How are African Americans Portrayed in Media?
Today, in America, there is still a sense of distinct separation between the blacks and whites. Although America is one of the most diverse nations in the world, there seems to be a biased casting in the media. Media is one of the most important factors in american society, and ***Although there are both negative and positive connotations associated with african americans in media during events like the civil rights movement, murder cases, the #BlackLivesMatter movement,and the lack of equal representation in Hollywood, the negative over-abundance suggests that there is still a problem with racism in America. The problem being that it is 2016 and black people are still socially below white …show more content…
Too many people view the movement wrongly, it is viewed as a group of people who promote violent protests whenever a black person is killed. The television and media both work to the defense of the people who view it as this. As the violent protests that occur are the ones that are widely shown, and even the peaceful protests are shown in a way that makes them look unacceptable as well. To those who understand and support the movement, it is raising awareness to a cause that clearly needs attention but is being overpassed. The fact is that african american children, men and women are being killed while they are unarmed just because their skin color make them seem threatening. Oscar Grant, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland are just a few of the thousands of the innocent African Americans who have been killed in the 2000s. A main issue that has began to occur after the uprise of the movement is #AllLivesMatter. Many people were made that #BlackLivesMatter movement implies that black lives were the only thing that mattered and that other lives did not have the equivalent value. Obviously,that was not the intended assumption, it is just that there have been so many unarmed african americans killed that it seems that their lives did not matter at all anymore. An analogy that may help those who do not understand, is comparing it to breast cancer. There are so many different forms of …show more content…
Most of the time, the characters are all one race and that race is,more often than not ,white. The previous assumption has been lately confirmed with the 2015 Emmy’s and the 2016 Oscars. In last years Emmy’s, Viola Davis became the first African American woman to win the the award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series’ maybe due to the fact that “[b]lacks., especially black women, are not being given roles like their white counterparts. There is a mindset that says movies with Blacks in leading roles won 't sell”(Sandra Evers-Manley, NAACP). Although Davis’ win was a huge enough monument for the black community, it was her acceptance speech that really stood out that night. “In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line." That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s, and let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”(Viola Davis). In the speech, Davis also thanks some famous black actresses that are underappreciated such as Kerry Washington, Halle Berry and Gabrielle Union for “taking us[them] over that line”(Davis). Davis addresses how there is a bias in not casting
Today, in America, there is still a sense of distinct separation between the blacks and whites. Although America is one of the most diverse nations in the world, there seems to be a biased casting in the media. Media is one of the most important factors in american society, and ***Although there are both negative and positive connotations associated with african americans in media during events like the civil rights movement, murder cases, the #BlackLivesMatter movement,and the lack of equal representation in Hollywood, the negative over-abundance suggests that there is still a problem with racism in America. The problem being that it is 2016 and black people are still socially below white …show more content…
Too many people view the movement wrongly, it is viewed as a group of people who promote violent protests whenever a black person is killed. The television and media both work to the defense of the people who view it as this. As the violent protests that occur are the ones that are widely shown, and even the peaceful protests are shown in a way that makes them look unacceptable as well. To those who understand and support the movement, it is raising awareness to a cause that clearly needs attention but is being overpassed. The fact is that african american children, men and women are being killed while they are unarmed just because their skin color make them seem threatening. Oscar Grant, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland are just a few of the thousands of the innocent African Americans who have been killed in the 2000s. A main issue that has began to occur after the uprise of the movement is #AllLivesMatter. Many people were made that #BlackLivesMatter movement implies that black lives were the only thing that mattered and that other lives did not have the equivalent value. Obviously,that was not the intended assumption, it is just that there have been so many unarmed african americans killed that it seems that their lives did not matter at all anymore. An analogy that may help those who do not understand, is comparing it to breast cancer. There are so many different forms of …show more content…
Most of the time, the characters are all one race and that race is,more often than not ,white. The previous assumption has been lately confirmed with the 2015 Emmy’s and the 2016 Oscars. In last years Emmy’s, Viola Davis became the first African American woman to win the the award for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series’ maybe due to the fact that “[b]lacks., especially black women, are not being given roles like their white counterparts. There is a mindset that says movies with Blacks in leading roles won 't sell”(Sandra Evers-Manley, NAACP). Although Davis’ win was a huge enough monument for the black community, it was her acceptance speech that really stood out that night. “In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me over that line. But I can’t seem to get there no how. I can’t seem to get over that line." That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s, and let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”(Viola Davis). In the speech, Davis also thanks some famous black actresses that are underappreciated such as Kerry Washington, Halle Berry and Gabrielle Union for “taking us[them] over that line”(Davis). Davis addresses how there is a bias in not casting