While doing my nightly email, Facebook and YouTube check, a recently aired news broadcast was literally invading my news feed! I needed to see for myself what all the hype was about. In this particular airing, a black woman, approximately in her thirties, was being interviewed on a recent hail storm that passed through the Brookshire area. Based on her appearance as a young black woman, you would hope she would be a good representative of the African American Women in the media; instead she was the complete opposite. Her poor image, word choice and expression proved this point. Which also made me think of the "Sweet Jones" character which we all know by her famous punch line, "Ain't nobody got time fo that!" Prior to Sweet Jones, Antoine Dodson was featured throughout the Web for his interview with the news after his sisters house was broken into. This specific interview caught the attention of many TV and radio hosts such as Wendy Williams, which lead to his appearance on many late night television shows. Sweet Jones has also received the opportunity to appear on commercials advertising insurance companies.
The stereotypical views of minorities in the media is degrading and leads to the judgement that the only thing minorities are capable of is acting their "color" in the media. This thought leads me to a few questions:
1.) Who is really to blame here for the ongoing of racial stereotypes in the media? Is is the media and Television producers or the actual people that are being interviewed?
2.) Is displaying a certain level of ignorance publicly an easy way to stardom?
3.) Is this stereotype based strictly on the linguistics of the black vernacular?
1.) Who is really to blame here for the ongoing of racial stereotypes in the media? Is is the media and Television producers or the actual people that are being interviewed?
2.) Is displaying a certain level of ignorance publicly an easy way to stardom?
3.) Is this stereotype based strictly on the linguistics of the black vernacular?
*Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
"Is displaying a certain level of ignorance publicly an easy way to stardom?"
ReplyDeleteWell, in many ways, yes. The more stereotypical, the better. A woman wears tube tops, punches other women in the face and tears out their weaves --> she gets to be on The Bad Girls' Club. A man wears a pink scarf, waves a limp wrist, talks with a lisp about how girlfriend needs to work it --> he's the next gay fashion guru.
Maybe we like feeling superior? No matter how bad we have it, we can point to people on the news and say, well, at least I'm not THAT? You do have to wonder if media outlets are looking for the over-the-top, theatrical interviews that will go viral on YouTube...
It always surprises me (well maybe... not really), that the news media always tends to find the worst dressed, slummy person that they can find. I don't feel like it is necessarily a racial stereotype against one race in particular. It doesn't seem to make a difference if it is the old white man with no teeth, the lady (regardless of race) with no bra and uncombed hair, or the Mexican people who can barely speak English. I think that the news media just wants to get people to watch, and at the same time, have the most dramatic account of the incident. People discussing the story the next day, then visiting the website to "re-watch" it doesn't hurt either.
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