Media Bias and Victimhood: African American Men

The author questions the fact, whether African American men are actually a criminal threat or a victims of society. “Black men are typically constructed as criminals when in truth they much more likely to be victimized by American Society” (BMCV, pg. 1). Most fail to realize that African American men can commit crime but they also can be victims of crime and a majority of the time they are the victims. Another idea he questioned is, why are more African American men considered to be perpetrators of crime rather than victims. “There is profuse media coverage of violent crime by African American men, however, the media pay disproportionately more attention to whites and women” (BMCV, pg. 2). The more the media reports on crimes committed by

I would answer this question by first thinking about all the factors that causing this fear of African Americans and then I would then decide which factors have the most impact. Based on the reading, the media is over reporting on crime committed by African Americans but underreporting African Americans as victims. So somehow the media needs to be balanced with both types of reporting or people can take the initiative and show the world how victimized African Americans really are. Next the lies perpetuated by society need to be exposed and finally everyone needs to fight against this injustice.

Question 2: How would you feel if no matter what you did or said, people feared you because of your skin color? What would or could you do if you were these

However, the reading suggests that “everyone expects African American crime victims, the argument goes, so their plight isn’t news worthy” (BMCV, pg. 4). So why are African Americans lives starting to matter to the media? The media does not care about the lives of people but covers topics that are the most appealing to the viewers. “African American victimization does not attract the media spotlight the way their crimes do” (BMCV, pg. 2). “Just recently, Terence Crutcher, an African American man was shot by a white police officer in Tulsa and not long before that a African American man was shot by an African American officer. (Snapchat). However, when Terence Crutcher was shot the media did not specify the officer’s race but when an African American was shot by another African American they included the officer’s race. I feel that media specifies race to make the story seem appealing to viewers or to show that white officers are not always at