Sarah Allen-Sutter, Rowan Labbe – Renault, Jared McNece, Doris Wong, Juliana Sangervasi, Brendan Pohl, Benjamin Weisman
Mr. Williams
Race and Social Justice
14 February 2014
History of Racial Stereotyping in the Media
Although it cannot be denied that the United States has come a long way with regards to racism since the start of the 20th century, there is still a long road ahead of us. Racism is still prevalent in our modern day society mostly through the use of racial stereotypes. Media has proven to be a tool used, perhaps even unknowingly, to promote racism, and stereotypes. We will be focusing on five main categories of media; Advertising, Social Media, Music, Television, and News. The media promotes the idea that certain category of races are better than others at certain actively or that they all live a life style that is different from others. For instance a black man is more likely to be involved in a gang than a white male, and students of Asian decedents are viewed as superior in intelligence to their peers.
While some may believe that the use of racial stereotypes in America is diminishing, such is certainly not the case with respect to many current American advertisements. Surprisingly, even to this day, numerous advertisements use racial stereotypes to sell products. For example, such occurs in the Intel 2007 Poster Advertisement: “Maximize the Power of Your Employees”, which is an advertisement for an Intel computer processor. It plays on racial stereotypes, as there are six African-American athletes bowing down to one central European Anglo-looking man, who stands straight and tall and towers over the six bent-over men of African descent; supporting the racist idea that African-Americans are subservient to white people. This poster also displays racial stereotypes, as the athletes are African-American, and the white man is not, which plays into the stereotype that African-Americans are good athletes. Furthermore, this poster illustrates racial stereotypes in American advertising, as in this poster, the European-looking man is dressed in a business suit, while the African-American men are dressed in gym clothes. Accordingly, it displays the stereotype that only white people are suited for formal business endeavors. Finally, this poster emanates racial stereotypes, as due to this poster’s statement, “maximize the power of your employees”, coupled with a European-looking man overlooking numerous African-American men, it suggests the racial stereotype that white men can control and “use” their non-white employees/servants. All in all, it is extremely apparent that racial stereotypes do, indeed, occur in current American advertisements!
Over the past several years the use of social media has skyrocketed, contributing to a dramatic increase in the appearance of cyber-racism in web sites and apps such as Facebook and Vine. According to Metro New York news, cyber-racism is defined as “racism which occurs in the cyber world. This includes racism which occurs on the internet such as racist websites, images, blogs, videos and online comments as well as racist comments, images, or language in text messages, emails or on social networking sites.” Cyber racism is not only a form of racial hatred and bullying, but it perpetrates demeaning racial stereotypes as seen in 2013’s popular Vines, or 7 second video clips made accessible through the social media application ‘Vine’. A common theme for these clips has been the comparison of white and black behavior, which often portrays each race with their respective stereotypes. Whites are often shown as less athletic, rich, or with passive parenting skills where in contrast African Americans are depicted as superior in athletics but barbaric, loud and with aggressive parenting with the usage of specific racial slurs. Recent data from the Australian Human Rights Commission shows “racial hatred rose 59 percent in the past several years, fuelled in part by a surge in cyber-racism complaints, which accounted for 41 percent of racial hatred complaints, up 17 percent from the previous year.” Such an increase of public racism does not seem plausible after 50 years of civil right work, but racial stereotyping seems to be more prevalent than ever, and the races they depict are enforcing these stereotypes. A member of the Australian board says, “Part of what a racist society does, is force people who are the objects of that racism to internalize that self-hatred.” As a society, America has made a lot of progress in terms of legislation against racism and mistreatment, but with the intent to entertain, old negativity is being reinforced with just a click of a button.
More examples can be seen in sources such as the daily news, like in July of 2012, when the banking company Wells Fargo was forced to pay $175 million in a racial discrimination lawsuit. The company was criticized and penalized for discrimination against African American and Hispanic customers, who were being charged higher rates and fees on mortgages, even when they qualified for a bonus normally given to buyers. Another example broadcasted across the cyber News was on November 30, 2011, employees sue the Comcast television company in Chicago because of issues that had come up regarding defective equipment. In this federal lawsuit, African American employees allegedly were given defective or “bugged” equipment to install into residents homes. Currently, there are present and former employees of Comcast are working towards ending racial hate and discrimination in the workplace. Through News sources such as The Chicago tribune and other major influences, awareness can be brought to the racial tension and hate so prevalent in America’s workplaces.
Yet another source, popular music and its accompanying videos are some of the most stimulating and influential branches of media in the world, relating to most people on an emotional level. Although music can be positive in its influence, negative influences such as racial stereotypes can be found in the lyrics to some songs. In the popular song "Royals" by Lorde, released in 2013, subtle references to racial stereotypes of African Americans, mostly targeting black rappers and the stereotypes associated with them. Throughout the lyrics, these stereotypes include "But everybody's like Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece, Jet planes, islands, Tigers on a gold leash..." These are common stereotypes about African American rappers in a song by 17 year old woman from New Zealand. Music videos also provide viral racism without the subtle references. On ‘YouTube’, a plenty of videos surface with offensive lyrics, and strong racial stereotypes against many races and people. ‘HDRuckaRuckaAli’ uploads many of his "music parodies" onto YouTube with such songs and videos titled: "Ginger" (Timber), "What does the Black say" (What does the Fox say), "If I was Mongolian", and many others. Some argued in the comments section that "He makes fun of all races,
it’s fine", but even the lyric of "Because I'm White" is still targeting other races with the lyrics, "I would steal a car, but I'm White". Although the name suggests white stereotypes, the video is obviously directed toward African Americans and racial stereotypes. Using music to influence many generations into stereotypes can be noticed throughout this media outlet, in "___next example___", another media outlet, can be shown with other examples of racial stereotypes. (Add what type of media this is, much less bland and general intro It doesn’t really make sense.)
Racism has been an immense problem ever since the founding of the American nation. It has been a great impact on the expansion of stereotyping by spreading through magazines, advertisements, music and other forms of media. For example, it was shown in a 2010 ‘Elle’ magazine cover when Gabourney Sidibe’s skin was indeed lightened. The editing by ‘Elle’ outraged many viewers, making it seem as if they were trying to Americanize Sidibe. It was also shown that her face was in addition zoomed in, compared to other ‘Elle’ magazine covers. This depicts the idea that society would rather want a thinner, white or light skinned as a “fashionita” or a role model. Another example of stereotyping, was from a 2008 ‘Vogue’ cover featuring LeBron James. LeBron James was shown to be portrayed as a “terrifying gorilla”, while Gisele Bundchen was lady liberty. The cover was correlated to a propaganda that dates back to a World War I enlistment poster. People described the ‘Vogue’ as a racist reference, because they are referring blacks to an animal who is trying to destroy Lady Liberty (America).
Racial profiling is usually a subconscious act, and many don’t even realize they are doing it. Media is one of the main roots of the problem. Every time a person sees a racist advertisement or hears a racist joke on T.V. or in a Vine, racial stereotypes are further ingrained into the brain of that individual. It is important to find where these problems exist so we can eliminate it for future generations. If media continues to display these stereotypes to children at a young age, their developing brains will subconsciously pick up these ideas of racism and eventually pass them down to the next generation. By addressing the problem, and discovering the history of its roots, we will be one step closer to improving a society of racial profiles and stereotypes.