Media and Racism

In a segment entitled Digital Life on NPR, hosts Michel Martin with Anna Holmes, editor in chief of Jezebel.com, and Terence Samuel, editor of The Root.com, conducted a show dedicated to the increase in Online Racism reported following the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. According to the views expressed in the broadcast, online postings often get out of hand, often spewing racially offensive epitafths. In my observation and experience, racism is a major thread used to weave the fabric of this country. It, along with capitalism, are the foundation upon which the crux of this country has been built. Racism is the core of what America is all about. It is an inextricable component of the way in which this country is governed. Just look at the alarmingly disproportionate amount of black men incarcerated in prisons across America in comparison to their white counterparts for committing the same offenses as an example. Where most scenarios are concerned, I weigh in on the side of positivity and hope, choosing to see the proverbial glass half-full; however, with regard to the question of whether or not media in ll of its forms contribute to racism in America, I am a realist and emphatically say yes, it does. Furthermore, as unfortunate as this is, until there is a genuine desire on the part of white America to end racism, situations for people of color will remain an uphill battle. The people who make the decisions and decide what is and is not news are not black people. This lack of minorities in decision-making roles affects how well minorities are portrayed and perceived.

Media unquestionably fuels and funds this promulgation of racist ideas upheld as norms in American society. Radio and magazine advertising has helped promote racial and ethnic inequality in the United States by limiting minority visibility, exploiting minority consumers and perpetuating stereotypes in the ads themselves. An example of this would be the advertising done by cigarette companies. Cigarette advertising in most magazines surged in the 1970s when tobacco companies withdrew from radio and television in compliance with FCC-mandated Fairness Doctrine messages to the American Cancer Society and other health organizations. By the early 1990s, cigarette companies were shifting their focus away from the educated, affluent readership favored by many magazines and toward low-income women and minorities. While this trend may have boosted advertising revenues for some minority magazines, it was clearly not in the best interests of their readers' health. I am an avid reader of black magazines like Essence, Ebony, and Jet and I see the way in which cigarettes, particularly Newports are portrayed with images of black people as sexy, good, and of no consequence. Advertisers who once shunned minority audiences have proven themselves all too willing to exploit them.

Do not misconstrue my interpretation: I am by no means saying that all white people are racist. Clearly, they are not; however, all white people simply by way of being white benefit from racism, even if it is by default. They enjoy a very real white privilege that many feel is their God-given right because they know nothing else. Media, in all it's venues, promotes the wrongly upheld notion that being white is inherently better than being black, In both my observation and my experience, the overwhelming majority of white people I've encountered throughout my life either turn a blind eye to racism and pretend like it doesn't even exist OR better yet, they ask me, as an intelligent, educated black women, to turn off my sensibilities and powers of observation when confronted with racism, in an effort to make them feel better about a system of oppression that their forefathers instituted and that they actively benefit from. I have real concerns with the media's role in creating perceptions about race and race relations. I think that the media can be, and really has been, very damaging as far as race relations are concerned.

Whites, on a whole, experience benefits simply because they are white. As black people in America, we learn everything about white people and many of their respective cultures and histories from the day we are born. A large part of this learning comes from the media. Yet, white people still can't distinguish whether or not my hair is braided or dreadlocked or if I wash my hair or "take it out" to wash it (whatever that means?!?!). There is a gaping disparity in awareness about what I, as a black woman in America, am about or have to endure. Does this on some level have to do with the media's denial of the portrayal of positive African-American images in it's movies, commercials, news broadcasts, magazines, and billboards? I believe it does. Racism comes in many overt and subversive forms, many of which are controlled by the media. People talk about the media as if it were something removed from them, something alien, when in fact, the media is simply a projection of our society. We have deep, profound, tragic problems with race relations in the media because we have deep, profound, tragic problems with race relations in this society.