Gangster. Thug. Deadbeat.
Many Americans attach those labels to black males. Even today, when you have Black men running Fortune 500 companies and a Black man as president, many people still harbor negative images of African-Americans.
Many Americans obtain their images of African-Americans from electronic media, namely Internet and television.
Pearl Jr., an author and activist from Southern California, believes some media outlets deliberately broadcast negative images of blacks across the airwaves.
“I believe there is a concerted effort to show black men and black women divided,” she said. “In the Motown era, when we owned our music, we gave ourselves names like the Miracles, the Marvelettes, and Stevie Wonder. Now, we have lost control of our music, and it is controlled by corporations with names like 50 Cent, Ludacris and Irv Gotti.”
Pearl Jr. is highly critical of the images portrayed on cable channels including BET and VH-1, which are both owned by media giant, Viacom.
“Whatever Sumner Redstone (president of Viacom) owns, he finds a way to insult us,” she said.
Long before Viacom purchased BET, the network attracted a lot of criticism. The black elite railed against the constant stream of music videos featuring black men acting like hoodlums and black women acting like hookers. Many criticize BET, including film director Spike Lee, rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy, and even cartoonist Aaron McGruder in his show “The Boondocks,” lampooned it.
A message on the “Take Back the Music” website states, “popular music once covered a variety of subjects, but today pimping, debasing and objectifying women is the standard. Further still, these messages are readily accessible to children on the radio and television. We are concerned about where this is heading if people do not at least start talking about it now.”
VH-1 also became a prime offender with shows like “Flavor of Love” and “I Love New York,” which feature buffoonish images of black men and women. Former rapper, Flavor Flav, and former Flavor of Love contestant, New York, are the featured stars of both shows.
For Pearl Jr., they portray a concept of black inferiority deeply embedded in mainstream culture.
“These images reinforce the stereotypical image that we are not a threat,” Pearl Jr. said. “It is propaganda designed to keep black people weak.”
BET has taken some steps to promote more positive images with shows like “Meet the Faith,” a religious round table discussion, and interviews with President Barack Obama, when he was running for the office of President. BET also created a sister station, BET Jazz, which is geared toward an older audience.
While programming changes have etched slightly toward the positive, journalists such as Richard Prince believe more needs to be done to counteract the negative images associated with black America.
Prince, a regular columnist for the Poynter Institute of Journalism, and a Washington Post copy editor, recalls a time when editors would make nigger jokes in the newsroom and refuse to cover certain parts of town.
That form of blatant racism has since vanished, Prince says, only to be replaced with subtle attempts to stall media diversity.
“Racism has definitely receded in my lifetime,” says Prince, who also chairs the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ)'s Media Monitoring committee. “Over the last 40 years, the idea that diversity is a good thing is something to which nearly everyone gives lip service.”
The American Society of Newspapers Editors tracks ethnic diversity in newsrooms across the country. According to a 2007 survey, ethnic diversity in newsrooms has worsened. In 2006, the ASNE recorded 377 newspapers with no minorities on their staff. By 2007, that number had risen to 392.
Prince acknowledges that some media organizations have taken strides to diversify their operations. NBC hired two African-American vice presidents, Mark Whitaker and Lyn Pitts. “Today Show” hosts Lester Holt and Anne Curry have done extensive reporting from Africa. Holt reported from South Africa and Zimbabwe, and Curry filed several reports about the persecution of non-Muslims in Darfur, Sudan. GE African-American Forum, part of the NBC Universal operation, also raised $100,000 for the NABJ scholarship fund.
However, other mediums such as talk radio—featuring controversial hosts like Howard Stern, Michael Savage, and Dom Imus—remain at the forefront of the problem.
“I think outlets that carry some of the shock-jocks and some of the more outrageous conservative talk shows are bad offenders,” he said.
According to Prince, frustration with the mainstream media has led many ethnic minorities groups to form their own media outlets. The Internet has also revolutionized the black media, with more and more black people posting their own opinions and views on blogs. The Jena Six case, although largely missed by the mainstream media, was picked up by black bloggers. He says that people of color need to continue to monitor the media and stay active in organization like the NABJ.
“Citizens can strive to become media-literate. Most important, people of color can take their own education seriously,” Prince says. “The more intellectually equipped people are to fulfill their own roles as citizens, the better they will be able to combat racism."