Zombies have always been a popular theme in books, movies, and TV shows. The interesting situations created in an apocalyptic scenario with dead humans have always intrigued the eyes of the public. One thing that does not normally appear in zombie stories is racism. In the TV series The Walking Dead by AMC, the African American characters are portrayed as inferior to the other races throughout the television show and succumbs to older negative stereotypes. At first it is not that recognizable, but is most definitely present when payed closer attention to. The African American characters in the show are killed off faster and more frequently than any other race in the show. This same strategy …show more content…
One of the most noticeable instances of racial imagery is when the African American female Michonne (Danai Gurira) is introduced. Michonne is first seen holding a chain with two African American zombies attached. Michonne claims that she uses her “Zombie Slaves” to cover her human scent from other zombies. Although it seems the producer tried to make it not racially insensitive by having an African American female be in charge of the zombie slaves, it still highly refers to when slavery was predominantly in America. It could have been less racist if Michonne had more than two zombie slaves and if the zombies were all a different race. Another piece of racial imagery put on the television show is when T-Dog gets killed. T-Dog got killed inside of a prison which presents the stereotype that African Americans experience violence within the prison. As a matter of fact, the majority of the of African American survivors in season 3 died when the surviving group was inside of the prison. The producer of the TV show could have killed T-Dog or the other African Americans in a different way or in a different location. Having the African Americans killed in that setting provides the viewer with too many negative references about African Americans roles in the show. During the first season, the survivors had a violent clash with a Mexican gang. After both sides made amends, the Mexican gang leader states, “ How was I [supposed] to know?(that the other group was not violent) You come in holding a hostage…appearances.” The camera then pans over to T-Dog with all of the other characters in the room looking at him. With all of the other characters in the room and the camera faced at T-Dog, it was made very obvious that the Mexican gang was afraid that T-Dog would be the stereotypical violent black