African American Stereotypes Paper

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 has fostered a distorted and pernicious public perception of African-Americans (Balkaran). In this paper I will look at some concerns about how African-American and people of color are portrayed and stereotyped in the media according to Balkaran and Orelus. Also, this paper will draw attention to the impact social media has reshaped religion and how we worship. I will conclude with a few trends that are reshaping religion according to Elizabeth Drescher.

Racism is defined

This racism we are seeing now in the media is a huge problem. Young men of color being shot down in the streets like animals; Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott and Laquan McDonald, to name a few. According to reports, they were aggressive or threating one 's life. It 's stated in an article by Orelus, that a great number of people believe people of color are aggressive, thugs or thieves. That maybe what they believe but in my opinion, it 's certainly not true. It 's how they have been portrayed or stereotyped in the media. The media has and will distort the truth. The book, "Bias," written by Bernard Goldberg, exposed how the media distort the news. Social media and cellphones has exposed the ones responsible for these senseless murders. Would we still be wondering what happened if it had not been for social media or the

There are five social media trends that are, according to Elizabeth Drescher, reshaping religion. She states in an article that for years Religionistas of all sorts have tried to navigate a new media in which old constructions of authority, identity and practice are changing almost by the minute. It 's worth while to take a look at some trends in social media that are reshaping religion and spirituality. 1) Social Prayer, there is an app on facebook called Pray Book. Friends are encouraged to pray for friends and users are asked to be consistent in their prayers for others. 2) Ministers-on-the-go, Location Based Service (LBS) use real-time geo-data from a mobile device or smartphone to provide information. As ministry continues to grow, believers and seekers shaped by digital culture expect mobile accessibility to everything. 3) O Holy App, there are over a half million apps available for ipad and iphone. Religious apps are clearly growing. There is an app for just about anything one could think of. 4) Curate a Curator, per Drescher, a survey tells that most Americans join social networks so that they can stay in touch with family, friends and other communities. 5) A Few New Commandments, in 2009, the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut was one of the first to offer social media guidelines on appropriate ministry behavior with minors. Recently, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop published social media guidelines similar to the tone of those from the