Final Project- African American Stereotypes in the Media
Carly Goeller
African American stereotypes in the media
Stereotypes are categories with a bad attitude. Stereotypes are defined as over simplified opinions, standardized mental pictures held by a group. There are stereotypes of many different races and ethnicities, none larger than stereotypes regarding African Americans.
For hundreds of years segregation has existed in our society. Though it is a scary thought that we haven’t yet gotten over racial bias, the fear is very much real. Racial bias can be seen everywhere you look whether it’s in the media or in the home. Even after decades of civil rights movements by influential people such as the great Dr. King himself social science experiments continue to show racial insecurities amongst African Americans. I put the blame solely on the shoulder of our media, this being because the media really is the lens in which we perceive reality. It brings us everything from entertainment to the news and it is the single most influential outlet in the world.
. There was a social science experiment that I remember learning about and I will never forget. The reason this experiment is so profound in my memory is because the results were quite disturbing. Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted an experiment called the “Doll Test’. In this experiment two identical dolls are introduced as a stimulus except one doll is light skin and the other is darker. When a young black girl is addressed with the “doll test” it concludes as follows “Can you show me the doll that looks bad? She puts down the light skin doll and picks up the other. Why does that look bad? The interviewer asks. Because its black, the little girl says.” This speaks volumes to the influence of the media on African Americans, young black children and black teenagers are still influenced into believing that they are racially insignificant. This goes to show that racism is a very real component in our society. Its almost as if children grow up thinking that black and bad are synonymous. Why is it that African American youth grow up thinking that? What is it that makes them think that they are different or not as capable just because the color of their skin? This used to be an accepted ideology but since racism was ended 50 years ago, it begs the question what is it that keeps this ideology breathing? The facilitator in this situation has to be the media. In the media, black culture and African Americans in general are viewed as gangsters, thugs and pimps. The Judge is the white guy and the crack dealer is the African American, and that’s just the way it is. There are many various stereotypes like this seen in the media, The African American always dies first in the horror film, and there’s always the black best friend in the teen dramas. Its almost as if the media is an equal opportunity employer, they exploit African Americans in their stereotypes just so they can be included in the program. In order to change the insecurities of black culture in society, African Americans must first start trying to present themselves more respectively in the media. I found and article by renowned black activist Leonard Pitts who further addresses this point by saying “ we’ve spent 387 years in this country trying to get the white folks to love us. It might help if we first learned to love ourselves.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKYw0tKw6D4
In our culture it seems as if we relate everything beautiful and good with whiteness while often treating African Americans as after thoughts. There was another social science experiment similar to the doll test that also involves dolls and children. In this experiment the test used cabbage patch dolls and an alarming 65 percent of black children chose the white doll. I believe that this racial pride crisis can be aided if the black community first addresses this in the home, by telling their children what they see on t.v is not accurate portrayals of the African American community. They could do so by painting a picture of respect and pride amongst black people while avoiding such degrading terms, and racial prejudice broadcasted in the media
One of the major problems and contributing factors of the mass media and its portrayal of racial stereotypes is reality television. Reality television is supposed to be a tangible depiction of real unscripted people. Reality t.v is highly profitable given its success and relatively low production cost. Reality television has enjoyed the most rapid increase in popularity and saturation since M.T.Vs the real world. Reality T.V has been adopted by almost all popular broadcasting stations. The name reality television is quite misleading, these programs do not predict reality, instead these broadcasts are manipulated, managed and produced situations edited that are edited thoroughly. Think about it, how else do they incorporate hours, days and even weeks into 30 minute time frames? This hints at the credibility of the material that is actually shown, only the most outrageous and extravagant behavior makes it past the editing room. As reality television grows in popularity, reality television has the potential to be the most dangerous of all programs with regards to stereotypes because its label of depicting reality. viewers who do not realize consciously or subconsciously that the images that they are seeing are highly manipulated become convinced that the characters in reality programs are representative of real people, and represent groups of African Americans as a whole. From the beginning of television African American stereotypes have been prevalent. The show Amos and Andy, the first show to ever contain an all-black cast depicted the ideas of blacks at the time from their white producers. The African Americans were portrayed as clumsy incompetent characters unable to function in society. Civil rights groups had this show revoked. Images like these permeated through the houses of thousands and eventually millions assaulting adults and children alike with negative and unrealistic portrayals of African American communities. This was the beginning of racial stereo types in the media, spreading negative stereotypes that would be reinforced through scheduled programming.
One stereotype is the representation that African Americans are insensitive and vulgar. In a show that I personally watch, desperate house wives, Betty applewhite is the only black female amongst five white housewives. Applewhite serves as a supporting character serving as the aggressive violent black female from inner city Chicago. Applewhite and her son play out various themes, including murder rape etc.. Another show I found to be very befitting to this is another show that I watched, flavor of love. In which the black females are always portrayed as the loudest, most sexual and most aggressive individuals in the program. However, promiscuous white females are also present. They are depicted as more submissive and often seen threatened by the black women.
In news broadcasts, black people are often showed engaged in destructive actions, allowed by reality television. Allowing the concept that the black race is violent and uncontrollable, this I believe to be the most dangerous stereotype. Clearly permeating black men in the media today whether its television, news broadcast or fictional series or even cartoons, this is particularly harmful because it perpetuates the stereotype that black people are prone to violence. Paired with the prison statistics for black males where the incarceration rate is substantially higher for African Americans than anyone else.
The problem is when what Americans see on t.v becomes real life. Think about the psyche of a teenaged African American from an underprivileged area, when they see racial counterparts in the media, from similar social standings committing various crimes and acting immorally, they begin to accept this as their destiny. Hence, they become less inclined to change their situation as they begin to accept the stereotypes in the media as their own.
In conclusion, the media is almost like a pitri dish for the bacteria that is stereotypes to grow. Until the media starts to acknowledge the negative connotations that come from racial stereotypes, this bacteria will continue to multiply. The African American Culture is looked down upon in our society, not because of there equality or anything like that, it is due solely to our media. The Reality television and news programs that subject African Americans are the reason the stereotypes regarding the black community have never died. If ratings continue to climb in shows that do subject African american’s, will racism and stereotyping ever end?
African American stereotypes in film- Tyler Perry, an African American himself, is a major facilitator and enabler of African American Stereotypes, producing movies such as
Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2001), Madea Goes to Jail (2005–2006), Madea's Big Happy Family (2010) and many more along with various TV shows which feed off of the African American stereotype.
Sources-
posted by Carly @ 10:44 AM
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