About Racism in Media

Racism is any ideology that assumes essential dominance in racial or ethnic classes, giving certain people the right to control or even exclude those that are seen to be inferior, or basing human traits on racial distinctions (Benoist 11). Racism has been a major source of controversy in recent years. Racism can be seen in athletics, politics, the workplace, and our everyday lives. Racism has been shown across different mediums over the years; racist behaviors and bigotry are not only increased by people but there have been other causes that have remarkably facilitated the vast propagation of racism in modern times. The media has been considered to have provided a lead role for racism in the society. Based on the function it plays in the society, the media is responsible for disseminating information these include television, newspapers, magazines, social media, film and even radio. Therefore Media plays a critical role in the perpetuating racial injustices. There is need to clearly emphasize that racism of all sorts is a social problem. Hence it must be discouraged irrespective for the adopted medium.

Racism and print media

In an essay by Binyavanga Wainana, the author cries foul of how the African continent is depicted in the texts from the western world. Binyavanga states in his articles that the African culture is depicted as primitive and are mostly associated with barbarism. The African leaders are represented as the lords of corruption, greed, and impunity which are not the case. Should depictions are a clear indication of racism, (Wainaina, 13)

The (ECRI) European Commission against Racism and Intolerance singled out The Sun and Daily Mail to be the most discriminative newspapers and have been accused of pushing racial prejudices in their news dissemination (Dearden 16). When Jo Cox was murdered, her murderer bellowed “Britain Fist” which was then the name of a political party that was formed by former BNP members. The Daily Mail did not give the murder of sitting MP and covered the story on page 30.

Racism and Television

Television programs are the most common media of spreading racism. Certain television shows try to capture the attention of an audience by making racial comments especially the television programs that targets the white audience. Shows such as Friends, Seinfeld and Brickleberry have been accused many times of having racial comments. On other television shows there is often little interracial cast; however, the media has now considered including blacks in their movies but the roles that the black individuals are still belittling. The racial inequality on the television is a serious issue. First, the television has failed to portray diversity in the society as the shows suggest that the society is composed of one race.

Secondly, the shows tend to major only a particular aspect of the particular race. What the society does not understand is that the shows affect the perception the children and they grow with the negative perception of different races. The stereotype that the media portrays through the shows makes the children’s mind clogged and prejudiced. There have been a couple of television programs that has been considered to have racist implications, and such programs include 2 Broke Girls, Chicken Soup, The Deadliest Warrior, Manimal. These TV programs all portrayed the superiority of one race over the other and also vividly stereotype a particular race (2 broke girls). For point of emphasis, I will like to clearly pick the racial comments made the television program titled Manimal. The movie intro began by stating that the main character (Dr. Jonathan Chas) had a dark past and a bright future and that his dark past was due to the time he spent in Africa where there is no distinct line between man and beast.

Media and stereotypes

The former Education Secretary, William Bennett made a racial comment about blacks, insinuating that to curb the rising crime rates, there is need to abort all black babies in the country. This is a case of racial stereotyping and a belief that all black people are criminals and even creating more racism on mainstream media. The distortion of the secretary’s comment by media is a vivid example of how the media can propagate racism by using the words of the popular people in the United States, (Sharma 13)

Every story is not given the same attention in media coverage, especially cases of missing persons. The case that occurred on 30th May 2005, where Natalee Holloway an 18-year-old went missing while on a graduation trip Aruba and that of LaToyia who happened to be a black, Natalee’s case received extensive media coverage; on the other hand, LaToiya received little coverage. Most of the satiations that covered her missing story were particularly black. In this case, the media can be seen to be racist as it covers mainly stories of the rich white individuals while numerous black and Hispanic women are ignored, (Sharma 17)The disappearances of the minority groups in the American media hardly receive any attention from the media houses.

The reasons behind the inequality in the coverage of every story are the little diversity in the newsroom. The Radio-Television News Directors Association indicates that the minority groups comprise of only 22 present of the newsroom staff. The American Society of Newspaper Editors reports there are only 13 present journalists who belong to the minority groups. The lack of racial diversification in the media houses has caused many misinterpretations of the minorities in the news; however, it is important to understand that racism in media is not done on purpose but is simply the lack of exposure to the minority races. Secondly, the inequality occurs in the news as a result of the reporters and journalist’s quest to get captivating stories for a particular set of audience.

