African Americans
Introduction
African Americans were racially discriminated in the 1980s in America by media houses. There were few features of the blacks and also few were employed in media houses. The blacks were brought out in movies that had great violence and crime to show the government fight to reduce crime. Women were minimally represented in the media and in films they were brought out to portray negative culture of the blacks. Advertisements featured the blacks only in images that were not captivating as the whites were brought out as people with good social class.
The United States media did not give the African Americans equal opportunities especially in televisions which portrayed great discrimination. The African Americans were portrayed as people who dangerous and violent mostly in televisions and newspapers. The African Americans when comparison was done against crime data, he African Americans had the highest number of perpetrators as compared to whites. There was also analysis that showed whites had police officers being overrepresented on the televisions. The blacks were portrayed in media as the most poor when compared to the whites who was biased information that aimed to undermine the blacks. In the reality, there were more poor whites than blacks who were poor but due to media discrimination, the information was not the reality especially I magazines that were published (Tukachinsky et al., 2017)., . Gross overrepresentation of the blacks as being the picture of poverty in America indicated the opposite of the reality. The reality was that the level of poverty for the whites was almost double that of the blacks but the magazines did not indicate that reality. The American movies and televisions promoted reinforcement of negative stereotypes which was an indication of inferiority for the blacks. In most cases, African Americans were brought out in media programs with occupations of blue collar jobs which were for the lowest class of people in the society. The whites were brought out as business owners and executives who offered employment to the blacks and also showed that the blacks depended on the whites for survival. Research indicated that the African Americans were given roles that portrayed lower socioeconomic status unlike their Anglo- Americans counterparts. The blacks did not get a chance to be brought out as either business owners or occupants of executive offices and those were only preserved for the whites.
The African Americans televisions brought out Africans as people with typical depiction of stereotypic characteristics that showed the personality of blacks was stupid, immoral, and comical and also they were people who lacked honesty (Snead-Greene & Royster, 2018). The negative images portrayed on television and also films indicated propagated conversion that led to negative impact on the sub conscious mind, and also leads to negative psychological shape of the person who makes an observation on the images. The media coverage of the blacks led to significant effect on the American students having negatively influenced messages towards the blacks. The images were brought out as the main reason for increase in growth of stereotypes. It has been realized that participation of blacks in media has been significantly low. Additionally, the number blacks who owned stations were minimal since the capital access was lower compared to the blacks. Racism was high in southern communities which resulted to minimal number of media representations.
The blacks were viewed negatively by the whites and there the televisions could not capture more audience as compared t the whites. Blacks were also highly underrepresented in the video games as active players as white dominance was high. Programs that required experts to make comments in media saw white dominance as the blacks were rarely consulted which showed significant discrimination. The only media representation where blacks dominated in the media was where there was negative media coverage which portrayed them as an evil group without morals (Coleman, 2018). In the movies, the successful characters were always the whites as blacks were not even brought out as people with successful families and successful life. The blacks were always brought out as sympathetic characters that lived in the background as whites were brought out living lavish lives which were not the truth in reality. In events of criminality, the blacks were brought out by the media as greater threats to the communities while whites rarely appeared which showed the blacks as dangerous people in the American society. In the entertainment industry, the blacks were brought out negatively where their images showed evil cultural activities and extreme poverty with great violence as a form of entertainment while there were minimal images of the whites associated with such images.
African American Women
The whites were also brought out as victims in the movies of the blacks especially the females with false stereotypes being depicted regarding the violence white females suffered in the hands of the blacks. This increased the rate of displayable of blacks as law breakers promoting more racial discrimination in the entire world. In advertisements, the whites dominated in advertising luxurious things and showed their expensive life as the blacks came in adverts that were filled with violence and crime. The blacks were also depicted as people who could not live an independent life without dependence on the white. The black women were minimally represented in the media as they were minimally represented as they were brought out as full dependants of men (Anderson, 2019). This images discouraged women to take roles in media due to fear discrimination and male dominance. For almost three decades, there was minimal representation of women in the media and those that were represented were brought out in slavery which conveyed the acceptable activities of women. Black women were portrayed in translation of maternal figures that were asexual. Black women were also brought out as angry and hostile who abused men through insults and disobedience. In some movies, black women were brought out as vessels that satisfied the sexual needs of white males and majorly justified rape of the black women. Historical stereotypes mainly led to dominance of modern stereotypes who could commit all sorts of evils just to get money. Black women were also used in the music industry as being hypersexual and were brought out as dancers who were exotic with provocative dressings with increase in lyrics and videos that portrayed Africans as sexists.
As the media dominated African Americans with negative aspects the perception also changed towards the blacks and they were viewed as dependants who could not live on their own. The blacks were highly used in the media to show increase in crimes in America as they were portrayed as the creators of violence. There was also increase in racial crimes where the blacks were majorly featured which portrayed black people as a threat to the world security. Cases of rapes, defilement and killings were associated with the blacks and were highly aired in the televisions but the whites who committed even worse crimes were rarely brought in to the media. The youths were portrayed as the major number of drug abusers and traffickers who were viewed as societal threat to the communities they lived in. Movies that were acted with drug trafficking and substance use majorly had more black characters than the whites who were brought out commenting destructive crimes( Mastro, 2017). Such movies created a bad impression of the blacks and led to more discrimination and violence. The whites were brought out as homicide victims in local televisions and the blacks as the criminals. The media also brought out the blacks as the most in the prisons which indicated that they had the highest levels of crimes and also showed they rarely valued a peaceful environment. All this aspects were brought out to promote discrimination among the African Americans
Conclusion
Blacks in America were always dominated as inferior groups in the media and always were brought out as criminals and inferior groups. The media houses in America rarely featured blacks with better life than their male counterparts but always brought them as living in great poverty. Women were portrayed in media negatively as sexists and as dependants of males for survival. Youths on the other hand were portrayed as the most drug traffickers and promoters of crime. The media also rarely featured blacks especially when they sought for opinions on certain matters as they were seen as uneducated.
Anderson, C. L. (2019). Opioids Are the New Black. DePaul L. Rev., 69, 55.
Coleman, R. R. M. (2018). African Americans and Broadcasting. A Companion to the History of American Broadcasting, 389.
Mastro, D. (2017). Race and ethnicity in US media content and effects. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication.
Snead-Greene, C. D., & Royster, M. D. (2018). Popular Media Portrayal of Imprisoned Black Women. In Caged Women (pp. 82-92). Routledge.
Tukachinsky, R., Mastro, D., & Yarchi, M. (2017). The effect of prime time television ethnic/racial stereotypes on Latino and Black Americans: A longitudinal national level study. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(3), 538-556.