The Media’s Portrayal of African-Americans
It is of no surprise to anyone that Africans have had a violent and discriminant history ever since they stepped foot in America. Even after the inspirational “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr, racism is prevalent throughout the country, and is influenced by the corrupt media .They are made out to be dangerous by the media, and it has very well reflected on the American population. Through the use of stereotypes, propaganda, and attention-bait, the media has shaped the way we perceive black people in a negative manner. Decades of slavery and discrimination still haunt African-Americans to this day, and one would think that a country built on the backs of these people would respect them for a change, unfortunately this is not true. As if being black in American society wasn’t harsh enough, you are also judged for the shade of your skin. Why do you never see a dark-skinned black male on the cover of a magazine? The darker your skin is, the more likely you are to commit a crime, according to the media. Black males with a lighter skin tone are anticipated to be successful and wealthy, while darker-skinned men are perceived to be big and scary. Photographers add in lots of lighting to Barack Obama’s face, making sure no one forgets how successful he is as a lighter-skinned African-American. In 2012, Japanese auto manufacturer Acura was caught discriminating the skin shade of black people during the making of their Super Bowl commercial. According to TMZ, the casting sheet for the advertisement asked for a “nice looking, friendly, not too dark male”. This was a perfect case of discrimination in the media, and Acura suffered a backlash from the general public. The stereotypical nature of the media has developed an outlook on the way we see African-Americans of different shades. Using the major media outlets, the U.S government is controlling the way African-Americans look at themselves. …show more content…
Often creating false statistics and blaming them for crimes they haven’t committed- just because they look a certain way, is one of much propaganda the government makes. This use of psychological warfare has frustrated the black community to a great extent. Negative images of Black teenagers ‘twerking’ and getting pregnant reek through the mind of many Americans, and while it is a problem, the severity of the situation is exaggerated by the media to target the teenage audience. By making these acts seem ‘normal’, the media tries to brainwash the community into wasting the early years of their life and not studying. This is due to the influx of university and college students, as there needs to be more people working in the minimum-wage jobs. In the article “A Liberating Curriculum” by Roberta Borkat, the author discusses an increase in the amount of students who only care about marks and not the content learned in school. In a discussion with one of her students, who was “upset because she had not studied and earned only 14 points out of a possible 100” and later said she wanted “assurance that she would get at least a B” (Borkat 7). This highlights one of the many problems facing secondary education today, and the government aims to deteriorate these types of people from going to college in order to have more people working in the service sectors. Propaganda is and has always been used in the U.S to control the general population, and even though it is all over the history textbooks, the government continues to do it every day. The click-bait tactics the media uses are still very effective today. The story of an African-American man murdering 2 people is far more exciting than the winners of the Nobel Peace prize, according to the media. What’s worse is that these photos of African-American criminals before the crime are always negatively chosen. Media outlets intentionally choose photos that make these criminals look bad and strike fear into the public, since they create a catchy cover. This sparked an outburst on the social media site Twitter in the summer of 2014, when an innocent Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. The media used a picture of him posing as a gangster to cover the story, despite the fact that he was a graduate from Columbia Collage, and that the graduation photo was on the same page
It is of no surprise to anyone that Africans have had a violent and discriminant history ever since they stepped foot in America. Even after the inspirational “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr, racism is prevalent throughout the country, and is influenced by the corrupt media .They are made out to be dangerous by the media, and it has very well reflected on the American population. Through the use of stereotypes, propaganda, and attention-bait, the media has shaped the way we perceive black people in a negative manner. Decades of slavery and discrimination still haunt African-Americans to this day, and one would think that a country built on the backs of these people would respect them for a change, unfortunately this is not true. As if being black in American society wasn’t harsh enough, you are also judged for the shade of your skin. Why do you never see a dark-skinned black male on the cover of a magazine? The darker your skin is, the more likely you are to commit a crime, according to the media. Black males with a lighter skin tone are anticipated to be successful and wealthy, while darker-skinned men are perceived to be big and scary. Photographers add in lots of lighting to Barack Obama’s face, making sure no one forgets how successful he is as a lighter-skinned African-American. In 2012, Japanese auto manufacturer Acura was caught discriminating the skin shade of black people during the making of their Super Bowl commercial. According to TMZ, the casting sheet for the advertisement asked for a “nice looking, friendly, not too dark male”. This was a perfect case of discrimination in the media, and Acura suffered a backlash from the general public. The stereotypical nature of the media has developed an outlook on the way we see African-Americans of different shades. Using the major media outlets, the U.S government is controlling the way African-Americans look at themselves. …show more content…
Often creating false statistics and blaming them for crimes they haven’t committed- just because they look a certain way, is one of much propaganda the government makes. This use of psychological warfare has frustrated the black community to a great extent. Negative images of Black teenagers ‘twerking’ and getting pregnant reek through the mind of many Americans, and while it is a problem, the severity of the situation is exaggerated by the media to target the teenage audience. By making these acts seem ‘normal’, the media tries to brainwash the community into wasting the early years of their life and not studying. This is due to the influx of university and college students, as there needs to be more people working in the minimum-wage jobs. In the article “A Liberating Curriculum” by Roberta Borkat, the author discusses an increase in the amount of students who only care about marks and not the content learned in school. In a discussion with one of her students, who was “upset because she had not studied and earned only 14 points out of a possible 100” and later said she wanted “assurance that she would get at least a B” (Borkat 7). This highlights one of the many problems facing secondary education today, and the government aims to deteriorate these types of people from going to college in order to have more people working in the service sectors. Propaganda is and has always been used in the U.S to control the general population, and even though it is all over the history textbooks, the government continues to do it every day. The click-bait tactics the media uses are still very effective today. The story of an African-American man murdering 2 people is far more exciting than the winners of the Nobel Peace prize, according to the media. What’s worse is that these photos of African-American criminals before the crime are always negatively chosen. Media outlets intentionally choose photos that make these criminals look bad and strike fear into the public, since they create a catchy cover. This sparked an outburst on the social media site Twitter in the summer of 2014, when an innocent Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer. The media used a picture of him posing as a gangster to cover the story, despite the fact that he was a graduate from Columbia Collage, and that the graduation photo was on the same page