Single Story Perceptions

 

As I looked at the portrayal of African Americans in the media in the US, I began to see a single story of them as exceptionally violent. My first artifact is a summary with some quotes of statements made by a correspondent on Fox News. He seems to suggest that for black people, murder is commonplace. His remarks are indicative of much media coverage, which seems to focus and highlight violence in the black communities. It is rare to see news covering achievements towards peace or unity among African Americans. Instead, we are mostly shown the violence, which happens in all communities, particularly in poor and destitute circumstances, of the African American communities, limited our view of them to that sole story.

The next artifact is a scene from the movie "Training Days", but it is indicative of the role that blacks play in entertainment media. There is a common thread of violence among African Americans in movies and T.V. shows, and often characters of that race are quite one dimensional. We repeatedly see them in the same role, a large facet of which is their quick tendencies to violence.

The final image is representative of the kind of images we are shown of African American communities, be it on traditional or social media. A majority of the images we see of African Americans are of them engaged in some sort of physical altercation or violent act. This reinforces the single story we have of associating violence with a race.

This single story has clear, immense implications. If we go around believe that black people are truly prone to acts of violence, we lose our ability to treat them as decent human beings. Of course an employer wouldn't want an employee who could assault any one, customer or fellow worker, at any moment. Of course authority figures like police are going to be suspicious of black people and jump to conclusions if he already believes that they are violent by nature.

The ability to repress the desire to resort to violence is one of the key aspects of civilized society and a basic function of our society today. If we buy in to the single story presented about African Americans violent tendencies, then we are essentially questioning their ability to fit into our society. We need to shun this portrayal as shown by these artifacts, and start spreading examples of and start celebrating the good that comes out of these communities. We need to see stories of the African American doctors who work hard to heal their patients, the black lawyers who tirelessly defend the innocent, and the community leaders who are leading non-violent coalitions who merely want to see their friends and family get the same level of respect that everyone else enjoys and not be weighed down by a prejudice that determines in our minds how they will act before they even get a chance to choose for themselves.