I’d like to start with an apology for this journal entry: it may not possess a clear focus throughout! I have many disconnected thoughts in regards to the subject of media representations and their effect upon thinking about race, class, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexuality. So some of these paragraphs not seem clearly connected.
In regards to race:
Three days ago I was watching the History Channel. The program was about organized crime in America – specifically Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes, the most prolific heroin dealers in New York City in the 1970’s. In light of the recent reading I’ve been doing on media representations, I began to ruminate on the frequency of the portrayal of blacks as criminals across all media. From gangsta rappers to gangster movies, from The Wire on HBO to the 10 o clock news, we see black criminals almost incessantly. There is certainly some basis for this media representation in reality. According to the Department of Justice, offender rates in homicides for black Americans are seven times higher than that of whites; blacks are much more likely to be murdered (http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/homicide/race.htm). The leading cause of death for black males, age 15-24, is homicide (http://www.hhscenter.org/bonbstat.html) and has been, for years.
Yet, at the same time I was watching this program about black gangsters, I saw something interesting. The judge who eventually prosecuted Frank Lucas was a black man, named Sterling Johnson. And I began to wonder: how many of my students would know the answer if I asked the question: “Who is Thurgood Marshall?” How infrequently we see black Americans as judges, doctors, teachers! The media representations of ethnic minorities are typically negative, especially in news media. This causes an expectation of certain types of behavior in certain individuals in our society. I know that I myself, especially early in my career, would have knee-jerk reactions to certain students based upon their race and clothing. I wouldn’t go so far as to pre-judge, but I would have a frequent reaction that I would need to “keep an eye on” a young black man who was wearing baggy clothes. (Although, I am happy to say that as I have become more experienced as a teacher, I have learned that sort of judgment is seldom correct; some kids who look like angels on the first day are my worst problems, and that kid in the back row with a Tupac t-shirt on will write the best essay of the year).
TBC
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3 comments:
Hey Rob! Your blog made me think of several things in my teaching experience in Telluride. I teach in a school that does not have much diversity, but we pride ourselves on being liberal in thinking and accepting of all races, genders, sexual orientations. Unfortunately, I've seen a pretty blatant inconsistency between what my students rattle off in philosophy and what they actually do. The Hispanic kids and the Caucasian kids do not intermix, and the two or three Black kids play up their own stereotyped traits to get attention and approval from their White peers. I'm just expressing that it's tough when you can teach tolerance, acceptance, respect, but it's really hard to get kids to live it even when we try and be the best examples we can. Have you had similar experiences?
Rob you point out really solid observations. Your post reminded me of the adolescent novel Monster, which tells the story of a young black male in trial for assisting in a homicide. The author has gotten a lot of flack for portraying blacks in a stereotypic way, but the author (a black males) responds, "I write what I see." In talking about criminal portrayals on TV, I would like to see some stats on how the numbers compare to real life criminal activity in the black community.
I totally agree with your view that the media portrays minorities in a negative way on a regular basis. I think that it is really disheartening for youth specifically to only see people who look like themselves shown in negative light. Although it makes me think that the shows I am thinking of are shows that I watch and that not many of my students watch. I wonder what they would say about the programs that they view.
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