George Lopez and Stereotypes

This week the new talk show "Lopez Tonight'' by George Lopez premiered on TBS. The show follows all the criteria of a talk show except that the guests of this show are mostly of Hispanic descent. What struck me about this show is the many stereotypical comments made by the host, George Lopez. As many of you may know, George Lopez is of Hispanic descent and many of his remarks follow stereotypes of Hispanic culture. Like for example, in one segment of his show he brings two people from the audience for a little game. the game consists of playing a video of a street interview where questions would be asked to people who belonged to minorities (mostly Asian and Hispanic people) and the people from the audience were supposed to guess the answers. I found this game highly offensive because they referred to many stereotypes made about the respective cultures of the interviewees. For example, they asked a Hispanic woman if she was pregnant and a black man if he had ever gotten shot. What I found interesting about this is the fact that he has not gotten any negative feedback from this. This makes me ask myself if the fact that George Lopez himself belongs to a minority makes it okay for him to make these remarks. For me, the comments by him should be considered as offensive as if they came from a White talk show host. Even though they are done in a funny connotation, they add to the stereotypes that are already made about Hispanics and other minorities. The fact that someone from an actual minority is making stereotypical comments about that minority makes these comments more legitimate and thought to be true. The consequences of this is affirming the beliefs and ideas other people have of minorities which makes the stereotype harder to vanish.