The Perpetuation of Negative Images of African Americans through Mass Media
Works Cited Not Included
Why as white people have we been lulled into thinking its safe to be around other white people. Why have we been taught since birth that it’s the people of that other color we need to fear? They’re the ones that will slit your throat (Moore 57). The mass media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media is fostering a distorted public perception of African-Americans. Looking at past examples of African Americans treatment in the media, one can see that the media has become the main perpetrator through which oppression, discrimination and the treatment of African Americans as second class citizens is carried out.
As a result of this media bias, white America has suffered from a deep uncertainty as to who African-Americans really are. The media stereotype of bad guys wearing black or that anything that is black is evil has been fostered for decades. Looking at one of the oldest sources in the media (the dictionary) you clearly see racist overtones in the definitions of any words starting with black or white. Black is defined as opposite to white, African American, soiled or stained, and evil or wicked just to name a few of the definitions (Webster 68). I believe this not only fosters a subconscious negative view of African Americans, but also makes many white people think they are some how better than blacks. The defense put on by the four white Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney King in 1991, and the recent case in Ohio, are very telling of this. They claimed that they were scared and felt they might have been attacked or even killed (88). This is a legitimate excuse in a white American society that perpetuates negative images of African Americans. Whites have come to believe that their life is in danger every time they’re confronted with a black person and that some how their life is worth more than a black person’s life. Their fear and their bias is a manifestation of a deep-rooted media bias that anything black is bad and anything white is pure and good. This media bias has also been illustrated in the Susan Smith cas...
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...image we have seen, read, heard and ultimately come to believe of Malcolm X which is far from the truth. In short Malcolm X is much more than the violent man he is made out to be. To me, he is a prophet the media should portray him that way.
“The mass media is the most powerful entity on the earth. The media has the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent; and that’s power. They control the minds of the masses… You don’t have to lie to them you just have to be selective about what you tell them-because human beings gather information and they form opinions based on the information you have given them” (Malcolm X 56). Until the spoon fed white America opens their eyes to this injustice, the media will continue to portray a self-serving negative stereotype of the African-American community. Until the public acknowledges the media’s influence in the perpetuation of negative images of African Americans, white America will continue to oppress, and African Americans will continue to be looked upon as second class citizens. In the words of rap star Chuck D. of Public Enemy, “Don’t believe the hype,” or more concretely, don’t selectively not believe the hype.
Network news appears to convey more stereotyped impressions, a narrower range of positive roles for blacks than for whites. Representations of whites in network news are more varied and more positive than of blacks, not because of conscious bias, but because of the way conventional journalistic norms and practices interact with political and social reality. The findings raise questions about the journalist ability to represent the reality of black America while adhering to the professional practices that currently shape network news. Mainstream news portrayed African American as criminals, homeless beggars, welfare queens, ghetto-dwelling gang members, or drug addicts in American Society. Perpetuation of young black men as dangerous has been planted in the mind of American society not only by words and images projected by journalists but also in the mainstream news especially. Television particularly the news has the least positive representation of African Americans especially young males. When television became a house-hold item in the early 1950, this was a dark time in American History because there were huge racial tensions brewing in the south. The news show African American mostly young males getting abuse, hosed by police and attack by police dogs during a peaceful protest. It gives the negative images that African American was unlawful people and need to be dealt with swift action. Most of the time African Americans weren’t resisting but the news media depicted the images that they were and police were just doing their job to keep the peace.
...cal discourse. It is important that news media are challenged to be fair and accurate. Therefore, racial bias contribute to racist policies, inhuman treatment and indifferent, and murderous attitude that so many black people and other people of color will find themselves as victims. Also, “The Cosby Show” exemplifies that not all black families are poor and uneducated. Although television seems to be more realistic than the shows of the past, we still have a long way to go. It is time for the media stop hanging on to what have been proven to be untrue and outdated stereotypes. The media must stop trying to keep America segregated and racist. Therefore, when watching the news and television shows, viewers must keep in mind that these are just stereotypes. The African-American people and other people of color are really not much different from anyone else.
