Digital Media Literacy
James is one of my African American friend who has told me severally on the different stereotypical profiling he gets as being violence. James is one of the victims of this stereotype within the social media platform. This construction is a multifaceted combination of stereotypes and real social problems that cannot and should not be solved without proper evaluation. As some would use arrest or incarceration rates for African Americans as a reason of such numbers they do not consider racism within the police and justice system as well as other factors such as socio-economic status within the black community.
This stereotype construction in the media is complex and often hidden. For example, news media has been found to more often portray African Americans in criminal roles than depict them in other roles. Television news portrays Blacks suspects as threatening compared to Whites in the same suspect profile; the author says that the media portrays more images about Black suspect accused of crimes compared to other Whites (News, 2023). Thus, such a visually determined stereotype undoubtedly will have an impact on the public’s beliefs and cognitive attitudes, ranging from employment to interpersonal relations.
Despite the improvements in the last years, stereotype representations are still present. For instance, the movie titled Queen & Slim, released in 2019, tells an articulated story of the black people’s sufferings and policed killings (Kang, 2019). It still depends on the narrative of a Black man on the run from the police, which might just perpetuate the stereotype that Black men are criminals, even as it indicts the systems that produce it. This stereotype remained in media and may provoke important questions about the representation and who is telling the story. As James has noted, Black men remain marginalized in day-to-day television and film programing range of activities of black males including education, careers, family and politics.
Such a construction can be extremely toxic and lead to genuine problems that go far beyond the sphere of media. There is no doubt that police brutality, racial profiling, and continued racism benefit from the idea of the ‘armed Black man.’
Exploring real advantages from this toxic stereotype is difficult but there are those who claim that recognizing those biases helps to drive significant social justice movements and conversations. For example, the Black Lives Matter movement has enlightened people to matters of police brutality as well as racism. However, it is worth stressing that the discussed potential ‘‘benefits,’’ are purchased at the lowest possible cost to the Black people’s and communities’ well-being and safety. However, the overall effect of this stereotype will for the most part continue to be clearly detrimental. They keep people of color and the white community living in fear, distrusting each other, and enclosed in categories that are difficult to bridge. It shuts the door on Black men in numerous areas of life and is part of a nearly insurmountable chain of negative effects.
Challenging this detrimental media construction must be done in multiple methods. The upsetting reality therefore requires more diverse people of color in production and other decision-making capacities, while media consumers must be educated about how to decode media messages. Promoting and elevating real stories of Black males mitigates clichéd and stereotypically skewed impression presented to society.
References
Kang, I. (2019, November 25). An Oscar for Queen & Slim Would Almost Make Up for Green Book. Slate Magazine; Slate. https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/queen-and-slim-review-movie-daniel-kaluuya-bonnie-clyde.html
News, P. (2023, September 27). Majority of Black Americans see racist or negative depictions in news media, new study finds. PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/majority-of-black-americans-see-racist-or-negative-depictions-in-news-media-new-study-finds
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