Media Stereotypes — Race and Ethnicity
Within the current trends of how last year went with the many incidents revolving around George Floyd’s murder and the activism that sparked from this event to push for better equality and treatments towards African American and minority group represented in today’s society. It is interesting to point out the differences between the BLM protest and the Republicans who stormed the Capitol building in how they were handled with the police which I will dive into further details for my artifact chosen for this week’s blog post.
As you can see from the pictures I have included in my post this week, I wanted to talk about the difference in the events relating to the BLM protest and the actions of the Republicans who destroyed the Capitol. When you watch new footage or clips online of these events, a majority of the time protestors at the BLM events are targeted with heavy arm forces, tear gas, brutality, fights, and many other effects that one should not experience, but then you see pictures of the police in front of the Capitol building holding still and not conflicting any violence to those breaking and destroying government property. It is easy to see that stereotyping and race are two major contributors to these instances.
In the reading from Dixon on Media Stereotypes, he talks about how many news outlets describe African-Americans as criminals compared to being crime victims, in addition to highlighting more of the wrongs they have done or done in the past compared to white people. This point of the article stood out to me because it’s so true and even more present due to the increase in media exposure. Another subject that also correlates with this is when he discusses social identity and the term “ingroup”. What this means is that if you identify with another group that is viewed as weaker then you will be treated differently since you do not belong to the “ingroup”, and I wanted to include this because many Republicans see their actions as lawful and noncriminal due to having that high ingroup identity of thinking of them as “superior” due to being white. Having that mindset makes it harder for people to change their opinions since they see African-Americans as the outgroup and anything that they do is wrong just based on the color of their skin.
This topic of race and stereotyping is not just a problem in the U.S it’s everywhere around us and the New York Times wrote an article on another hot topic issue which is Meghan Markel being a colored person who was once a part of the royal family. The article describes the interview on Meghan and Harry with Oprah about people having concerns about the color of her skin causing tabloids to attack her creating suicidal thoughts. These thoughts occurred when people were questioning what would be the color of Archie’s skin stating that “I knew that if I didn’t say it, I would do it. I just didn’t want to be alive anymore” (Markle 2021). Hearing someone say that is heartbreaking to hear knowing that if Harry married a white women all of this wouldn’t have happened, but it is also important that it did happen in a way due to making the public aware that issues revolving around race still exists and can be mentally and physically exhausting for those who are experiencing it.
Reviewing these two instances related to race it is obvious to see that it plays an important role in how the public views you. Comparing how the cops handled the situation with the white rioters and the royal family playing ingroup favoritism further proves the point that people are still viewing whites as the superior race in addition to fueling the development of stereotypes towards African-Americans. I know being a white woman, I am well aware that I have white privilege and to be fortunate enough to not experience events like this in my personal life, but then also being able to see right from wrong in how we need to change our perceptions of race and stereotypes to be more inclusive.
Seeing the impacts people have made to make everyone aware of what is going on in our world is a step in the right direction. The ideas of race and stereotypes have been going on for decades and unfortunately, I do not see it changing any time soon, but I do believe we are headed in the right direction to make this change. Messages coming from protests, riots, and statements made by others bring attention to the media making reporters want to talk about what is going on in our world even when it’s a hard subject to talk about. Overall, race and stereotyping are involved with our everyday lives, and the actions/statements we make reflect on how we view this issue.
Dixon, T. L. (2019). Media stereotypes. Media Effects, 243–257. doi:10.4324/9780429491146–16
Landler, M. (2021, March 08). ‘I just didn’t want to be ALIVE ANYMORE’: Meghan says life as Royal made her suicidal. Retrieved March 09, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/07/world/europe/oprah-interview-harry-meghan.html
