The Role Of Racism In The Media

What is racism in the media? “Racism in the media is the generalization, institution and assignment of values to real and imaginary differences between people in order justify a state of privilege and or violence”. Racism in the media is something that has greatly affected our society and how we perceive other members of our community’s. Since the media and social networks like; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have become such an important part of our society today, it is crucial to analyze the way they are categorizing people. The media tries to provide us with definitions of who we should be and what we should be. Sociologist Himani Bannerji says “the media provides us with images of perceptions and descriptions” which I believe is very …show more content…
The commercial was initially credited as “the most racist commercial ever” and was soon taken down. The commercial was accused of being racist when it showed a white woman having to pick the man who assaulted her from a line up of African Americana males all dressed in gangster clothing, the commercial also made light of violence towards woman. After the commercial was taken down the rapper was interviewed and asked why he made a racist commercial being hat he is a 24-year old African America. Tyler responded by saying he never meant the commercial to be racist he just wanted it to be funny. He also stated he believes he grew up in a generation where African Americans in gangster clothing shouldn’t mean the person who made it is “racist”. Although I somewhat agree with his interview, I do believe the commercial showed signs of racism. The other two racist commercials I found were both from the food company Kentucky Fried Chicken. The company has been accused of using African Americans to sell their product many times. The first commercial showed a white man at a cricket game surrounded by African Americans then says, “stuck in an awkward situation?” and pulls out a big bucket of fried