Page 81 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

“Mexican gangster” we get “Father’s best friend turned stepdad”, and instead of “back alley
gangster” we get “loving father who goes to soccer games”.

80 percent of the black characters in the show are upper class, while the remaining 20
percent are lower class. In reality, 17 percent of black Americans are upper class, and 33 percent
lower class. 100 percent of Hispanics or Latinos in the show are middle class, while in reality 47
percent of the Hispanic or Latino population in America are middle class. In the show, 55
percent of white characters were upper class and 44 percent were middle class, while reality
shows that 17 percent of white Americans are upper class, and 51 percent are middle class.
While these numbers are disproportionate, these characters’ class and social status tells us each a
story of their past, letting us in on just a bit of the story of how each character got where they are.
Through understanding the class of a character, we are able to better understand them as a
person, and through that, the storyteller is able to avoid using stereotypes by telling a more
interesting story with characters that have so much to lose, or have already lost everything.

80 percent of black or African-American characters had no history of drug or alcohol use,
while 20 percent had a history of heavy drug or alcohol use. In reality, 6.8 percent of black or
African-American citizens struggle with substance abuse. While 100 percent of the Hispanic or
Latino characters had a history of light drug or alcohol use, 6.6 percent struggle with substance
abuse. And 11 percent of white characters had no history of drug or alcohol use, 44 percent had a
history of light drug or alcohol use, 11 percent had a history of moderate use, 11 percent had a
history of heavy use, and use by 11 percent was unidentifiable in the show. 7.7 percent of the
white population struggle with substance abuse in real life. The use of alcohol for fun at social
events is as common in the real world as it is in This Is Us; however, so is the abuse of such
substances. The show does display characters using them for fun and “loosening up;” it also

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