Images Of African Americans In The Media

Images Of African Americans In The MediaThe mass media is a powerful obligate today in American pop finish. A haul of the images seen on idiot box, magazines, billboards, and on television take in lasting impressions. Some terms these impressions create a nix imp puzzle out. The media can be very destructive to guild. Many variant ethnic groups and cultures argon negatively affected by the content and images in the media. African Americans seem to be on the very top of that list.For several(prenominal) hatful in society, the solo time they get to see some opposite head for the hills is from the images portrayed through the media. America is populated with many distinguishable cultures and pelt alongs, often considered as the worlds largest melting pot. Learned ignorance with a combination of extra exposure and negative images creation the besides depiction seen in unalike atomic number 18as of the media lead to stereotyping of an entire race. Since the infancy of television and pertlyspaper, exposure of African Americans has been precisely or even non-existent. In the early times dusky culture in television and film were limited to demeaning and cruel depictions of char people as macrocosm submissive, docile, and unintelligent. Many scorch actors were and de attri scarcelyee to domestic roles, portrayed as savages, and new(prenominal) images that added to the stereo images of unappeasable people in that time in history. Blacks were rarely seen in news sharpens, newspapers, but it seemed to just be shown if they were committing crimes. The negative stereotypes of relentlesss in the media were a result of the lack of African Americans holding management positions in the media. Therefore a lot of the images macrocosm shown bootlegs had no control over. Even though there are so many negative images of blacks in the media, black entrepreneurs began showing positive images of their race and culture. In 1945, John H. Johnson, fou nder of Johnson Publishing Company, created Ebony Magazine. This is where he put an effort into displaying positive role models in the black community. In 1951, he crested Jet magazine to discuss the news in the black community that mainstream media ignored. People that read Jet and Ebony said they believrf their dreams could inject current after reading the stories of success of another(prenominal) African Americans, condescension what they saw in the media. Newspapers that were writing and organized by African Americans had a major cast in overcoming racial stereotypes in the media. In the 1980s, television started portraying positive images of blacks. Successful sitcoms like The Cosby Show, developed by beak Cosby showed that African Americans can be educated parents and raise triple-crown family in New York. At least a decade before that, Norman Lear developed a victorious family show called Good Times that showed Africans Americans try to make ends meet by staying a ap pearance from the danger that is associated with animateness in public housing. Even though black people do successful things they are still criticized. Those shows were successful as far as ratings but were still criticized about the characters in Good Times are limning blacks as poverty stricken. The success of the Cosby show and other positive black shows has changed drastically over the years.The negative and racial preferences in the media even influence our younger generation. All children in our society become aware of racial prejudice that is directed against their own race or others. Social compare starts from early school years. They ordinarily focus on characteristics like pelt color, to make social comparisons. It has been proven through several tests on adolescents in grade school their preferences on a particular race found on what they see in the media. One of researches was based on thwart dolls. This test indicated that children prefer snow-clad baby dolls be cause it was more popular on television commercials. Black baby dolls were rarely seen on TV or non-existent.Colorism is another major aspect that has been brought upon by the mass media. Colorism involves light shinny African Americans rejecting blacks who are darker skin toned. Colorism encompasses that dark -skinned African Americans discriminating against visible radiation skinned blacks for not being dark enough. This also includes issues involving hair texture, snapper color, and hair texture. It also involves discrimination among their own race on a persons complexion and physical characteristics. In the media, whether it be on television or in newspapers, it has been said that those with lighter complexions, are treated differently that darker African Americans. African American women in the mass media portray women as uninspired, mammies, matriarchs, benefit recipients, and jezebels. These images have been controlling images for a long time. The media displays demeanin g characteristics of black women being lazy and promiscuous. Today in society the images in women, especially black women, are disgusting. In music videos derogatory lyrics and compromising photos forces the community to bank that this is all what African women are all about. Black women are given(p) the most sexual and demeaning roles to promote and advertise products and albums for record labels. These types of images only when send out negative images that this is the only thing black women whop how to do. Black men are seen as drug users, violent and jobless beat fathers in the mass media. Music videos portray them also as thugs and uneducated. If convicted of a crime the news allow for often show a mug shot of a black male but will show a less offensive picture of a snow-clad