The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America

Introduction

The image of the black in the white society is determined by the interpretation of the media. The documentation from the mainstream media channels seems to target a specific segment of the society to influence its understanding of what is associated with Black or African American. According to Rojecki and Etman, the depiction of the black community as full of evil by the media is the primary factor that fuels the continued ambivalence by the whites towards black people and their culture. Ills such as corruption, violence, crime, and poverty are invariably associated with the black community. This ambivalence and continued confusion creates a discourse that determines the choices made by individuals based on social or political aspects. Research done by scholars in effort to understand the relationship between the whites and the blacks; and the National survey facilitates in justifying the role of the media in painting the perceptions of the black in the minds of the American people and society in general

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Rojecki and Etman believes that there are schemas created within the American media and press releases that aims at registering racial sentiments of US versus THEM within the minds of the American citizen as a way of (Rojecki and Etman, 2001). Such perceptions results to group thinking that shapes the perceptions of the white American individuals to conform with the group's interpretation of the African American. The limits and extents of the group's thinking and how they reflect on social affairs and happenings remains to be or have a significant impact on the individuals thinking. Additionally, the media prototypical portrayal of the black to be underprivileged with a lower status within the society has given the black community a representative outlook that guides individual's perspectives within these confined group perspectives (Rojecki and Etman, 2001). For example advertisements on magazines depicting the success of the society based on moral or educational grounds are usually represented by pictures of white personalities or instead if it is black then the media prefers black representation with a lighter skin tone. Such observations reflect that the common perspective of the American society is that white is superior. Therefore, constricting the minds of the White American under the guise of racial blindness. This image representation of the black people and the black culture creates a lower social hierarchy imprinted within the minds of the White American. This means the already established dimension of the Black American automatically qualifies any negative representation to be typical. Therefore, the media has in its hand the potential to influence the perception of the white American by portraying the Black American to be deprived of what it takes to achieve the American dream. The psychology of group generalizations strengthens the perspectives of the White American as the Black Americans are represented by the few individuals highlighted by the media. The latter is supported by Hinshelwood & Pines, who establishes that individuals sometimes may limit their thinking in order to fit with prescribed socio-political rituals, (2003).

Another Meta schema created by the media is the concept of the American dream. An excellent and healthy lifestyle characterized by lavish living, flashy cars, better employment and salary; and stable families. The successful personalities are considered to be civilized with a higher moral ground while the unsuccessful ones form a backward and troubled segment of the society. The media tries to fit the black American within the former by involving the black individual in commercials relating to the big dream. However, in as much as the media tries to conceptualize and create a better image of the Black American, the predisposed racial representation goes against the same empathy and acceptance they are fighting for or trying to show they are (Rojecki and Etman, 2001). The traces of white being superior can still be spotted are some of the advertisements and representation from the media. Moreover, the press does not offer convincing and factual schematic representations for most of the negative perceptions of the Black American such as increased crime, lower occupational and income levels, under education and single parenthood. Such denial to satisfy the human mind with reason and facts predisposes the White Americans to fill the voids that lack justification with racial perspectives. Also, at times the media portrays the black American to be a person successful in life yet at the same time depicts the same individuals as being a complete failure of the American dream. Therefore, the media is promoting social thinking and ethnic perspectives without even being actively involved in stereotyping or for that matter being aware of the extents with which they influence individual thinking (Rojecki and Etman, 2001). Portraying white as the superiority complex is the leading cause of most African Americans changing their skin tone to "fit" into the social construct.

Prejudice thinking is built to be part of human cognition. The social and political discourses created by the media, however, sustain and enhance the levels within which the Black are prejudiced in the American society. The media's efforts to deny white superiority are made poorly to the extent that the Black community appears to be favored due to the socio-political degradation in the minds of the white. Therefore making the judgemental views towards the black Americans to be justified as the media is thought to balanced and non-biased (Rojecki and Etman, 2001). The latter creates conflicts between the minds of white Americans. Thus, the media is seen as a tool by the elite within the white community to spread their racial influence to the minds of other white Americans. The actions of the media then result to one enormous racial gap that limits the whites understanding of the African Americans as they see the latter as the failed group that sucks dry the fruits of the American economy through their underprivileged, backward and lazy lifestyles. Therefore, the whites can only fantasize about relating or having close associations with African Americans yet taking this interaction to a more personal and intimate level becomes an impossible step (Rojecki and Etman, 2001).

Conclusion

The medias' role in influencing social thinking is enormous and if they do not alter the way they represent the black Americans in the minds of White Americans racial disintegration will continue to gnaw at the American society. The mainstream media in the American culture may not be actively promoting stereotyping, but finer details that can be spotted within their actions are what stimulates this racial predicament. The media needs to at all time offer clarity with the same frequency whether they produce negative or good attributes to give no room for the old racial thinking as an alternative. The black individual with a failure needs not be viewed as the typical African American attribute due to lack of adequate clarification. The American people confuting to be influenced along racial lines is only achievable if the black inferiority complex is wholly obliterated from the media representations. The latter can only be achieved if the increased associations of the black community with the negative attributes in the society such as crime, lower educational cases, and other inferior connections are eliminated.

References

Entman, Robert, and Rojecki, Andrew. 2001. The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America. Bibliovault OAI Repository, the University of Chicago Press. 10.7208/chicago/9780226210773.001.0001.

Hinshelwood, R., Lipgar, R. M., & Pines, M. (2003). Group mentality and 'having a mind'. Building on Bion: Roots, 181-197.