Minority Trope Representation in AMC’s The Walking Dead Essay

The Walking Dead is a television show produced by AMC based off the black and white comic books by Robert Kirkman. The show and comic book center around main character Rick Grimes as he learns to cope with life after waking up from a deadly wound into an outbreak of virus wielding undead creatures known as â€Å"walkers.† Over the course of season two and season three, the show starts to center around how Rick is able to command the group of survivors and the challenges they face trying to settle down in a safe area. They are confronted with another community nearby late in season three along with the increasing number of walkers in the area. While facing these challenges, the number of surviving members continues to dwindle; however, the†¦show more content†¦Usually, they are forgotten or killed off and labeled with the â€Å"mental occupational hazard† trope. This trope proves that once a minority has served their purpose, they are no longer needed to help th e group survive any longer and the main character forgets about the minority (tvtrope.org). These are the main ideas perpetuated in AMC’s thriller television show The Walking Dead. From the very beginning, the show portrayed minorities as nothing more than the â€Å"magical negro† helping to further Rick’s survival in the zombie-infested world. As more characters are introduced, the majorities are of the white race with a few exceptions; Morgan, his son, and T-Dog are African-American. They represent a â€Å"racial inequality constitutive [†¦] order† while Michonne represents a progressive move toward equality within the group (Hugey, p 544). Literature Review Matthew Hughey wrote â€Å"Cinethetic Racism: White Redemption and Black Stereotypes in ‘Magical Negro’ Films† in 2009 to dicuss the trend of progressive African-American representation called the magical negro. Hughey examined 26 films to understand race relations and how mainstream audiences interpret the films. He found that the magical negro are placed in subservient positions and can reaffirm the status quo by changing contemporary racism rather than showing evidence of racial progress. This literature piece is used to help describe the relationship between the majority and minority groups within the film, and