Glorifying Imperfections into Stereotypes

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Recommended: Black stereotypes in media

“None but ourselves can free our minds." –Bob Marley

The battle between internal and external racism still exists after years of protesting and struggling for the next generations. Internal racism is present inside the black community through various areas. This coincides with internal jealously amongst blacks. External racism is outside of the black community, which is how society looks at African Americans. White’s views on blacks shape the negative stereotypes that some blacks have adapted into their culture while some try to exclude themselves from the following stereotypes: drug dealers, criminals, dumb, ignorant, poor, athletic, religious, and musically gifted.

Non-African Americans that choose to listen to African American stereotypes are pretty much saying that they only need to meet one African American to know what all the others are like. This is a big problem for African Americans that don’t even meet the criteria of those said stereotypes. All African Americans are judged one way. Are black men acknowledge for their positive contributions and their brain beneath the body? “There is no study that shows that African-American people aren’t as smart or hard working as Whites” (Senghas). Several African American men don’t get equal opportunity in the hiring process because of their race and the stereotypes behind them like lazy and criminal. Society fails at identifying how hard African Americans work to get a job or when they have one just to avoid discrimination. Not all the stereotypes are negative but the main ones that affect how people look at the black race are. The stereotypes that say African Americans are athletic, religious, and musically gifted are actually positive ones until people outside of the black co...

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...Jealousy." MyBrotha.COM - Magazine For Black Men And The Black Community. 04 Mar. 2004. 03 Dec. 2010. .

Rome, Dennis. Black Demons: the Media's Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004.

Senghas, Sarah. "Racial Stereotypes in the Media." Associated Content from Yahoo! Yahoo, 26 May 2003. 04 Dec. 2010. .

Smith, George Edmond. Walking Proud: Black Men Living beyond the Stereotypes. New York: Kensington Pub., 2001.

Thomas, Deborah A. "Modern Blackness: "What We Are and What We Hope to Be"." Small Axe 6.2 (2002): 25-48

Vincent, Mal. “Yellowman: faces up to the pain of racism.” The Virginian-Pilot. 24 Oct. 2004. 1 Dec. 2010

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