Robert Entman And Rojecki's The Black Image In The White Mind

In Marlon Riggs’ 1992 documentary film titled Color Adjustment, Riggs, the Emmy winning producer of Ethnic Notions, continues his studies of prejudice in television. The documentary film looks at the years between 1948 and 1988 to analyze how over a 40 year period, race relations are viewed through the lens of prime time entertainment. The film examined many of television’s stereotypes and mythes and how they changed over the years.

Most Americans are afraid of African Americans. Why, we ask? Most of us don’t know why we do, is it their physical appearance or is it the fact that they have a different skin tone? In Chapter 5: Black Men of The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner, Glassner argues that the media exaggerates the excessive attention paid to African-Americans (Glassner 109). Throughout the chapter, Glassner exposes us to secrets and truths about how the media makes us fear African-Americans, they feed us irrelevant information that make it seem like blacks are still a lower class and therefore treating them like they are still slaves. The media influences our minds so much that we perceive black people like animals. In the world today we still face

The “13th” is a documentary about the American system of incarceration and the economic forces behind racism in America especially in people of color. One of the claims that the author mentioned is that today incarceration is an extension of slavery. It is also mentioned that most of the time in society we are defined by race. In the documentary, we can see how African Americans are sentenced for many years since they are too poor to pay their fines or sometimes most of these people plead guilty to get out of jail fast. However, African Americans are separated from their families and also treated inhumanly in prisons just because they are of a particular race. Another claim is that African Americans are overrepresented as criminals in the news. Therefore, the news expresses “fear” to the white community toward black communities.

Moreover, lack of diversity of racial/ethnic minorities is evident in Hollywood film and Television. The hegemony of actors in film and television are white males followed by white females. Characters played by People of Colour often lack dimension, playing only stereotypical one-dimensional roles. As quoted by Erigha (2015), “Stereotypes portray groups in controlling ways, labelling some groups and their perspectives as socially normative and others as deviant, troubled, and problematic”. As a result ideologies of race and stereotypes are sustained, as there are limited positive representations that subvert negative portrayals due to the lack of diversity in film and television. Despite multicultural demographics throughout the world, Hollywood film industries still cast white actors over People of Colour, even if the role was meant for them. For example in the 2015 film Pan, the character of Tiger Lily is described as a “Native-American daughter of a powerful chief” (Reilly 2014). However casting directors used white actress Rooney Mara for

Minorities in sitcoms were less portrayed in contrast to an accurate representation of the time period. Ironically, minorities in sitcoms were not always represented by minority actors and actresses. Sometimes makeup was used on a white actor so he could portray an African man. It was not until the 1950’s when African Americans were shown on television. African Americans were often portrayed as crooked people with poor English and less education. In the sixties, segregation and racism dominated in most social settings. In the seventies, most minorities were trying to deter from old beliefs of prejudicial ideas. In modern times, minorities have equal rights and respect to their white counterparts. Four sitcoms, Amos ’n’ Andy, Julia, Sanford and Son, and The Cosby Show depict how the role of minorities changed throughout different time periods.

Media misrepresentation of African Americans as an industry issue has been a major concern in our American culture; and is also a component of media bias in the United States. Unfortunately, the media representation of minorities has not always been in a positive light. Instead there has been publicized, controversial and misconstrued images of who African Americans truly are. Since the mass media is an important source of information about African Americans and their image, it influences the public perception and reinforce opinions about African Americans. Typically, these opinions are unfavorable and highlight negative stereotypes associated with African Americans. Sadly, the overrepresentation of white characters in American culture contributes

Within America, there are a lot of citizens that consider themselves “color blind”. In talks of race, we often see people who are only for one race, people for all cultures and different ethnic groups, or people who consider themselves. Since the 2016 presidential campaign, we have started to see American citizens true colors (violence within Trump’s rallies). While researching this topic one may ask themselves ‘Does Race Matter?’ If the answer is no then why do we continue to see images of races outside of the White race being discriminated against, stereotyped, and destroyed in the media?

Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New

Not only is this stereotype and exclusion prevalent in primetime television, but, much more seriously, in our newspapers and television newscasts as well. Authors Steinhorn and Diggs – Brown state that “Even though most violent crimes are committed by people the same race as their victims, one 1994 study of local TV newscasts in Chicago found that the majority of perpetrators portrayed in the news were black or persons of color, while the majority of victims shown were white.” (154). This leads one to maybe see a causal effect of the wide-spread panic about black males being criminals that need to be feared and bewared whenever they are come into contact with. They also sited a different study that “found that the percentage of blacks

Current movie industry is very critical about every detail of the film; producers are especially thorough during the actors’ selection process. Thus, because of commonly known stereotypes, great actresses that are capable of a whole spectrum of roles are clearly put in frames and often rejected. I believe, long-established degrading stereotypes play the major role in this pause of the development of black women in media, as a result of their continuous degrading

Blacks representation in the media is continuously negative. Whether they are being portrayed as slaves, thugs, criminals, violent, animalistic, etc. Blacks are overly represented as criminals in the media. George H.W Bush

There is a group that is frequently misrepresented and discriminated within American society. That group is the black community. African Americans, though having more rights than ever before, are still greatly stereotyped through media, in a negative and an undesirable manner. When I say the words African American most people think of crime, violence, drugs and watermelon, to name a few. “Straight Outta Compton” by the N.W.A. enforces the negative stereotype of African Americans through promoting narcotics, guns, and murder. Though within recent times, some media has begun to counter these negative portrayals of African Americans such as the hit T.V show “Empire” that effectively captures the success of the people within the black community.

For the past few months, you have probably noticed something similar showing up on your television: riots. Recently, black people across America have been rioting and protesting the deaths of black people at the hands of police. They’re angry that the police get to go free after causing the death of one of these black people. However, if you look closely at the way the media words these riots, you’ll notice a discrepancy between these riots and riots caused by white people. This discrepancy of words keeps racism alive and well in today’s America.

Mass media teaches Caucasian Americans how to perceive African Americans and has significantly attributed to the oppression and discrimination of blacks. They choose to solely focus on acts of crime, drug abuse,

Despite its origins, the black community has continued to allow and even encourage colorism to segregate others within our race, aided by Hollywood’s oppression of darker skinned characters and favorability of individuals with lighter complexions for a more diverse range of roles. By doing so, the media now “glorifies the White standard of beauty in women, and demonizes dark skin for men, may