The role that the media plays and has played in race has been of much discussion, especially in the recent years. The media impact our environments by influencing individuals’ beliefs and value systems and translates into how people relate to each other. It has been observed and studied that the information that the media presents to the public regarding a group of people soon grows into how the public develops what can be considered a skewed perception by some to understand the behaviors, expectations and image of others.
When the media represent Black men as criminal, dangerous and aggressive, then people perceive that Black men are those things. Not just some Black men, but all Black men. This is a stereotype that the media continues to reiterate. The figure below shows the proportion of each group saying one of the bolded items on the side occurred to them due to their race, ethnicity, or cultural background.
This figure illustrates how stereotypes and things that the media show to viewers affect the daily lives of individuals. An interesting finding that the poll also found was that 38% of Caucasians said they have been afraid for their personal safety due to their race or ethnicity versus 43% of blacks, 33% of Asians and 30% of Hispanics.
In a country that has been making an apparent effort, how do these forms of racism still seem to persist in our society? Why are acts of racism drawing so much attention to the media? Scholars Eve Tuck and Wayne Yang have suggested that this could be attributed to something called a “move to innocence.” Moves to innocence are the rhetorical moves that individuals use to distance themselves from genocide and colonization. The thought is that those who have privilege and power can just tell themselves that they are among the “good ones” of the population because they are not racist like the people in the videos.
Some argue that this issue is linked to others and has its historical roots. The media system, like the educational system, criminal-justice system and many other systems that currently exist in our nation, were not originally created to help people of color, but rather to suppress them. Throughout history, media outlets have constructed a racist narrative that dehumanizes our communities in support of an agenda that promotes and protects White supremacy. Even though there have been motions to change this and action taken to help resolve this issue, it has never been fully resolved due to the fact that the exact root of the problem has not ever been directly addressed. Addressing an issue of this large of a scale requires communication and thoughtful consideration as to how to best move forward and work towards eliminating this issue.