Anthony Walsh’s article “African Americans and Serial Killing in the Media” illustrates the myths revolving around black serial killers. Unlike African American males, white males are the predominant race society believes to be serial killers (Hepburn & Hinch, 1997). Many of this notion stems from the wide array of ‘male white’ serial killers we see on tv, news, and movies today. Unfortunately, this stigma can still be reflected upon the most recent news on killers we have today. Names of 10 victims were read off as Lonnie David Franklin Jr. stood during trial for his murder convictions. Given the title “Grim Sleeper”, Franklin is suspected of killing at least 25+ women from the year 1985 to present (Gerber, 2016). Until recently, Franklin had been roaming freely in the neighbourhood where he lived, killing vulnerable, young, black females for the past 22 years. He was known to showcase sexually explicit photos of females, expressed contempt towards death of prostitutes, and have had 15 arrests. Despite the multiple indications of his criminal activity that could have lead to his earlier arrest, Franklin was never caught until a search of state offender records turned up a …show more content…
What’s just as bad is the media's focus on the police force’s lack of effort to warn the public that young, vulnerable black females were being targeted in the community. Although current media doesn’t seem to perpetuate any of the myths involved in African American serial killers, it is obvious that it was around the time Franklin began his killings. In Walsh’s article, Philip Jenkins (1998) stated that “law enforcement agencies were less likely to take Black crimes seriously unless the victims were White (Walsh, 2005)”. A clear day and night example of unreliable media; questions are now being raised about why the community was never forewarned about the mass killings happening in their
Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying
“A report by the United States General Accounting Office in 1990 concluded that 82 percent of the empirically valid studies on the subject show that the race of the victim has an impact on capital charging decisions or sentencing verdicts or both” (86).
Touching upon one specific case of this growing problem, she incorporates “Michael Brown,” who was an “18-year old unarmed black man shot down by a white police officer.” As heartbreaking as it sounds, it has happened on several occasions to men similar to “Michael Brown.” Accordingly, Myers formulates that it “is the same story. It is just different names.” Myers logically lists the other names of several black men who unfortunately fell victim to hate crimes, (Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin), as well as flashing their images on the screen. Not only does Verna Myers use imagery in order to show that there is an evident issue with brutality and racism, but she knows it will tug on her viewers heartstrings. Likewise, this makes her audience become wary and sympathetic towards the situation at
When horrific crimes occur in large cities, many of them can be chalked up to gang violence or to the larger population of that specific city. But when horrific crimes happen in small cities like Lincoln, Nebraska, people begin to ask questions like who did this and why. In 1958, a nineteen year old man named Charles Starkweather put the entire state of Nebraska and possibly the entire nation in a state of terror. With his murder spree taking only three days, Starkweather had collected a body count of ten bodies, including two teenagers and a young child. Understanding Starkweather’s past and state of mind begins to answer the second question of why.
In the early 1990’s in Los Angeles, California, police brutally was considered a norm in African Americans neighborhoods. News coverage ignores the facts of how African ...
From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1981, at least twenty-eight people were abducted and killed during a murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia; these killings would come to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders. While the victims of the killings were people of all races and genders, most of the victims of the Atlanta Child Murders were young African-American males. These murders created great racial tension in the city of Atlanta, with its black population believing the murders to be the work of a white supremacist group. (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. l) However, when police finally apprehended a suspect in the case, they found it was neither a white supremacy group, nor a white person at all; it was a 23 year-old African-American man named Wayne Williams. (“What are”, n.d.)
Racial bias in media causes prejudice and discriminatory practices against African-Americans and other minorities groups in America. Today in our society, we are still struggling to overcome racial tension within America because we are over shallow with prejudice and discriminatory images and ideas. Many White Americans feel that the media refuses to report on all crimes committed by blacks against whites, yet report on all crimes committed by whites against blacks. Therefore, they see the media as being not bias. My research will show that African-Americans are over-represented in news reports on crime, and within those stories, they are more likely shown as the perpetrators of the crime than as the persons reacting to or suffering from it. The news media has often been criticized for the way it chooses to portray Latinos and African-Americans.
For much of the twentieth century, punishment and crime have portrayed some of the most powerful signs of the racial divide in the United States. Marginalized and the poor remains the most biased against the criminal justice scheme (Barak, 2010). Throughout the Americas. racial minorities were tried in white courtrooms by white juries. Class and race are challenging.
Racism and discrimination continue to be a prevalent problem in American society. Although minorities have made significant strides toward autonomy and equality, the images in media, specifically television, continue to misrepresent and manipulate the public opinion of blacks. It is no longer a blatant practice upheld by the law and celebrated with hangings and beatings, but instead it is a subtle practice that is perceived in the entertainment and media industries. Whether it’s appearing in disparaging roles or being negatively portrayed in newscasts, blacks continue to be the victims of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the majority. The viscous cycle that is the unconscious racism of the media continues to not only be detrimental to the white consumers, who base what they know about blacks by what is represented in television, but also the black consumers, who grow up with a false sense of identity.
Many individuals are so readily to believe that those who commit crime or deal drugs are African Americans and/ or Latinos. Michelle Alexander points out in the third chapter of her book, The New Jim Crow, that the media plays a role in displaying what ‘the black drug dealer’ looks like which reflects and reinforce biases, whether they’re conscious or
When it come to the wrongdoing of serial murders the first thing people think of is that the offender is psychotic, white, abused as a child and experimented with animals. However that is not true, serial killers have different alternatives, motives and desires. Some are sexual sadist, act in necrophilia and are mission base serial killers. However people do not know that African-Americans consist of the largest racial minority group among serial killers, representing approximately 20 percent of the total amount of serial killers in America. (Bonn) Most believe that serial killers are white and other races are not likely to partake in that type of crimes. However two notorious well known black serial killers are Lemuel Smith & John Floyd
Black Mass is a recent film based on the true story of Whitey Bulger. Bulger was on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for a number of years, and was eventually caught in 2011. Since then, the book Black Mass was written about this infamous criminal and eventually a film was also made, carrying the same title. Bulger was a part of the Winter Hill Gang, running South Boston and having 19 murders on his record. The movie Black Mass is an attempt to portray the life of this man and his criminal acts on society. The violence depicted in the film definitely supports the status of Bulger in real life. He was a ruthless man who murdered people without second thought. The violence depicted can grip an audience’s attention and make a person cringe. Violence in the media, as a whole, has become something that people are attracted to. Not only that, it has impacted viewers in many ways. Black Mass shows the ways in which violence can have repercussions and can affect a number of people. Though this is just a film, its theme derives from the real life story of Whitey Bulger. The use of violence in Black Mass enhances its content tremendously,
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...
Kass-Gergi, Yara (2012), Killer Personalities: Serial Killers as Celebrities in Contemporary American Culture. Wesleyan University p. 4-8