Emily Tomkins
Blog 3
It’s Not What I See
In the media,
there inaccurate images of minorities that feeds into stereotypes. Most of the
media is controlled by white males who own these media companies. It is told
through one point of society of what is happening within the United States. The
media portrays race as a certain way in pop culture. It often is a stereotype
of a minority and that does not paint reality. It makes me think of the concept
of colorblindness racism because many white people view certain things that are
played through media outlets as it being funny but it is not. It is offensive
towards people. Images are reinforced my
colorblindness, and white America not thinking that media is marketing offensive
material towards monitories. Frito’s-Corn Chips introduced a greasy, pudgy
Bandito as a mascot, and did perceived it offensive toward the Latino community
but it was offensive. It took Frito’s Corn Chip Company after four years to
drop the mascot for the company because of threat of lawsuit, (Dirks, Danillie,
& Mueller, Jennifer Page 289).
The contribution the media should uphold is to understand and relate to
all of society. Unfortunately, most of the media does not show the view points of
the minority population. Since the media does portray stereotype it lives on in
America’s culture. The image of an African American male who is going to hurt
the defenseless white person is seen all of the time. The case with Michael
Dunn who murder carload of young black teenagers because of their music they
were listening ended in a mistrial. Another case due to images was with George
Zimmerman who ended up murdering Trayvon Martin who was just walking. Having
colorblindness in the media does develop into the subconscious of Americans.
The deaths of innocent African-Americans are too high a price for the appeasement
of the imagined fears of armed men, (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/judith-browne-dianis/when-your-color-michael-dunn_b_4857962.html
). The cases are clearly the main issue
of racism and colorblind racism which resulted in deaths of the young men. The media is controlled or owned by the
majority of white men. It’s strange of how much people do not realize more of
the background of how things operate, but then wonder how could crimes still be
committed due to racism, like Michael Dunn, or George Zimmerman be related. The
media is an outlet that everyone is exposed to as being their first time of the
outside world (Yancey, George A, & Edison Alicia Page 302). Zimmerman and Dunn committed murders of
teenagers because the fact of their race.
The reinforcement is a condition of the media controlling negative
images of certain ethnic groups and it is deadly. It enters homes for millions
of people and exposes people to the notion of colorblindness. The case with
Rodney King in 1991, where four white police officers beat him in fear of him. American
society has now accepted these stereotypes which the film media have ascribed
to the black community. Films such as Boyz in the Hood and Menace II Society
have become multi-million dollar success stories with criminal portrayals of
young blacks (http://www.yale.edu/ypq/articles/oct99/oct99b.html).
The media has the power to magnify a problem that may be so small but enfolds
into images that pertains to colorblindness and presents itself as entertainment.
What people think and say has so much power because it can influence others
view points.
Dirks, Danielle and Mueller Jennifer. Racism
and Popular Culture, Gallagher, Charles A. Rethinking
The Color Line.
Edison, Alicia and Yancey, George. Black and
White in Movies: Portrayles of Black-White Biracial Characters in Movies, Gallagher,
Charles A. Rethinking The Color Line.
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