Racism is also very common in movies. Some of the movies that have stereotyped blacks include “Hustle and Flow,” “Boyz N the Hood” and “Friday.” All the three movies take place in the poorest and highly insecure parts of the city commonly referred to as Ghettos. All the players in the movies consume illicit drugs, take part in illegal activities to sustain their livelihood, and none of them has the sufficient education. The language used is also not proper English. This stereotype portrays the Black Americans as being foolish, lazy and drug dealers if not a drug addict. The Italians have also been stereotyped in movies over the food they consume their names and love for pasta.

The likelihood of the mug shots of the African-Americans to appear on the television is four times more as compared to those of white criminals (Entman and Rojecki 15). The name of a black accused individuals is also twice most likely to be shown on the news screen as compared to that of the whites. Comparing data about top movies of 1996, it is clear that the black females shown in the movies use vulgar language as compared to the 17 percent of the white female actresses (Entman and Rojecki). This has diverted negative attention to the Black population as well as other Minority groups. The distorted views of the marginalized groups by the media create, even more, conflict, racial disparities as well as the racial hierarchy. The book by Entman and Rojecki, sum up these images in the media as the major barrier between races and ethnicities.

Racial stereotyping is also evident in magazines. Particular magazines target different audiences. The Glamour, Marie Claire, and the Cosmopolitan magazines tend to focus on individuals of the mid class mainly within the age bracket of 20-35. A larger percentage of the female models in the magazines are Caucasians. In an issue of the cosmopolitan magazine of 2005 there were nine minority models, of the nine seven are African American while two are Asians, and this number consists of less than 10% of the models in the magazines. This little percentage shows a misrepresentation of the minority groups by the media. This creates a problem in the nation as the diversity is not adequately portrayed by the media. The notions that these magazines sell is that the society is extremely homogenous which we all know is not entirely true as the country’s population is composed of varied nationalities. By only using the nine models from the minority groups the message being sent is that the other races do not exist in the country.

Other instances of media stereotyping based on individual’s racial background, is seen in the way the Muslim communities are covered. The Muslim community is often depicted as violent, extremists, a terrorist if not militants. News articles cover conflict, civil unrest, violent, militaristic confrontation, terrorism and ruin of property. This favoritism affects not only the Muslims but also South Asians. The United States and the Iraq war was covered biasedly associating Iraq with negative images.

Racism and social media

Social media is also another catalyst of racism. Racism is now worse in social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The assault on the United States former President Barack Obama was racially motivated. Many the United States citizens on social media claimed that the president was a Muslim with an Indian background. An official from West Virginia also referred to Michelle Obama as an “Ape in Heel” during the celebration of Donald Trump’s Victory in 2016; these comments have led to a major media outcry on racism

Racism can also be seen in commercial advertisements in the media. Back in 2007 Intel, the leading computer manufacturing company made a public campaign on the television. The commercial included a white man standing while six athletes in six distinct colors bow down to him. The advert later received great criticism from the customers and the media; it even drove the company to make public apologies on their company website. Such advertisements are considered to be racially insensitive and belittle other non-white racial groups, (Gin, et al. 20-25)

Conclusion

The racism that is perpetuated by media truly exists and needs to be dealt with seriously. The stakeholders in the media sector need to understand that this problem will not solve itself and so they should put in efforts by coming up with codes of ethics that promote equality in the coverage of news and other frameworks that well promote racial equality in the nation and the world as a whole















Works Cited

Benoist, Alain De. “What is racism.” Telos 114 (1999): 11-48.

Dearden, Lizzie. The Sun and Daily Mail accused of 'fuelling prejudice' in report on rising

racist violence and hate speech in UK. 8th October 2006. 7th May 2017. .

Entman, Robert M and Andrew Rojecki. The black image in the white mind : Media and

Race in America . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Gin, Kevin J., et al. "Racialized aggressions and social media on campus." Journal of College

Student Development 58.2 (2017): 159-174.

Sharma, Andrew. "Multiculturalism, Diversity and Stereotypes: Engaging Students with

Images in Media." Media Watch 8.1 (2017): 20-29.

The 50 Most Racist TV Shows of All Time4. Diff'rent Strokes. Complex UK.

2013. Available at: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/06/most-racist-tv-shows/diffrent-strokes. Accessed May 23, 2017

Wainaina, Binyavanga. How to write about Africa. Nairobi: Kwani Trust, 2011.