Perception 2: Single Story Stereotypes - Alex D.

Many portrayals of black men in the media continue to focus on the negative. Unfortunately, these outdated stereotypes neglect the breadth and depth of the lives of American black men, who have many roles—including father, husband, mentor and community leader, just to name a few.

More black men are going to college than ever before in our nation’s history. Black men make up the largest share of people of color in the U.S. Armed Forces. And black fathers living with their children are more likely to take on everyday child care duties than fathers in other demographic groups.  I found this image when I searched "black stereotypes in the media" under google images, and I think it is a very powerful message.  It is sad, but I would guess that most of our society when they think of a black person, they think of the gang-banger, hip-hop, low rider car, criminal stereotype.  This photo was part of a photography series by EJ Brown called 'mugshot series'.  Even though it looks like the men are being incarcerated, they are actually taking photos with their diploma with the name of their degree.

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown

After the unjust killing of Mike Brown, young black teens and young adults started a movement on twitter and other social media platforms called #IfTheyGunnedMeDown which featured them making a comparison photo like the one below - one photo would be the 'typical' gangster shoot 'em up, and the other - a REAL LIFE, true version of who that person really is as an individual.   The ideology behind this movement was that the image that the media pinned on Mike Brown was that he was depicted as a violent thug with gang and drug affiliations, even though this was not the case. To me, this is one of the most power effects that people had in response to all the tragedies involving numerous police officers and black people and the negative light that the media portrayed black people to be in.

During the time of the OJ Simpson trial, both Newsweek, and TIME magazine wrote featured stories and based the cover of the magazine based on the OJ Simpson trial.  The image on the left is the actual image of OJ Simpson.  For some reason, the editor of TIME magazine decided to darken the picture and depict OJ Simpson as being darker than he actually was.  There was absolutely no reason why they decided to do that.  Even though he was depicted as being guilty before they ever came up with the verdict - that shouldn't have been portrayed like it was in the media.

In their new album 'This unruly mess I've made,' Macklemore and Ryan Lewis attempt to tackle the issue of racism in society with their new song 'White Privilege'.  The song is almost 9 minutes long with Macklemore rapping about how black people are depicted negatively.  The song was in response to White supremacy and racist allegations towards black people following the Mike Brown incident with the police officers.  There's a part in his song where he talks about how white people, 

even though he has a 'parental advisory' sticker on the front of the album, think his music is okay to listen to because his rap doesn't talk about gang violence or drugs.  The lyric goes as follows: 

That's so cool, look what you're accomplishing


Even an old mom like me likes it cause it's positive


You're the only hip-hop that I let my kids listen to


Cause you get it, all that negative stuff isn't cool


Yeah, like all the guns and the drugs


The b****es and the hoes and the gangs and the thugs


Even the protest outside – so sad and so dumb


If a cop pulls you over, it's your fault if you run
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From doing a lot of research and looking up countless articles - racism, stigmas, and stereotypes are still extremely common and prevalent in our society today.  From doing this research, I've learned that I need to be careful in how I depict people, and even more careful about stereotypes and stigmas that nee to be broken by us as a society.