Stereotype and Prejudice

During class, we watched this Youtube video that portrayed how often these criminal suspects are being described as “black male or African American male” in the news media. I don’t find this strange because almost every crime alert that I heard has something to do with a black male suspect. Connecting to our Thursday’s activity about Trayvon Martin, who was shot to death by, a neighborhood watcher, George Zimmerman because he was wearing a dark color hoodie. After reading about this tragic news, I was annoyed by the stereotypes that Zimmerman holds. At the same time, it makes me to worry about wearing a dark color hoodie out at night in the future. Because of these stereotypical issues that keep happening in our society and the way that the media portrayed each news report, we are mostly likely to become prejudice and being stereotypical on some race problems, which studies have shown proven results. For example, in the article (Caucasian Viewer’s Memory of Black and White Criminal Suspects in the News) by Mary Beth Oliver, the experiment was conducted to examine the memories that the Caucasian viewers have on Black and White Criminal Suspects in the news. The results have shown from this study that people identified black suspects as the murderer even though the white suspect is actually the murderer. With that being said, the concept of social cognition in the article is important to explain why we often identified black male as the criminal suspect even when he/she is not (Entman, 1992). Social cognition is a schematic process that causes a person to identify someone based on what they already know. Therefore, it is not a surprise to say that the black suspect is the actual criminal.

Just Wash the Blackness Away

Anytime you're dealing with a topic such as race, there's always going to multiple sides to the argument. Most I understand, some I agree with, and others - like Bonilla-Silva, I believe take the argument a little too far. But there's very few arguments that actually stick with me, and when they do, it's one of those things that I can't stop thinking about.

After watching Ethic Notions, I couldn't stop thinking about minstrel shows and the portrayal of blacks in entertainment and advertising. Maybe it's because I'm ignorant, but I had never heard the term "minstrel" prior to Ethnic Notions.  And to be completely honest, I had never really thought about the role of blacks in entertainment and advertising during the 19th and 20th centuries. While I would like to say that I was surprised by the examples shown throughout the film, that just wasn't the case. White society didn't see anything wrong with they were doing, black face and mammy were just part of the culture.

Since these portrayals of blacks really piqued my interest, I've come across a few examples of minstrels outside those discussed in Ethnic Notions. The first, which of course I can't find a link to, was in the now-cancelled BBC show Copper. In one of the episodes of season two, there is a minstrel show occurring in the middle of the market, and of course the musicians are in black face. While this is a minor part of the episode, I think it's inclusion lends itself to the role of minstrels during this time.

A better example I've come across is an entire Thought Catalogue article dedicated to examples of racism in old advertisements. The article itself doesn't discuss minstrels or mammy, many of the 41 advertisements certainly do. Written by Nico Lang, 41 Mind-Blowing Racist Vintage Ads You Need to See is not at all mind-blowing. As a matter of fact, it's exactly what I expected it to be - tasteless and racist. Just look at the example below, a seemingly harmless ad for soap is implying blacks are dirty,   but Pears' Soap can make them clean just like the whites. Shocking? No. Shameful? Absolutely.

Trayvon and his hoodie

I'm aware that we already had a pretty lengthy discussion of this in class, but I feel that I should explain some of the points I made because I felt like I was the only one who agreed with the Geraldo Rivera even in the least bit.  Now let me make this clear, what happened to Trayvon is a tragedy and I realize that it's a touchy subject for some so I really hope this doesn't come off in the wrong way.  That being said, what Rivera is saying, at least in my opinion, holds ground and I don't agree with the amount of criticism he got for it.  We saw first hand in the video that was shown on Tuesday how often the suspect of a crime, at least as presented by the news media, is a black man in a dark hoodie.  As far as the average, news watching person is concerned black men in dark hoodies are the prime suspects in most crimes.  Do I think that this is a fair and just assumption to make?  Absolutely not.  A white man wearing a football jersey is just as likely to commit a crime as a black man wearing a dark hoodie, however, the news media rarely describes a suspect like the former.  So because of this constant mentioning of a black man in a dark hoodie committing crime that is presented by the news a stereotype is formed, one that we may or may not use ourselves even if we don't notice it.  So much so to the point where Zimmerman felt the need to confront Trayvon based solely on the assumption that since he was wearing a dark hoodie with his hood up that he was up to no good.  As I stated in our discussion how many people think any of this would have happened if Trayvon was wearing a shirt with a Hawaiian pattern on it?  I, for one, don't think it would have, and that's because you don't hear about people in Hawaiian shirts committing crime on the news.  However, if there was a recent spree of crime committed by people wearing floral patterns then I'm sure that people wearing those types of shirts would be suspected unfairly and unjustly in the same way that Trayvon was suspected.  In a way, I think that the news media is just as responsible for Trayvon's death as anyone.  Obviously they weren't the ones who pulled the trigger, but they were the ones who planted the seed of suspicion in Zimmerman's mind.  This is just my opinion and I in no way intended to offend or piss anyone off, so please just leave it as that.

