The Perpetuation of Negative Images of African Americans through Mass M

The Perpetuation of Negative Images of Afri stinker Americans done Mass Media Works Cited Not IncludedWhy as fresh people ca-ca we been lulled into thinking its safe to be around separate duster people. Why have we been taught since birth that its the people of that an separate(prenominal) color we need to fear? Theyre the ones that will slit your throat (Moore 57). The mass media has played and will happen to play a important role in the way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a final result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media is fostering a distorted exoteric perception of African-Americans. spirit at past examples of African Americans give-and-take in the media, one can see that the media has become the main perpetrator through which oppression, discrimination and the treatment of African Americans as second class citizens is carried out.As a result of this media diagonal, white America has suffered from a deep uncertainty as to who African-Americans in reality are. The media stereotype of bad guys wearing black or that anything that is black is vicious has been fostered for decades. Looking at one of the oldest sources in the media (the dictionary) you clearly see anti-Semite(a) overtones in the definitions of any words angiotensin converting enzymeting with black or white. melanise is defined as opposite to white, African American, soiled or stained, and evil-minded or wicked just to name a few of the definitions (Webster 68). I believe this not only fosters a subconscious ostracize learn of African Americans, but also puffs many white people think they are rough how better than blacks. The defense put on by the four white Los Angeles police officers accused of beating Rodney King in 1991, and the recent case in Ohio, are very telling of this. They claimed that they were panicky and felt they might have been attacked or even killed (88). This is a real excuse in a white American society that perpetuates negative images of African Americans. Whites have come to believe that their life is in peril every time theyre confronted with a black person and that some how their life is worth more than than a black persons life. Their fear and their bias is a manifestation of a deep-rooted media bias that anything black is bad and anything white is pure and good. This media bias has also been illustrated in the Susan Smith cas... ...image we have seen, read, heard and ultimately come to believe of Malcolm X which is far from the truth. In short Malcolm X is much more than the hazardous man he is made out to be. To me, he is a prophet the media should portray him that way.The mass media is the most powerful entity on the earth. The media has the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent and thats power. They manoeuver the minds of the masses You dont have to lie to them you just have to be selective about what you tell them-because human beings gather breeding and they form opinions based on the information you have given them (Malcolm X 56). Until the spoon fed white America opens their eyes to this injustice, the media will continue to portray a self-serving negative stereotype of the African-American community. Until the public acknowledges the medias influence in the perpetuation of negative images of African Americans, white America will continue to oppress, and African Americans will continue to be looked upon as second class citizens. In the words of rap star Chuck D. of Public Enemy, Dont believe the hype, or more concretely, dont selectively not believe the hype.