The Oppression of African-Americans in the US
The media and academic literature form the sources of information in the globe based on the reflection and experiences of the marginalized communities and ensure the spread of the information in the public sphere. One of the marginalized groups that have existed for centuries in the world consists of the African-Americans and the main oppressed group in the American society. Despite being one of the oldest minority groups in history, the African-Americans are yet to gain and enjoy similar social, economic and political status enjoyed by fellow white citizens in the US. Several media content, narratives, and stories have been developed and profoundly point out the oppression that the African-Americans face as a marginalized group in the US.
The Black Lives Matter Movement and the Narrative of Oppression
An example of a narrative in the public sphere involves The Black Lives Matter narrative in the social media that has risen over the past three years from a simple hashtag to a social and political force changing movement putting back the oppression theme back in the limelight. Blackness and racism in the United States had been treated as a thing of the past, but the Black Lives Matter Movement has focused on opening up the narratives and stories of the American people to shame the American institutions and dominating the national narrative of anti-blackness in America. Based on the Black Lives Matter narrative in the social media platforms and other media sources such as television and newspapers, it can be argued that the media and academic literature represent the narrative of marginalized groups as being oppressed through stereotyping, injustices and inequality.
Social Stereotyping and Marginalized Groups
Social stereotyping is the highly applied process of representation used by the media to categorize groups or individuals. Social stereotyping, therefore, involves the categorization of people or groups based on their ethnicity, social class, sex, sexual orientation, employment status, religion, physical ability, age and gender (Jackson, 2010, p.13). The application of these stereotypes by the media is highly necessary for the creation of social order and identity in the society. Therefore, stereotypes are not bad or harmful to a given group until they are applied negatively to show discrimination or intolerance of a specific group. The adoption of The Black Lives Matter narrative was coined based on the increased racial discrimination of the black community and ethnic focus of institutions on the race of people. Jackson (2010, p.14) notes that in the United States most of the examples in the media and academic literature concerning racial and ethnic stereotyping involves the black community. Therefore, the long history of oppression and denigrating representation of the black people in the media has profoundly impacted the views and attitudes of the audiences to focus on the increased stereotyping of the group.
Media Injustice and Representation of Marginalized Communities
Apart from stereotyping, continued patterns of media injustice on the issues surrounding the black community has highly reflected the manner in which the marginalized societies are viewed in the global arena. The mainstream media on several occasions point out black people as the problem and rarely focuses on the positive manners of the black people. For example, in situations where the blacks are the victims, it is scarce to be mentioned in the media. On the other hand, in situations where the white people are the criminals, the media sympathetically represent them to the audience. For example, in the case of the mass shooting by James Holmes and Adam Lanza, the media described the two white boys as nice, smart and quiet but black boys cannot be given a similar representation (Baker-Bell et al., 2017, p.133). Therefore, the representation of the black people in the United States as violent and criminals indicates the attitude in which marginalized people are treated in society. Therefore, in most cases, the media focus on humanizing the criminals (the white community) while dehumanizing the victims of racism (the black community). In response, to the increased injustice against the marginalized black people in America, the media platform through the Black Lives Matter platform has given the blacks the voice to raise their grievances and attain justices. On one side the media become the destroyer through promoting discrimination while on the other it becomes the solution through providing the voice to the marginalized groups. Therefore, through the representation of the injustices that the marginalized communities face, the media creates a platform for the development of solutions.
Media Representation and Inequality
Lastly, the media representation of the marginalized groups also expresses the inequality in the society through identification and pointing out the differences between one group and the other. In the United States the marginalized communities from African-Americans, Chicano, Asians, and Mexicans are treated differently and even denied access to some services and institutions based on their ethnic background. Education and employment sectors are highly clouded by inequality through defining the schools that black people can attend and the type of jobs that suite the black folks. Therefore, the focus of Black Lives Matter in embracing diversity and promoting peaceful co-existence through the plea to recognize the significance of the black people in the US is an essential means of the media to represent the plight of the marginalized groups. Shishkin (2011, p.8), indicates that inequality one of the primary ways in which predominant groups in the society apply to discriminate upon the marginalized groups. Therefore, pointing out the sources of inequality through the media influence policy change to ensure unity.
The Power of Media Representation
In conclusion, the media and academic literature apply various ways of representing the marginalized groups, but in one way or another, the representations of the marginalized people such as the African-Americans provides the means of recognizing the oppression faced by these people through stereotyping, injustices, discrimination and inequality. The representation of the marginalized groups by the media, especially in the current technological world gives the people the voice to air their grievances and be heard by the oppressor and at the same time influence the change and development of policy to improve their lives. Therefore, media representation of the marginalized groups through focusing on their suffering provides a platform for establishing a change in the marginalized societies.
References
Baker-Bell, A., Stanbrough, R.J. and Everett, S., 2017. The stories they tell: Mainstream media, pedagogies of healing, and critical media literacy. English Education, 49(2), pp. 130.
Jackson, T.M., 2010. Defining us: A critical look at the images of Black women in visual culture and their narrative responses to these images (Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University).
Shishkin, T., 2011. Marginalized Characters in Contemporary American Short Fiction. Portland State University
