In today’s society, the media can have a strong influence on its viewers. From television to music, the media plays a pivotal role in our social realm. Some things that I have noticed is that the media depicts the African American society in a more negative view than there is positive. Of course you have very few good social media depictions of blacks, but however there are the majority negative assumptions that overrule the good. Certain things such as music, music videos, and reality shows are taking over the social views for African Americans. My biggest concern is why the medias portrayal of blacks is so stereotypical to the point that it makes our people, and outside races believe that this is who we are. In this paper, I will be discussing is how the portrayal of African Americans in the media have an effect on Blacks self-image. Some issues that I will be addressing will come from different aspects of the media and how they relate to our people as a whole.
African American Women & Reality TV Shows
In this world of fiction portrayed by reality, what is the message being sent to those in the community and the rest of the world? The stereotypes of Black women are predominate in the media today. Shows such as Love & Hip Hop, Basketball Wives, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Bad Girls Club, and now the new show Sorority Sisters, play a pivotal role in the negative depiction of African American women. When watching these reality television shows, it’s very sad that this is what society and the media thinks about our black women. They think we fight and throw drinks out in public, date and have sexual relationships with these rappers and basketball players, or worst—being stupid in love and looking like a fool over men. And the worst thing about it—a black woman is a producer for most of these shows. (Mona Scottt). I think it is quite disrespectful for our black women to be on T.V representing us like this. It is pure ignorance to watch, and to know that others really think this is how we act on a daily basis. Other races think we are drama filled and are angry black women who are broadcasting our complicated lives and mediocre success on television.
So let me break this down on why this is such a serious issue for blacks with the social concept for the media. Reality shows are supposed to show the “reality” of one owns lifestyle. And with the reality of these T.V shows it is now promoting the racial stereotypes that come about with these multiple reality shows of Black women. Now a days, it’s very seldom that you see shows promoting positive images of blacks. Shows like The Cosby Show, In a Different World, Good Times, The Jefferson’s, Fresh Prince of Bel- Air, and The Bernie Mac Show promoted the positive image of African Americans. It showed African American children coming from two parent homes, successful couples such as lawyers, doctors, and professors, and a great upbringing of African American families.
Even the young black men were portrayed positively by going to college or working. Television back in the day didn’t focus on the negative images of blacks men. It seems as if now when we watch BET, VH1, or MTV, black men are being characterized as being violent, lazy, or dead beat baby daddy’s with multiple girlfriends and drama filled women surrounding them. Is this really what society thinks about our men? Is this really how the media depicts our black men as a whole? These so called “reality” shows don’t focus on the black educated men who are in college, the ones who have good paying careers, or the ones who give back to their community, but yet show the ones who are in jail or fighting a law case on TV.
Within the Television aspect of the social realm, the solution to how this can be resolved consists of several things. According to the Washington post article written by Krissah Thompson entitled: Essence: Black Women still poorly Depicted in Media, “Black women haven’t really defined themselves.” That statement alone is the forefront issue when it comes to these television shows, and the same applies to our black men. We have not really defined individuality, and our worth. As Blacks in America, we have not claimed our self-image and what we feel should be depicted on television, and not what the media thinks. If you notice, majority of shows with other races depict the happy families and their success without the negativity being portrayed. Shows like The George Lopez Show, describes a Latino family with a great upbringing, and not sabotaging the image of their Latino culture. Other white shows do the same exact thing—focusing on the positive, and hiding the negative attributes of their race. But for some reason, the black community has to be faced with all of the bad stereotypical concepts.
The real reality of all of this is that we need to make decisions for ourselves and how we want our race to depicted on national or global television and not what a producer feels will make them the most money or give them the most rating by making us look like fools. With this solution being considered by blacks as a whole, it will ease the influences of our younger generations to think it is okay for this to be acceptable. Younger black women who are being exposed to the reality world of T.V are likely to not only see these negative stereotypes but to make them a common practice in their everyday lives. There will be a higher tendency for them to think these negative depictions on blacks made on T.V is okay to continue to do. With the continuation of these reality shows pinpointing the bad sides of our race, and nothing being done about it, then blacks will continue to be criticized and stereotyped based off of what is produced on television.
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