The Cycle of the News

For every controversial crime, someone is going to make a ridiculous accusation or an absurdly inappropriate statement that will only exacerbate the problems that society is dealing with. With the case of Trayvon Martin, Geraldo Rivera said, “I think the hoodie is as much responsible for [his] death as George Zimmerman was.” Though an item of clothing should not be the topic of conversation regarding the death of a young teenager, and though Rivera’s insensitive statement should have never been said, he hinted at an important point (intentionally or unintentionally) regarding the selective nature of modern news broadcasting. The reasoning for stereotypes such as these existing in today’s society is not because of the article of clothing itself; it is because of the filtering done by news teams that funnel these stories to the public.

We have read several studies that vividly show the problems of the news when it comes to race-related controversies and criminal activity. The study conducted by Franklin D. Gilliam (University of California, Los Angeles) and Shanto Iyengar (Stanford University) found that 70% of participants recalled the suspect of a violent crime as black (13% recalled the suspect as white and 17% could not recall the suspect’s race). Something as simple as recalling the race of a possible perpetrator already sees polarized numbers in the statistical findings. This all begins with the news – the main reason that much of these stereotypes exist.

The news works in a very cyclical manner. When one incident occurs, anything that follows a similar pattern will be broadcasted to the masses. This creates a trend in the news stories, thus, establishing stereotypes among the citizens; then it repeats over and over again. When a stereotype is created, it is difficult to get the masses to change their perception of that particular race. Unfortunately, the news has focused on stories relating to the "African American in the hoodie" and it has become recognized by parts of society. While I do not think it is at all justified to say what Rivera said, in his defense, his view seems to be suggesting that society should not play into widely recognized stereotypes in order to avoid conflict. If the news displays an overused stereotype in a story, it is prompting people to think that particular stereotype is true – even when it is not remotely close to the truth. If the news insists on promoting this stereotype, people begin thinking with that mindset because that is all that is being told to them. Sadly, that is the world that we live in. There are now deadly consequences for non-criminal activity due to poor judgment by members of society. 

Marissa Alexander and destructive social media

When I read this article, I didn't know what to think. According to the judge on the case, she wasn't granted a new trial because of the clearly feasible 'Stand Your Ground' defense. Instead, they are re-starting this whole rigmarole because the jury put the burden on her to prove self-defense.

 Now, that seems like a bit of a contradiction to me. She doesn't have to prove self-defense, but she's still being prosecuted for standing her ground? All I can say is, I hope that this new chance will prompt another examination of the evidence with a better result.

But it wasn't the trial back-and-forth that really struck me though. Alexander's prosecuting attorney, Angela Corey, -also the prosecutor for the infamous Zimmerman case- made a very interesting comment. Her reply to the outcry against the racist undertones of the case was that "...social media is going to be the destruction of this country."

There are a lot of things I could say about that quote, but first of all, I think it's a great example of color-blind racism.

Corey's frustration over the 'outcry' across social media suggests a distinct tendency towards minimization. Why would she protest it? Because she thinks too much is being made over an apparently cut-and-dried matter. This also suggests denial that a 'racial double standard' of the Zimmerman and Alexander cases exists.

Now, she could simply be expressing frustration over the media hype that both cases have garnered. However, as prosecuting attorney in two racially significant cases, I think she should be asking herself why the response to both verdicts has been so explosive, instead of writing off public opinion as a destructive force.

Jonathan Ferrell

After reading Tressie McMillan's article "Whistling Vivaldi Won't Save You", I was shocked and disgusted mainly by two things: the fact that this had actually happened, and the fact that it was not on the front page of every newspaper and news website and brought to the public's attention. The fact the stereotype of "the dangerous black man" is so engraved in our culture that it went as far as ending an innocent man's life should be a red flag that dramatic changes need to take place in our society.

The theory that Gilliam discusses in his article, "Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public" supports the idea that we may rely too heavily on stereotypes, or believe that what we see in the news or pop culture is the complete truth. Gilliam discusses how on the news, whites are primarily seen as the victims and blacks are primarily seen as the perpetrators, even though this does not reflect statistics of everyday life. If this is all people see on the news, naturally they are going to believe this is true if they have no other knowledge. The woman who called the police, frantic, believing that Ferrell was trying to break down her door, made an extremely poor judgement call. Instead of doing the humane thing and seeing what was wrong, (which she then would have found out about the car crash Ferrell was in) she decided to play off of stereotypes. I honestly believe that if Jonathan Ferrell was a white man who had been in the same car crash and went to the same house for help, he would not have been shot ten times. This story shows the extremely sad reality  that stereotypes do play an extremely integral role in our culture, and that people still rely on these stereotypes to live their lives.

