The Stereotype of Black American In Original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Series

Arwan Wisnu and Hanif Genang Seyaji

In the 90s, there were many TV series for kids. Mostly of them told about superhero. There were Kamen Rider, Ultraman, Jiban, Winspector, they are from Japan and the last comes from USA entitled Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Almost of Indonesian kids knew Power Rangers, and Power Ranger has become their superhero idol. Power Rangers, or fully titled as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, told about six American teenagers who is given a superpower and have a responsibility to guard and save the earth. There are red, pink, blue, green, yellow and black rangers for the character. In Indonesia, it was an interesting TV film series that gave a new formula to the Indonesian Kids. A group of superhero is a new thing in that time. Because of that, Power Rangers TV series became one of the most favorite TV serials for kids. Beside, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers showed a lot of violence, at the same time its popularity had grown in USA or other countries; they received critique for showing a lot of violence.

It was a very interesting serial for my childhood that triggers me analyze it. Mighty Morphin Power Ranger also has multicultural character. When I was kid, I only watched Power Ranger as superhero with great powers and costume, and impressive robot, but now it is different. I can see many issues that can be analyzed from this serial, one of the issue are the emergence of the characters of minority in Power Rangers and the stereotype sticking with it. Beside the other, I interested in the black ranger. I will try to analyze one of the Power Rangers character which represent one of ethnic minority and the stereotypes that put on that character. Because of that, I choose the character of black ranger that was played by the black American and I will analyze how the character was stereotyped in the Power Ranger series.



First of all, I will talk about Mighty Morphin Power Rangers itself briefly and also the original character. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is an American live-action children's television series, based on the 16th installment of the Japanese Super Sentai franchise, Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. Both the show and its related merchandise saw unbridled overnight success, catapulting into pop culture in mere months. Under the original name Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the series ran from 1993 to 1995 and spawned a feature film, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Morphin_Power_Rangers). The character is Jason Lee Scott, the original Red Ranger, as well as the original leader of the Power Rangers. Portrayed by Austin St. John, Zack Taylor, the original Black Ranger; portrayed by Walter Emanuel Jones (credited as Walter Jones), Billy Cranston, the original Blue Ranger; portrayed by David Yost, Trini Kwan, the original Yellow Ranger; portrayed by Thuy Trang and Kimberly Hart, the original Pink Ranger; portrayed by Amy Jo Johnson. Later, the character of Zack is written out and changed with Johny Young Bosch.

Move to my topic, it is important to know the definition of stereotype. According to LitWeb Glossary, Stereotype is a characterization based on conscious or unconscious assumptions that some one aspect such as gender, age, ethnic or national identity, religion, occupation, marital status, and so on is predictably accompanied by certain character traits, actions, even values. (http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/glossary/glossary_s.htm). It is an image or idea of a particular type of person or thing that has become fixed through and widely accepted. Stereotypes can be positive or negative and in some way stereotype can make us greater than the others being stereotyped. Stereotype can be constructed by the society or the media, both of them play an important role in forming a stereotype of certain ethnicity.

Based on the definition, stereotype is often used for judging people from a certain ethnic both negative or positive and conscious or not. Let move to our main discussion of the Black American stereotype. From some movies that I have been watched, I can see that the Black American is stereotyped as talkative, warm, fun, and humorous people. They have a big confident even though they are sometimes weak and not competence. They like music, especially hip-hop and rap, and surely they are good dancers. If there is black, they will cheers up the situation. That was the positive stereotype of Black American that I got from watching and analyzing most Black character in some movies. There are also some bad stereotypes of black that they are dumb, silly, and lazy and most of them are criminal.

One character of Power Rangers is built by this Black stereotype. There was Walter Jones played as Zack, the Black Ranger. The black ranger is Black and a break-dancer. The Zack character is very African-American stereotype, he was talkative, humorous and a good dancers. The character of Black American usually is dumb or stupid but in Power Ranger, the Black ranger is quite smart and clever. It is shown on the way he faced his enemy. He always uses tricky way in fighting the enemy, because he is not strong enough. The Black people is weak and not capable, this stereotype is shown in Power Rangers, by portraying Zack as an easily frightened black man.

