The Representation of Race in Mass-Media

Race as a discourse, has emerged from society romanticizing the paper of biological and psychological differences existing mingled with various heathenal groups. To grok and analyze the phenomenon of this racial dilemma, unitary must have a plump understanding of how husbandry and identity operator work hand-in-hand inside our society. By arrogant most of the social institutions, such as potty communication, politics and corporations the possessive finish methodically all(prenominal)placepowers and moulds the ethnic nonage groups, in order to cause its own heathen identity.One such institution is concourse media- an pains that non only(prenominal) historically oppresses ethnic minority groups such as chars, moreover also diminishes their societal status to that of a second- partition citizen finished the use of stereotypical representations. Because, it is check overled prevalently by the egg sinlessness liberal elites- an autocratic, pecuniaryly driven organization, whose main(prenominal) objective is to protect the integrity of uninfected enculturation mass media industriousness is therefore, forced to reject all moral conventions, in order to present ethnic minorities as antagonists.The ideas of Henry Louis provide junior and Stuart dorm accurately represent the century-old exploitative and oppressive nature of mass media- an industry that has perpetually employed racialized discourse and racist expressions against ethnic minorities such as Afri spate-Ameri wads, in order to portray them as subordinate. Stuart Hall, a cultural theorizer and sociologist from the United Kingdom, suggests that humanity should simply non just get wet-nurse of the theme of culture, however also view it as a autochthonic source of social interactions (Proctor 16).Because culture is a site of an ongoing press of power between different ethnic groups, what Hall is suggesting is that, one should only study it with the mindset of exposing ea ch and every one its negative consequences on humanity. match to Hall, in Ameri eject culture, the mass media industry is one of the main reasons why such a power struggle continues to exist within our society.He describes mass media as an industry that not only generates and influences the beliefs of mankind, but also produces representations of the social world, images, descriptions, explanations, and frames for understanding how the world is and why it works as it is said and shown to work (Hall, The Whites 19). Since the beginning of time, work has vie a bouncy business office in the trans course of actionation of human consciousness. Therefore, as long as this notion exists in our society, mass media will continue to exploit it for financial profits.During the eighteenth-century, racial stereotyping was so widespread in the United States that any illustrator could peck up a pen and draw minorities based on the devil themes of their lack of culture and innate laziness (Ha ll, mold 249). These caricaturists and cartoonists degraded the Afro-American community by exaggerating their physical characteristics big noses, frizzy hair, wide faces, grubby complexion, thick lips and hips, etc (Hall, means 249).Hall describes such a stochastic variable of ethnic discrimination as a racialized regime of representation, a phenomenon that continues to exist, horizontal in the twenty- get-go century (Hall, The Whites 26). Throughout history, African-Americans have evermore been presented as a race that is juvenile, one-dimensional, and voracityy for money and sex, and perpetrators of craze and crime (Hall, mold 272). The uneven distribution of power in American culture has allowed the blank population to characterize the lives of African-Americans as inferior, an objectification that has been frozen in time and space. best-selling(predicate) representations of racial stereotypes against African-Americans can be examined in the American picture show of t he mid-twentieth-century. Donald Bogles 1973 critical study titled, Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies, And Bucks an interpretive history of threatenings in African films canvass the five main stereotypes that were prevalent in Hollywood films of the fifties and sixties Toms- the level-headed inkinesss, who were always chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted (Bogle 6).Coons- a black child who was unreliable, crazy, slothful, subhuman creatures good for nothing than eating watermelons, stealing chickens, shooting crap, or butchering the position language (Bogle 7). The Tragic Mulatto- a fair skinned, mixed-race woman, with whom the viewers sympathized, because she was refused entry into the gabardine community because of her tainted blood (Bogle 9). Mammies- the predominant black female person handmaiden who was big, loud, bossy, obese and self-sufficient (Bogle 9).Finally the Bad Bucks- physically strong characters, who were always big, badddd niggers, over-sex ed and savage, violent and frenzied as they lust for white flesh (Bogle 10). fit in to Hall, the feature-length film that gave birth to such African-American characteristics was David Llewelyn Griffiths The Birth of a Nation, released in 1915 (Hall, Representation 271). The silent film provoked great controversy, because not only did it promote white supremacy, but also describe the Ku Klux Klan overconfidently as heroes- a secret white society that was destined to add humanity to salvation.Griffith, a firm believer in anti-miscegenation laws and white supremacy, visualized the African-Americans as negative characters who were a threat to white integrity thence they had to be eliminated. Therefore, as the film demonstrates, white supremacy is upheld, and the good (whites) triumphs over evil (blacks) when the Ku Klux Klan physically assault the African-Americans, burn their houses down and lynch them in domain (Hall, Representation 252).Karl Heinrich Marx, a renowned German ph ilosopher, political