male. Crime shows and movies will tend to show black males as the offender, being disrespectful , running from the police, and involved in hostile situations. The media tends to show this type of be havior over and over in the news or make in the newspaper more often than you would see a black male doing something positive for his community. This is why other black males are influenced by what they see because this is all they see and they study this is what they are supposed to do. When society is seeing the same behaviors being shown continuously then this creates the stereotypes of that race. They believe is this how ths race acts based on what they see on television and what they read. On the other hand, the same negative images by the media are turned around when it comes to ovalbumin females and males. White females are portrayed as victims of crimes and innocent. Forensic files television shows or cold case shows seem to show crimes that involved a white female as a victim, cases with black victims are not set as much. Another example of the media influencing or promoting racial stereotypes is in the movies. A lot of the movies that are about gang violence or living in urban areas focus on black males being incensed and committing crimes. For example, A film called Menace to Society, was produced by black men, and was a entirely negative display of African American Men. This movie focused only on the street carriage and made it seem like there is something good and honorable about being a thug and being involved in criminal activity. A lot of the movies portray black men as being nothing more than animals that have no brains and only engage in criminal activity. With these types of movies being on the market, it is only expected that society including other African Americans will believe and act out on what they see. The media constantly bombards us with negative images of African American males and females, and this is what encourages racial stereotypes. Unfortunately, people tend to believe what they see on TV. They believe that what they see on TV is the truth about the world and everybody in it. Those who believe what they see on televi sion have no other reference or personal life experience which to compare or contrast to make decisions about they see. Younger children tend to tone at the media to explore new things and see if they can relate to other things in the world. Television and the media has a way of stereotyping people, races, and cultures based on standardized roles and behaviors. This provides people with a broad idea and assumptions. The absence of minorities in the media may have children with the sense of not being worthy, worthy of attention, or respect.Despite the negative depictions in the media, African Americans have come a long way and have become very successful and powerful in society. African Americans have succeeded in becoming athletes, movie stars, and musical artist. They have succeeded in becoming police officers, nurses, and other professions. They have excelled in being spectacular mother and fathers and marriages are lasting. There is still the high statistics that show that Afr ican Americans are above all other races when it comes to being single parents and having confounded homes, but not everyone in that race is classed under those stereotypes. They are a lot of positive African American role models that we can look up to now.One African American family that everyone can look up to know as positive reinforcement is the Obama family. They have shown that black they are positive black families that can stick together and be successful. They have given American another way to view black families. They stereotypical views that blacks families always end destruction and wiped out(p) homes and the children become useless in society have come to end. There are a lot of black families that consist of the mother and father and both are successful in life. They media unfortunately dont show the positive side. He media tends to focus on the broken homes and terrible behaviors of kids that are split between the broken homes. Sadly, this is true but the black fam ily is not the only ones going through broken homes and having single parents. The Cosby Show was one of the first positive depictions of black families, but it was only a television show. Now the Obamas shows a real life portrayal of a happy successful African American family. commanding images of black fathers in the media are virtually non-existent. Black fathers are normally depicted has leaving their families and not supporting their children. They are mostly seen as worthless individuals who do not work and avoid taking accountability for their kids. There are a lot of black fathers who are diligent in their childrens lives but the media neglects to show that to America. Even on day time talk shows you will always see more than any other race black fathers disclaiming their kids and going through paternity test on national television. America loves nothing more but to find utilization in watching them demean their race. This display on television only adds fuel to the fire when we are watching black men deny their children. This only makes other races believe that black men are nonviable beat dads.Contrary to what is being shown on television, there are shows that show how many black men are being involved in their childrens lives. Many rap stars constantly show how much they love and harbor their children. Most of the time you will see them with their families on red carpeting events and now they are even making sitcoms that show their everyday lives with their families. With this new change in the media it is a refreshing look at how things are slowly changing.