- Published: November 15, 2021
- Updated: April 17, 2022
- University / College: Lancaster University
- Language: English
- Downloads: 9
How did ideas of Black stereotypes and racism become embedded in American culture? What is the impact on contemporary American society?
Introduction
With time, there has been a consequential shifted from to cultural racism biological racism. Previously, most American people held up beliefs of the fact that Blacks were perceived to be biologically inferior and made-by-God inferior. Currently, there are aspects of cultural racism which maintain that most Black parents do not give their children the appropriate values which are often offered for the reason in which the Blacks do not do as well compared to other groups. The paper associates ‘ Black’ to a whole scope of negative assumptions which are deeply embedded across the American culture and people who endear them as acceptable actions (Siapera 24).
Discussion
One blatant example for which racism in America against the black is engraved today is the scenario in the prison system. Close to 10% for the male population across the African-Americans of ages between 25 and 29 are under incarceration at any given time. This is five times the standard rate of the following highest group. The issue of racism also faces African-Americans looking for jobs. They also form aspects of ‘ good Americans,’ as for the components that the American society teaches each of them. It is observed that a database of millions words from magazine articles, books, newspapers and various documents add into the scope of racism for the black community. It is also clear that when the term ‘ Black’ is seen, it also co-occurs with ‘ poor’ and ‘ religious’ and ‘ violent’ as well as ‘ lazy’ and ‘ dangerous.’ Being dangerous, violent and lazy are widely held stereotypes for the Blacks. Most of the racial ethnic minority groups can be stereotyped based on the negative nature of the Whites, where the Blacks are viewed to be the worst grouped together with Latinos, viewed twice as negative as compared to Asians.
As the unemployment rate at the national level hovers at close to 10 percent, the African-American unemployment rate for is past 17 percent. This is not merely a problem that hurts poor or urban African-Americans, either. African-Americans in the middle-class across the cities in the country find themselves in a situation of suffering from similar plight. The “ median black homeowners income continues dropping to levels below that of the late 1990s.” the African-American families in the nation have a higher likelihood of being left unemployed despite the contributions of their income (Siapera 62). The thing which is more shocking is based on the relativity of the lack of coverage across national press while the while papers happily report statistics and few media outlets have the willingness of investigating the possibility for the difference that is resulting from racism. In the present day, there are fewer people across America openly confessing of being racist where the organizations and people which do, including the remainder of the Ku Klux Klan, are normally viewed to be social outcasts. On the other hand, there are many stereotypes which are against the African-Americans and hence influence the overall American culture. These stereotypes can be about sex and violence.
Studies across the country, for instance, illustrate that the African-Americans are overly represented to be perpetrators for most crimes the local news outlets as compared to actual city rates of crime. The sexual stereotypes are common where the African-American women and men are normally depicted as to be aggressive in their sexuality. While such a stereotype is twisted into compliments, it ends up in consequences that are deemed severe (Unnever&Gabbidon 72). African-American men have a higher likelihood of being assumed guilty for sexual crimes over the men in terms of the race comparisons in America. This way, the African-American women are likely to have higher involvement within the sex industry even though they are usually paid less as compared to the white women (Apsolon, 2011). The aspect of racial profiling is part of the examples of the manner in which racism exists across the government. This is simply based on the African-American which greatly induces an increment for the chances of police pulling them over.
The aspect of cultural racism further means that the American people are judged as per the entire minority culture which is a morally inferior element as compared to the judging of minority individuals who are genetically inferior. So for instance, the American cultural racism further allows the people to embrace a belief that the “ black culture” bears the blame for almost all forms of “ problems” which the black people are faced with(Rome 92). This is also founded on the fact that the few black friends that are considered to be the “ good guys” have an exception proving that the individual black people have the ideals “ transcending” the issues raised by the “ black culture.”
In the media, the study is not the only illustration of racism far from it in the factual considerations. Some of the comprehensive subject studies have found significant differences across how white and African-American characters are displayed in movies. for example, the black women are close to five times likely to be portrayed as violent in movies. In news programs, racism is even worse (Apsolon, 2011). It is close to four times likely that the African-American’s are shot and featured in crime stories as compared to the white people mug shots. The stories for the African-American suspects are twice more likely to illustrate the suspect restrained over the white suspects stories (Bowser & Hunt 78). The other case in mind is The Katrina disaster was one of the most obvious examples of this bias in the last decade. A negative press coverage majority concerning criminal behavior and looting in post-Katrina was aimed at African-Americans. The media sarcastic commentators parodied coverage through observing the “ Black people ‘ looting’ food while the white people ‘ found’ food.
Conclusion
In summary, cultural racism has coming handy in reinforcing a form of white supremacy through which the black/brown cultural values can be considered to be inferior to the cultural values that are held to be morally supreme elements is through white people (values which white people tend to encounter failure regularly). The frames in this case shape the various beliefs as well as storylines which even the non-white people take up when engaging in racism and staunchly distancing themselves from self-proclaimed individually racists (Boyd 37). This is also aimed at understanding the American contemporary conversation for the race where there is need to continually recognize the ideas which are not exclusively perpetuated by the white people. These frameworks are the grounds for broad cultural patterns which various people across class and gender and color pick up, embrace and repeat (Apsolon, 2011). The broader cultural pattern for this case is based on the processes of whiteness which is founded on a system assuming the best character traits for the white people and suspecting characters from the non-white people.
Works Cited
Apsolon, M. [markapsolon]. (2011, September 9). Real ghost girl
caught on Video Tape 14 [Video file]. Retrieved on 29th November 2013from
http://www. youtube. com/watch? v= 6nyGCbxD848
Bowser, Benjamin., Hunt, Raymond., Impacts of Racism on White Americans. New York: SAGE, 1996. Print
Boyd, Todd. African Americans and Popular Culture. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2008. Print
Rome, Dennis., Black Demons: The Media’s Depiction of the African American Male Criminal Stereotype. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Print
Siapera, Eugenia., Cultural Diversity and Global Media: The Mediation of Difference. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print
Unnever, James., Gabbidon, Shaun., Race, Racism, and Crime. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2011. Print