In the contemporary United States, some people would believe racism to be a dying fad, just another antiquity of the past to remember but not to bring up. Yet ask any person of color the last time they were given a bank loan and the color-line becomes clear. In a free, democratic nation like the United States one might think escaping these labels is easy, but most find it nearly impossible. Prejudices persists for the most part because of stereotypes or stigmas placed on people that are passed down through generations. One of the greatest agents of perpetuating discrimination is the media. Television, movies, newspapers, magazines, and radio, are just a few of the tools by which the image of American values, beliefs, and attitudes were shaped.
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If these stereotypes are left to run rampant, then institutional racism will only grow, and personal prejudices will remain. The negative labeling of these groups also causes internal problems. The chronic stress of having to be conscious of your race and how your behavior might be interpreted because of the color of your skin causes many health problems. The lack of community opportunities for minorities on top of low familial resources makes upward class mobility a rare occurrence. This leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of minorities seeing themselves as without opportunities and giving up, which leads the majority of Whites into thinking they are lazy and not extending opportunities to communities of minorities. Stereotypes are like any label: they generalize, overlook, and discredit the people they describe. As long as the media is allowed to make money off of these hateful concepts, they are going to persist, because ultimately that’s all the media is meant to do. The overall issue here is that the media is bringing cleverly hidden ideas about race all over the country to a point of standardization. That’s not to say that racism and prejudice didn’t exist before T.V. and movies, they certainly did, technology has just allowed for a much bigger audience. However, it is this same ubiquity than can be used to end some of these stereotypes. Imagine how many children of color would grow up to be doctors because they see people who look like them doing it on T.V. Obviously this would also call for major changes in society in order to facilitate better prospects for
If these stereotypes are left to run rampant, then institutional racism will only grow, and personal prejudices will remain. The negative labeling of these groups also causes internal problems. The chronic stress of having to be conscious of your race and how your behavior might be interpreted because of the color of your skin causes many health problems. The lack of community opportunities for minorities on top of low familial resources makes upward class mobility a rare occurrence. This leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy of minorities seeing themselves as without opportunities and giving up, which leads the majority of Whites into thinking they are lazy and not extending opportunities to communities of minorities. Stereotypes are like any label: they generalize, overlook, and discredit the people they describe. As long as the media is allowed to make money off of these hateful concepts, they are going to persist, because ultimately that’s all the media is meant to do. The overall issue here is that the media is bringing cleverly hidden ideas about race all over the country to a point of standardization. That’s not to say that racism and prejudice didn’t exist before T.V. and movies, they certainly did, technology has just allowed for a much bigger audience. However, it is this same ubiquity than can be used to end some of these stereotypes. Imagine how many children of color would grow up to be doctors because they see people who look like them doing it on T.V. Obviously this would also call for major changes in society in order to facilitate better prospects for