in roles of villains and failures. While Latino/Hispanic and Asian/Pacific characters formerly had higher ratios of failures per success, now the only characters that fail more than white males are those with foreign national origin and those with mental disability.”

Meaning? The persistent belief that blacks suffer consistent and overwhelming negative stereotyping in television entertainment is just not true.