Victimization Of Black Men Essay

According to the article “Black Men as Criminals and as Victims” Black men are victimized in America when discussions of diseases fail to mention that “African-American men are more likely to be infected with the AIDS virus and twice as likely to suffer from prostate cancer and heart disease than are white men” (313). The reading also mentions that black men get payed less, although a black man may have a college education they only earn as much as a white man with a high school diploma which is crazy. Another way black men are victimized is through the media constantly covering violent crimes of black men robbing, raping, or being involved in a homicide, the media likes to cover stories where whites are the victims when in reality black men have a much bigger chance of being a victim. “A black man is about eighteen times more likely to be murdered than is a white woman” (315). And “for black men between the age of fifteen and thirty, violence is the single leading cause of death” (315).
2. Why do the news media exaggerate the likelihood of black men committing violent crimes while underreporting cases of black victimization?

Rapes of white women by black men receive significant media attention even though they are a tiny proportion of all rapes. Another reason media underreports this is because of the Journalism 101 defense, this is when everyone already expects black crime victims so they are not news worthy just like a dog biting a man is not news worthy. The reading also mentions another explanation for this, a critic at the Los Angeles Times says that “in order to stay in business newspapers must cater to the interests of their subscribers, few of whom live in inner city minority neighborhoods”