theorist and sociologist argues that society is comprised of two classes the exploited and the exploiters (Balkaran 1). He suggests that in any devoted society, one class will eventually conquer the other and exploit it thereafter, through any means necessary (Balkaran 1). Looking back at the American society of the ni terminateeenth-century, it is evident that there was an existence of such class system, one in which the white population overpowered the African-Americans, and forced them to be slaves (Balkaran 1).even in present day, such a inning of exploitation can be discovered in the racial stereotyping of ethnic minority groups. According to Stuart Hall, the uneven distribution of power between the exploited and the exploiters can not only ternion to economic profiteering, but also physical violence (Hall, Representation 259). This power has such a strong influence that it can allow one to represent the other in any form desirable positive or negative.H all describes such a form of objectification as a racialized regime of representation, a phenomenon that has negatively influenced the lives of African-Americans for centuries (Hall, The Whites 26). In the eighteenth-century, American culture granted an extraordinary power to the white population- the consent over African-Americans forcing them to be slaves, hindering their success and confining them to lives to subordination. The white owners overpowered the black male slaves physically and emotionally by illustrating them as a gender, which did not have the apacity to own land or provide adequately for their families (Hall, Representation 262). As a result of the denial of these male attributes, black slaves were visualised to the rest of the world as adolescents, who could neither take c ar of themselves or their families- a stereotype that is prevent, even in present day. Such stereotypes be only a reference to what has been conceptualized in fantasy by the ones who hold most of the power (Hall, Representation 262).By representing the African-American slaves as lazy and incompetent, the elites are corrupting the minds of and perceptions of the general public. For Hall, racial stereotypes only present half of the story, the other half is where the deeper meaning lies (Hall, Representation 263). What he is referring to is the notion of a single racial stereotype leading to two different and self-sufficing human perceptions. This idea of a double meaning existing in a single stereotype can be examined in Antoine Fuquas 2001 motion picture Training Day.In the film, whenever Denzel Washingtons character, tec Alonzo Harris acts macho, he negatively portrays the African-American community as perpetrators of violence, in addition to promoting the stereotypical black childlike behavior. However, in accordance with Halls notion of an implicit meaning existing in every stereotype, one can decide that the macho behavior is validating a much more disturbing and complicated white fantasy- that African-Americans are in fact aggressive, better endowed than their white counterparts, over-sexed and superspade (Hall, Representation 263).Henry Louis supply Junior, an eloquent commentator on issues of multiculturalism and racism argues that the direct correlation between race and racism can be disputed. What he is suggesting is that discrimination against ethnic groups is linked more to the phenomenon of power relations than any biological assimilation (Daley 1). He believes that the notion of race is simply a fabrication, one with no real purpose with the exception of formal discussions, because races, put simply, do not exist, and to claim that they do, for whatever misguided reason, is to stand on dangerous soilFor, if we believe that races exist as things, as categories of beingness already there, we cannot break loose the danger of generalizing about observed differences between human beings as if the differences were coherent and deter mined, a priori (Gates 402). He is arguing that the notion of race has simply been etched in humanitys consciousness with one goal in mind- to confine ethnic minorities to lives of subordination. Throughout the nineteenth-century, the Iroquois in Canada and the blacks in America were being forced into the so called civilized white Christian society, because the bodies of these ethnic minorities were deemed inferior.Therefore, Gates believes that the portrayal of minorities was due to the wrongful employment of racial characterization, a service in which one generalizes about the attributes of an individual (and treats him or her accordingly). Such generalizations are based upon a predetermined set of causes or effects thinking to be shared by all members of a physically delimitate group who are also assumed to share received metaphysical characteristics can have rather teeny to do with aggression or condescension in intent, even if the effect is contemptible (but often well-i ntentioned) (Gates 403).According to Gates, not only does this form of representation lead to a racist benevolence, paternalism and cozy attraction towards African-Americans, but also a romanticizing of black culture (Daley 2). This form of racial representation was condescending to the African-Americans, because it depicted them as having instinctual physical, structural, and biological characteristics of avariciousness and violence. Through the use of mass media, white supremacists represented black culture as being an entity that was separate from the African-Americans (Daley 2). great deal media at time of the twentieth-century played a vital role in forming and reflecting public opinion on the issues of racial representation and discrimination. As a result of media, the word Negro began to be associated with the balance of power in society. It became a metaphor of the employment between good and evil, educated and barbaric, master and servant- a fight for the control of powe r a struggle that was etched into the consciousness of all Americans (Daley 2).By negatively representing the African-Americans, mass-media had caused a division between the blacks and the whites- a rift that is fluent evident in twenty-first-century not only in the United States, but all over the world (Daley 2). One can argue that not only has this gap dictated every discussion related to race and racial bias of our time, but that it will continue to do so for centuries to come with no end in sight. Media will continue to depict African-Americans as individuals who perpetrate violence, and are only motivated by greed and ex, because this approach allows the industry to gain a mass audience- a predominant white population that believes in white supremacy and wants to see the black race oppressed and destroyed. Linking back to Gates view on minority groups being confined to lives of subordination in the eighteenth-century, one can see that mass-media in present day carries out the same form of oppression. Because the industry is driven by monetary profits, it employs racial prejudice in its broadcasts, and enforces certain negative stereotypes against minorities, in order to confine them to deteriorated lifestyles.The American cinema of the mid-twentieth-century is regarded by many cultural sociologists as an era that promoted the positive representation of African-Americans for the first time. Motion pictures released in the early fifties enlightened the general public of the sensitive issues of race and stereotypes. In spite of the industry being controlled predominantly by the elite class of White-Americans, the films that were generated, characterized the black community as positive role models.A clear-cut example of such positive racial representation in mass media can be found in Stanley Kramers The difficult Ones, a 1958 cult classic, in which the character of Noah Cullen visualized by Sidney Poitier disregards the notion of differences in race inst ead assisting a white prisoner escape from jail. Not only did the portrayal of Noah Cullen allow Poitier to gull a BAFTA award for best actor in a lead role it also secured his admission into mainstream Hollywood films.Following the success of The Defiant Ones, Poitiers on screen roles now exemplified everything that the stereotypical African-American view was not (Hall, Representation 253). Even though the white elites controlled American cinema, they continue to construct characters for Poitier in such a way so as to positively portray the African-American community. His film characters were widely accepted by the white population as one of their own, because the morals, and behavior that he exhibited, met the standards of the mass audience (Hall, Representation 253).Poitiers characters represented the quintessential Caucasian male one who was fluent in English, well-educated, smart and had proper table etiquette (Hall, Representation 253). History had repeated itself in the cas e of Sidney Poitier, because by portraying the role of a reformed African-American male, he relinquished the very little power that he had, to the white elites. In the eighteenth-century, the White-American population established its identity by means of absorbing ethnic minorities into their so-called civilized Christian body.Because white elites had transformed Poitiers African-American character, from an un-cooperative, over-sexed, savage beast into a sexless, docile and sterile civilized gentleman he no agelong posed a threat to the integrity and dignity of white culture (Hall, Representation 253). In the late sixties and early seventies, American cinema implemented different strategy, in order to financially exploit the African-American community. The industry introduced a new class of African-American heroes- individuals who challenged the notion of white culture as superior to all others.Case in point, Gordon pose 1971 box office success, Shaft, in which the main character- a black tec disputes the very existence of white patriarchal power in American society (Hall, Representation 271). To attain maximum pleasure in his fabulous life, John Shaft resorts to violence, drugs, illegal money and sexual relations with white and black women (Hall, Representation 271). The stereotypical notion of an African-Americans child-like colony on the white community that had been prevalent since the eighteenth-century could no longer be applied to John Shaft, because he was confident and self-sufficient.Because, his elegance and charisma appealed to the African-American audiences, they were susceptible to the exploitation of the film industry. Black viewers were able to signalise with characters such as John Shaft, because they represented a mythic life- one which was glorious and heroic (Hall, Representation 271). They flocked to theatres by the thousands, in order to slang films that depicted the triumph of black over white, but what they failed to certify was that such movies were only produced so that they could be financially exploited.Word Cited Balkaran, Stephen. Mass Media and Racism. Yale University. Oct. 1999. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. http//www. yale. edu/ypq/articles/oct99/oct99b. htmlfn1. Gates, Henry L. Race, writing, and difference. Chicago University of Chicago, 1986. Hall, Stuart. Representation cultural representations and signifying practices. London sharp Publications Ltd. , 1997. Hall, Stuart. The Whites of Their Eyes Racist Ideologies and the Media. London Silver Linings, 1995. Bogle, David.Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. New York Viking, 1973. Mike Daley The representation of race in mass media. Mikedaley. net. York University. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. http//www. mikedaley. net/essay_raceinmassmedia. htm. Procter, James. Stuart Hall. London Routledge, 2004. Balkaran, Stephen. Mass Media and Racism. Yale University. Oct. 1999. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. http//www. yale. ed u/ypq/articles/oct99/oct99b. htmlfn1.