The Black Ranger is also the jokester of team and loving dancing. He loves dancing and his friend like watching his dance. He uses to be break-dancing before has a fight or hit the enemy, he is like doing a hip-hop karate. He is also a good friend with a good heart. He cares for his friends and always tries to cheer them up when they were feeling down. Zack is very talkative and always coming with his joke, and I think that is the stereotype of Black Americans. It seems that their position in the story is for jokester and the ice-breaker for the group.

Zack’s costume is Black. He was Black and also gave a Black Ranger. We know there are Red, Green, Pink, Yellow, Blue, and Black Ranger. It is same with his skin. Zack was the Black Ranger and guard the earth from Rita Repulsa’s allies that want to seize the earth. We can see that Black Ranger is played by a Black man also, so the minority of Black is seen in that case.

To face the enemy that can change his body into a huge monster, Power Ranger has Zord to cut all enemy that change into huge body. Mighty Morphin Power Ranger in when Zack played as Black Ranger had Zord. The zord is called Dinozord. Dinozord are Tyrannosaurus Dinozord piloted by Red Ranger, Mastodon Dinozord piloted by Black Ranger, Triceratops Dinozord piloted by Blue Ranger, Saber-Toothed Tiger Dinozord piloted by Yellow Ranger, and Pterodactyl Dinozord that piloted by Pink Ranger. The interesting thing is that the Black Ranger has Mastodon Dinozord that an elephant look-like. I connect it with Africa that has many elephant in that land. Africa that is a black continent is shown in this part. So the stereotype of Black is clearly seen in the Black Zord.

We can see in Power Rangers series that the Black American character was stereotyped positively. In the series, the Black American negative stereotype was eliminated, because he became superhero and superhero must have good characteristic. Stereotype is often used for judging, even disrepute certain group of ethnicity especially the minorities. Whereas, the reality is in the contrary and we can make a positive stereotype to the ethnic.

The concept of Black is clearly shown in the Mighty Murphy Power Rangers. The Black is stereotyped as talkative, warm, fun, and humorous people. Jones is an African American and played as Zack to be Black Ranger. Zack is talkative, wam, fun and humourous in Power Ranger TV series. Zack also good dancer and love it, same with others African American.

The bad stereotypes of black (dumb, silly, and lazy) are not shown in the character of Zack. In the Power Ranger series, Zack is clever, smart and agile. It is different with the stereotype of Black that often a criminal people. Zack also a jokester, it is one of the characteristic of Black, a good jokester wherever they stand.

The costume and Zord are also represented the Black. The black costume and Mastodon Dinozord have easily connected with Black people. Because of that proofs, this TV series got many critique because this racial case and it is true if we look at the proof.

Although this TV series got racial controversy, the Black minority that portrayed in Black Ranger is not bad. As the superhero, Black ranger break the bad stereotype of criminal people to become a smart, funny, agile and a hero. Despite of the some part that still indicates to the Black minority, The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is one of the examples of African American superhero that become the idol of the kids in that moment and perhaps can change the idea of the Black itself.

Bibliography

Coleman, F. 1990. Positive Negatives and Negatives Positives : Confronting Black Stereotype Through Visual Artistic Expression. In Shaw, H. B. (Ed). Perspectives of Black popular culture. Ohio : Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
Hazzard-Gordon, K. 1990. Afro-American Core Culture Social Dance: An Examination of Four Aspects of Meaning. In Shaw, H. B. (Ed). Perspectives of Black popular culture. Ohio : Bowling Green State University Popular Press.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty_Morphin_Power_Rangers. 22 June 2010
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/glossary/glossary_s.htm. 22 June 2010