Cultural Tolerance

This week I will continue to talk about race and class along with religion and interpret how they are represented on television in various sitcoms. The reason sitcoms are important to study is because they tell quite a bit about our society and how we look at race, class, and religion.

Since 9/11, and even before that, Muslims have been portrayed on television as villains or terrorists. Television tends to clump all Muslims into one category of being from a Middle Eastern country with a darker complexion and there is usually a narrative that is us versus them. This type of television promotes religious tolerance, where we just tolerate people of certain religions and color. The concept of religious tolerance does not really allow religious freedom that our society supposedly guarantees.

The reason this is in our television shows is because these shows tend to tell the public what to think about when it comes to national issues and debates. While we strive for religious freedom, certain schema we have that activate when we see something like this prevent our society from being truly religiously free. We should want to understand these people a little more instead of portraying them in these ways.