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African-Americans in the Media Have you ever wonder why African-American males are usually drug dealers, pimps, convicts, or even a father with multiple children and is a deadbeat father? Or why does an African-American female have to be man-less, on well-fare with multiple children with different baby daddies, or even sometimes on the screen shaking her ass? Well to me this is exactly how most movies, television shows, music, and magazines portray African-Americans. The media portrays African-Americans in a stereotypical manner.
Even though there may be some truth in these portrayals, they are sometimes unrealistic and unfair. The media presents African-Americans in a stereotypical fashion. These medias focus on the negatives rather than showing the positives uplifting of African-Americans. Even though these stereotypes have gotten better, they still continue to be presented in some of the medias. African-Americans in the media are seldom portrayed in a pleasing aspect. In particular is television. Some shows glamourize these ideas of African Americans being thuggish, violent, loud, rude, and uneducated.
These portrayals create lasting impressions. Images such as these influence and affect the African-American youth. Sometimes they even take pride in these depictions. There is rarely an effort to portray African-American as successful human beings in films or on television. So to me most Americans don’t really know the true African-Americans Whenever African-Americans get the chance to appear in magazines they are usually athletes or entertainers. It is true that images of African-Americans are mostly used to portray images of poverty such as in Time Magazine.
A majority of African-Americas do not fit these harsh images. I myself am an African-American woman, and I know plenty of African-Americans that do not fit or match these stereotypes portrayed in the media. No I am not saying that African-Americans are always portrayed in negative aspects, but I’m just saying they are mostly depicted into these stereotypes in the media. Instead of showing images of gangsters I think that maybe if the media portrayed images of other hardworking, respected, and successful individuals, that perhaps these stereotypes would stop.
Movies such as Tyler Perry’s movie Madea, is characterized as loud, aggressive, and always caring a gun, only reinforce these stereotypical personas. These inaccurate portrayals leave lasting impressions on people who sometimes find them to be true. Because the media such as films and television programs show few positive portrayals of the African-American community, they should try and focus more on the positives of African-Americans and the real them. A majority of African-Americans live above the poverty line and not all African-Americans are convicts, pimps, drug dealers, loud, or live in the ghetto.
Although these negatives portrayals harm the impression of African-Americans to others around the nation, these medias do have the right to freedom of speech, creating the right for them to exsist and expression any portrayal they want. The media plays a big role in our lives. In conclusion the media portrays African-Americans in a very unflattering stereotypical manner. Sometimes African-Americans even reinforce and take pride in these stereotypes and I believe that the media will continue to express these stereotypes of African-Americans.