Divided By

Going along the lines of what we were discussing this week about how the imagery of that we see on television affects our interpretation of the outside world, and color-blind racism I saw a very interesting documentary on PBS that was actually about the 22 ward in Chicago, which is the ward I just so happen to live in.  The documentary focused on the division that existed between the neighborhoods of North Lawndale, which is primarily black, and Little Village (my neighborhood), which primarily Mexican.  The Little Village church and North Lawndale church established a relationship with each other in the hopes of bringing the two neighborhoods closer together, and in doing so brought out a lot of the things that people never wanted to say.  From what they had seen on television (cultivation theory) the Mexican community viewed the black community as violent and unwelcoming to outsiders but the black community viewed them the same way.  The Mexican community was afraid of the blacks and vice-versa and the cause for this fear was mostly attributed to what was mostly based on what was seen on the evening news.  It’s pretty much what the Prime Suspects article was discussing about the idea of scripted news and the effects it has on the public.  I guess my point with this post is that what is seen on the news affects every racial group and begins to divide communities on lines that are only partially true.  Latinos and blacks are the most harshly discriminated group in the country right now but the news even has them fearing each other.  In the documentary that I was watching both communities were able to find a lot of common ground and the people that attended the meetings got along well enough, but the fact still remains that the scripted news cycle that places blacks and latinos as perpetrators of crime has given them a poor image not just amongst whites but other minorities as well.

My questions to you all are:  How is it possible that no one (aside from us, and the scholars we examine) else can see the harm that comes from the constant usage of black and latinos as perpetrators of crime on the news?

Why are these communities be so complacent about the ways in which they are portrayed by the media?

Television Today

Prime Time television news enforce the fact that we do not live in a post racial society. When we watch the news all it brings up is crime. It is usually about shootings, murders, car accidents, and there is never good news when the news is on. Whenever we see the news it usually brings up racial minorities as the problems and they are inflicting harm on Whites. Even in the Dixon article it is clear that African Americans are overrepresented. If we live in a post racial society the news would not target African Americans or other ethnic groups. Very rarely do we hear about Whites as the perpetrators. That is a problems because crime is everywhere and it does not matter a person's race everyone is a perpetrator or a victim. People think that race no longer exists but the news separate race and define a person based on the color of their skin and not how they are as a person. When we hear about a crime the person's race is the first thing we hear about.

When the news blame African Americans and Latinos it can enforces racial stereotypes. Which can enforce our schemas of what our idea of what a criminal looks like or acts. The news enforcing this in our head and because of that it is hard for us to change our perceptions.

Do you think that the news will ever change the way they tell stories?
Do you think the news will stop using race as a way to define the perpetrator?

2014 Miss America

The recent 2014 Miss America Pageant Contest became a hot topic in the online discussion forum due to the winner who was crowned is an Indian American. Critics from the audience are not about blaming on her talents or her appearance, but they are critiquing her skin color and her ethnic background. Because of her skin color and ethnic background, she has been described as a “terrorist”. Personally, I think this is an extreme act of racism because of the 911 terrorist attacks.  A question always come across my mind is “what if those people in the terrorist attack are not from the Middle Eastern Countries, will people now still act the same if those people come from another race?”. Some people have a strong reaction on this contest because they believe that Miss America should be a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, which is what they considered Miss American. In our reading, Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components, one of the concepts that came up is automatic information processing. This concept can be greatly connected with the whole criticism of the winner in Miss America Pageant 2014 because the people in America already have a general visualization of what a typical Miss America should be. In terms of automatic information processing, people's mind automatically tells them what a white American is; therefore, a lot of people are against the result. However, some people strongly support Nina Davuluri as 2014 Miss America winner.  

Media, Pop Culture, and Gatekeeping

While reading Mastro's article, "The Portrayal of Racial Minorities on Prime Time Television", it made me think a lot about the programs I watch and the way minorities are represented in the media and pop culture.

Just thinking of some of the shows I watch regularly, like Friends, How I Met Your Mother, Breaking Bad, and HBO's Girls, all of these shows have extremely little (if any) minority representation. I recently stumbled upon an article that had photos of all the casts of the popular sitcoms over the last twenty or so years, including Seinfeld, Sex and the City, Friends, Frasier, Will and Grace, Mad About You, and countless others. The article begged the question, "Are there any black people in New York City?" While I haven't seen all these shows, I am an avid Friends and Will and Grace fan and I can only think of one instance out of both of these shows that a black person had a supporting role (Taye Diggs on Will and Grace in 2006). It is reasons like this that people look at sitcoms with an all black cast and find it so strange that it has an audience. I think that people look at shows like My Wife and Kids and The George Lopez show and think that it's a niche market, and only attracts a certain audience. Why can't these shows simply be accepted into the genre of family sitcoms, why do they have to be categorized according to race or the fact that they are "minorities"? This is a problem that needs to be fixed.