Racism is a problem that the American people have grappled with since colonial times. The 1960's saw the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr and Malcolm X, who not only influenced the civil rights movement but attempted to solve the problem of racism in this country. On February 16, 1965, Malcolm X gave a speech called Not Just An American Problem, but a World Problem. In his speech he provides a theory on the relationship between media and racism called image making which still has validity today. On first reading, Malcolm's tone is angry and his theory on image making sounds absurd. He states: They (racists) use the press to get public opinion on their side. . . this is a science called image making. they hold you in check through this science of imagery. They even make you look down upon yourself, by giving you a bad image of yourself. Some of our own Black people who have eaten this image themselves and digested it -- until they themselves don't want to live in the Black community. Yet, current television programming seems to favor this idea. Local news programs continue to show colored communities as dangerous and gang-infested. They continually rely on the reports of these areas for the bulk of their news and overlook the positive images that residents of these areas try to create. For example, KNTV news continually reports on the thefts and shootings in East San Jose but does not make an effort to show how residents are dealing with these situations.
The media has, for as long as it’s existed, upheld white privilege while at the same time stereotyping people of color. The biggest way that the media, specifically the news, does this is how they advocate white people’s accomplishments the same way that they advocate alleged crimes by people of color. They want to criminalize people of color to make whit...
A mixture of stereotypes, the lifestyles that come along with growing up in poor and dangerous surroundings, and other factors play a big part in why many fear black people as a race. A black male is walking near a women and crosses the street in order not to cross paths, as she spots him she sets her face on neutral, with her purse straps strung across her chest (521),gets in her car reaches over and locks her door.. You see these kind of things everyday, either on television or in real life. Mark Cuban, the owner of the nba franchise Dallas Mavericks had this to say on the subject in light of the Trayvon Martin case, "I mean, we 're all prejudiced in one way or another. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it 's late at night, I 'm walking to the other side of the street.. And the list goes on of stereotypes that we all live up to and are fearful of." Another example of this fear can be seen in the case of the black 22 year old John Crawford. While playing around with a toy gun in Walmart, a police officer gunned him down, claiming he believed it was a real gun. Would this have happened if the young man had been white, or if he had been wealthy? In the early 1900s drastic measures used to be taken because many feared that blacks would become too wealthy or accomplished. Even black people today Hangings, lynchings, kkk violence, and other violent acts would take place to stop this from happening. Some believe this still may be the root cause of today 's oppression of black people in this society. Conspiracy theorists even say the murder of Tupac Shakur, world famous rapper and black activist, was even a calculated step in order to stop black people from becoming too powerful. The same is thought of the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. While it cannot be proven, there are no facts to disprove these
The final theme portrayed within race, crime, and The Wire is the media’s influence on public views. The media plays a large role in influencing the views of the public. What the media decides to air is broadcast to the whole world as what is “right” so discretion should be used in reporting information. Blacks already carry a large stigma for many reasons, however the media should not reinforce this. Anderson (1990) states that many learn to fear minorities based on crimes seen on television as well as in the newspaper.
In the modern world, all kinds of oppressions involve a dominant cultural psychology that causes different communities to be suppressed on diverse social, racial grounds. There is usually a hierarchy of oppression in which some communities are perceived to be less valuable than others. However, stereotypes are usually utilized to rationalize this domination and to label individuals on certain type while marginalization is the social process of being demoted to the lower social standing. On the other hand, oppression is any form can be visible at the personal or social level in the media as media reaches several individuals regularly and has the power to influence at all the levels of society and contributing significantly to stereotyping, marginalization and oppression of different communities around the world. The paper aims to critically analyze that in what way media impacts psychology of people by portraying particular communities in the diverse society in such a way that the depiction leads to stereotyping, marginalization and oppression of racial groups. For this purpose, two key resources are used in this paper. One is a web article by Sarah Senghas, named “Racial Stereotypes in the Media” published in 2006, and the second one is an empirical research paper by Elizabeth Monk-Turner, Mary Heiserman, Crystle Johnson,Vanity Cotton, and Manny Jackson, “The Portrayal of Racial Minorities on Prime Time Television: A Replication of the Mastro and Greenberg Study a Decade Later” published in 2010.
