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Naniaka Camara
Essay 1&2
30-3-14
Skin Deep
I just never thought you would be interested in those things you know because youre black and
all. Those words kept echoing in my head for the remainder of that day. What she was
referring to was my taste in music which included alternative rock and classic rock and also
classical music. The topic came up when I asked a girl is that metric you are listening to? This
question led into our conversation of different rock bands. What was bewildering was the fact
that music is associated with race, that my skin color can give people an idea of the music I listen
to. I knew what she was expecting, she expected me to listen to rap or probably some hip hop
and R&B too. It was not new to me, for someone to judge me because of my race, or for
someone to already define my character because my race gave people a story. The media creates
characters in many TV shows, movies, and stories in the news, depicting minorities such as
African Americans and Latinos is negative situations such as gang, robbery, rape and in
situations where they are uneducated. In doing this they blow up the stereotypes that have been
already accepted by society.
This constant judgment of a person due to their race is not something people are born with
but instead is due to many internal and external factors. The media constantly portrays people in
negative ways and they usually portray people of the same race in negative situations, minorities
to be exact. When people watch the media constantly portraying people in negative ways such as
being involved in crime, not being educated, constantly being arrested, they use these stereotypes
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to judge people. People are also a reason for stereotypes because some people will use an
encounter they had with someone of a particular race to judge everyone else of that same race.
Newspapers constantly publish articles on Latinos or African- Americans robbing a store, but
hardly anything about a White or Asian American in a negative situation. We, as a society are to
blame because we allow for this happen and dont say anything against it or do anything to stop
it we simply just coexist with this norm.
The media controls almost everything and is the most influential and top money
making business that is controlled mainly by the elite working class. To keep the elite class small
you must first have a large group of people that are kept in a lower class. To keep this large
group of people in the lower class racism must exist. Racism must exist In order for people to
think negatively of this group of people and also for those people to think negatively of
themselves. With racism people cannot rise to their full potential because they are so
discriminated against and hinders them from people able to climb up the social ladder. Racism is
needed to continue exploiting the poor/working keep them from raising to the top and ensuring
the rich stay where they are. People allow racism to keep the society in a system where the rich
get richer and the poor get poorer.
So long as media is controlled by the elite working class racism may never come to an
end. In an article written on Mass Media and Racism, written by Stephen Balkaran, he brings
up the same idea of media and how it causes racism. When it comes to minorities the media
spends most of it time focusing on the negative aspects on Hispanics and African Americans
such as crime rate robbery, rape and drugs .With all the negative attention placed on these people
they might never rise as a race because they are not given opportunities to rise because the media
portrays them as bad.. As Stephen Balkaran, claims As a result of the overwhelming media
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focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-
Americans, the media have fostered a distorted and pernicious public perception of African-
Americans.
1
The media will find any little idea or evidence that negatively portrays someone
and if it sounds interesting they will release the information to the public. Many times have
African Americans been criticized by people even if the evidence proves in their favor. As the
media repeatedly portrays these negative ideas of people the public starts to believe what they
see even if it is not true. Soon society as a whole is brainwashed by the media into these false
ideas of people.
Not only does media bring about racism through the use of crime rate and rape amongst
certain people, but also by reporting and depicting people of color in situations where they seem
helpless and inferior to others. By showing people in situations of helplessness and making them
seem uneducated, one group of people begin to think superiorly to the other group thus bringing
about racism. In a news article by Yasmin Jiwani titled Racismand theMedia Taxonomy
Categories: Anti-racism Theory, she shines, light on topics of discrimination and bring up valid points
on how the use of the word they or them in media bring about division in a society. These
words constantly are used in movies or even sitcoms and even cartoons shows. The article
quotes, As a result of this tendency, there are now countless stories in the press and television
news, and even in sitcoms and movies, about the barbaric cultures of people of color.
2
Through
the coverage of negative topics involving people of color they become viewed as creatures or
even lesser human beings and even menaces to society. It also makes it difficult to believe that
this group of people can ever prosper or become thought of equally.

1
Ronald L. Taylor, "The Harm Wrought by Racial Stereotype," Hartford Courant, 19 March 1995, D1
2
. http://www.stopracism.ca/content/racism-and-media. copyright 1996-2013 Canadian Anti-racism
Education and Research
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The society we live is influenced by media that majority of the time portrays African
Americans and Latinos as bad people, uses stereotypes about them comically, and makes money
off of this because people buy and watch these things. . In the book by Howard Winant, Beyond
Blue Eyes: Whiteness and Contemporary U.S. Radical Politics.
3
he claims, a refusal to engage in
race-thinking amounts to a defence of the racial status quo, in which systematic racial
inequality and discrimination are omnipresent. I agree in terms of his argument because racism
cannot be ignored because someone can be racist without even knowing that they are thus
inequality begins. A person must choose not to be ignorant in terms of refusing to engage in race
thinking. A person has the choice on whether or not they want to be a racist. Police brutality is
also another form of racism because it is seen happening to mostly people of color, this is also
accepted by society. Racism isnt new in the U.S. because racism has come a long way. One
popular article that reflects this claim is called Racism by Anup shah. He quotes In the US,
racism is a well known issue. From racial profiling, to other issues such as affirmative action,
police brutality against minorities and the history of slavery and the rising resentment against
immigrants.
4
All these things such as racial profiling and affirmation action are methods used
by people to perpetuate racism by targeting certain races and unless these practices are changed,

3
. Winant Howard
. 1997. Beyond Blue Eyes: Whiteness and Contemporary U.S. Radical Politics. Pp. 40-53 in Off White:
Readings on Race, Power and Society, edited by Fine M., Weis L., Powell L., Mun Wong L. New
York: Routledge.
Search Google Scholar

4
Anup Shah
Created: Monday, July 20, 1998
Last Updated: Sunday, August 08, 2010
http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism


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racism cannot be abolished. Racial profiling is justified by people because of criminals, and
affirmative action diminishes the capabilities of minorities by setting them on lower standards of
being accepted into colleges. I however, disagree with his claim that the rising resentment
against immigrants is caused by racism because I think that has more to do with job availability
rather than racism.
What emerges from the examination of people and media using stereotypes?
Consequently, we have a society of people and media that have distorted views of people.
These distorted views cause fear and unnecessary hatred toward minorities. We as a people have
forgotten about the true meaning of equality. Instead of using personality as a way to judge
people we instead of using a persons skin color and race to define their whole being. We use
race as means to describe preferences, economic status, and also ability.
People should have the choice in a society to be treated equally since birth. As a society and a
human being, it should be natural to love and care for one another. Yet today that is hardly the
situation. In todays society, we are quick to judge by what we see rather than getting to know a
person. To solve this problem many people say only time can fix it. No. Instead through
educating and ending televisions shows that use stereotypes that make it acceptable to use
stereotypes against people we can make the process occur. Change must happen for
discrimination to end but it has to start with us as a society.