Expanding on this point, I also tried to think of news anchors or journalists that I watch on local news channels that are of Latino or African American descent, and I could not think of any. It's basically white people telling dangerous or scary stories about something that happened in a Chicago neighborhood that involved these minority groups. This perpetuates these stereotypes almost in a painfully obvious way. If all people ever see is white people reporting the news on how violent and dangerous minority groups are, of course people are going to associate that with ALL black people or ALL latino people. It's really quite a simple concept that the media chooses to ignore.

Pop culture and the media serve as gatekeepers to information about minority groups. As Mastro states in her article, "Minimal representation, in conjunction with possible stereotyping, would accentuate the probable impact of television on racial perceptions." If the media and the news start incorporating more diversity into their programming, the public won't adhere to the stereotypes of minority groups.

We Don't Know It Because We Don't Have to Know It

I was very intrigued by Tim Wise’s powerful speech. Perhaps the most stunning moment came when he referenced the war in Iraq. Here, Wise talks about how a young kid was giving our U.S. soldiers a thumbs-up sign and how our nation felt that was symbol of positivity, only to find out that a thumbs-up there is the equivalent of the middle finger here. He goes on to mention that a “five-year-old kid is punking our entire nation.” The statement that followed this description may have been the perfect summary to his entire speech: “We don’t know it because we don’t have to know it.”

“The glory is ours” and “the debt is not ours” are both relative quotes to Wise’s argument on how naïve we can be – and he is justified in saying that. What this speech made me realize is that we are living in such an ethnocentric society to the point that we are oblivious to our surroundings unless they directly impact our personal lives. This is a major problem.  How are we supposed to move towards a future with more understanding if we solely believe that our actions are the only justified actions and those of others are meaningless? There is no room to grow as a racially unified nation.

Wise raised awareness that needs to be heard by the masses. If we continue to hold an elitist attitude in life and refuse to acknowledge the lifestyles of other cultures and other races, progress for equality will ultimately be impossible. Among all of these differences and the refusal to acknowledge and accept different lifestyles and ideologies, how does one start the immense project that is the search for a peaceful environment of true acceptance? 

Is Racism Under Cover?

Oppression, racial inequality, and segregation are no longer alive since the decline of the Jim Crow racism, which resulted in a non-racist world, where blacks and whites are equally accepted, right?  Wrong. 

Laissez-Faire Racism:  The Crystallization of a Kinder, Gentler, Antiblack Ideology describes a more modern and acceptable form of racist than the Jim Crows laws (also referred to symbolic racism).

Instead of a more overt form or racism, a hands off approach has been structured to justify racism in the US.   Laissez-Faire is to blame blacks themselves for the black-white gap in socioeconomic tendency.

Laissez-Faire racism emerged to defend white privilege, while explaining black disadvantage (pg. 22). 

Truth is that we can’t cover the sun with one thumb.  In other words, assuming that the issue is fixed by claiming that racism no longer exists is simply ignoring the racial inequalities that still persist today.We can’t pretend that minorities of color are no longer being prejudiced against and that we are in the same plain field as the whites.

In a very powerful video, Tim Wise gave the example of the time he asked a police officer what he thought when he saw a black male driving a brand new sports car in his neighborhood.  According to Wise, the police officer responded that he would automatically think that he was drug dealing.   On the other hand, when Wise asked him what he would think if the driver was white, the cop said he would think he was a spoiled brat whose father bought him a car.  

Although the police officer was not being overtly racist, the persistent negative stereotypes of people of color are still existent.  The officer's response demonstrated how minorities and whites are not in the same plain field because people of color are just not supposed to be financially capable of buying a sports car with legal income, while their white peers are.  

Covert racism is also demonstrated in the comments of news stories.  In a recent Chicago shooting, one person commented, “Maybe the black "community leaders" should quit blaming white folks for everything and start by cleaning up their own black on black violence.” 

This reflects the ideology of Laissez-Faire, which blames blacks themselves for social-economic inequality in the black-white gap. 

I can think of a dozen other examples where covert racism is present (Trayvon Martin anyone? Because let's face it--things would have been different if Martin had been white), but I'm interested in seeing your examples.

Do you agree that racism, although no longer as overt as it was in the past, is still present?  Can you think of any examples, where racism is still lingering? Are there any personal examples?