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
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.
How has the media portrayal of African Americans affected the way society perceives them as a whole? “…negative exposure to African American portrayals in the media significantly influences the evaluation of African American in general” (Punyanunt-Carter 242). My research question centers on the general public’s view of African Americans as individuals and as a minority. Mass media is a vital source of information that contributes to the public perceptions of African Americans and their roles and personality. According to several scholars and my own perspective, I believe that the depiction of the African American has been one-dimensional, negative and distorted; without a doubt, the stereotypical portrayal of African Americans has contributed to racial prejudice and assumptions. In my opinion, I feel as if the negative depictions outweigh the positive.
Let’s begin with the most known, Rodney G. King. Rodney was caught by the Los Angeles police on March 3rd, 1991 after a high speed chase. He was beaten by officers with their batons. A video was taken of the whole incident. The officers were acquitted. Numerous people of all colors became livid after they heard this. There were protest and riots, although many just wanted whites and blacks to come together. There are several other accounts of police brutality among individuals. To name a few; Robert Davis, Frank Jude, Steve Biko, Sean Bell, Kathryn Johnston, and the list goes on and on. What many might not notice is all the names I stated are black individuals. Zachary Hammond was a white unarmed teen who was killed on July 26, 2015. His case did a lot of attention but not nearly as much attention as any of the people I stated above. This proves a good point that Caucasian people can be shut out when it comes to police brutality. It seems as many don’t believe that whites are brutalized by police. This can be an example of falsely stereotyping one another. There are other ways we falsely stereotype one another. For example if you live in an area where there is a high population of one color of individuals no matter black or white and abundance of the police officers who watch over that area are the other color, it’s not hard to make an assumption that those officers are racist when they use excessive
In 2014, Dr. Wallace Best wrote a candid article for the Huffington Post discussing what he deemed as the irrational fear of black bodies. The context surrounding this critique stemmed from the surge of black men dying by white police officers. In the article, Dr. Best provided historical insight into this deeply rooted, unwarranted anxiety that white Americans have used as probable cause to commit violent acts against blacks, as well as systemic control over black men as a means of protection to maintain societal order. With this assertion, Dr. Best offered a critical analysis in understanding the fanatical need to preserve ownership over black movement due to this ubiquitous threat of black skin and the African American male. However, what
In conclusion this was a dark part in American history and a part that America would like to forget but the stereotypes are still there even today but people choose not to look or say anything about it. Today African Americans are portrayed as gang bangers and thugs who love white women. When you research into this you might be left with yourself thinking as to why do the television people put stereotypical and demeaning stuff like this on television and I guess it’s a question that will never be answered.
This is due to what we have been spoon fed by the media, I don 't agree or like how people of color and gender are stereotyped but this article made me much more aware of how the media still has such an enormous impact on our racial decision. Whites were portrayed in a positive way just due to color and were provided so much more then blacks, such as schooling, reading, treatment and so much
We often see within the U.S this at times spoken, but most of the time unspoken fear towards the black community. A fear of a black man or woman commuting robbery at a store. A fear of black man dealing drugs or terrorizing society with his “gangster” ways. These assumptions are exercised, even in light of the countless individuals who have rose above these predisposed and unfair accused racial characteristics. In an age of social media and television it’s been almost impossible to not be bombarded with race and the abundance of terms which many news stations are throwing at you, most of which many common Americans are not privy too. In the end we know someone must suffer from all the fear, and hate that is circulating. The blacks in the U.S