African American Male Stereotypes

The presence of media is infused throughout society. Books, newspapers, radio, theater, film, television and most recently internet are all forms in which media mass communicates throughout the world. The influence of media shaping opinions and determining what is the social norm is often agreed upon, but how big of an influence is often debated. This influence often comes into question when discussing stereotypes. Stereotypes being defined as the process of distorting the portrayal of some social group in a media image (Grossberg et. al. 2006 ). Belligerent, abusive, sex-crazed, rapper, entertainer, athlete, rude, attitudinal, absentee father, lazy, welfare recipient, uneducated, inarticulate, criminal, drug addict, drug dealers, and violent these words were used or fit into categories used to describe African American men in an open-ended survey that asked educators and non-educators to “list all stereotypical beliefs, feelings, expectations, and fantasies that the average person has about black men” (Foster, 1995). The above characteristics are often assigned to African American men, and given we still live in a society with racial segregation resulting in limited interaction outside of work and school, how these opinions are formed come into question. “Just about everyone has two paths of social information: personal experience (including formal education, socialization, and conversation) and mediated communication: Most lack a theory or integrating perspective to harmonize the two streams.” (Entman & Rojecki, 2000). Schuman et al. (1998) from a perspective of culture state that mainstream culture is a set of schemas most widely stored in the public’s minds and the core thematic frames that pervade media messages. Lacking much opportunity for repeated close contact with a wide variety of Blacks, Whites depend heavily on cultural material, especially media images, for cataloging Blacks. The mediated communications help explain the tenacious survival of racial stereotypes despite a social norm that dampens public admission of prejudice.” This study’s goal is to understanding the link, if any, between the media and the perpetuation of African American male stereotypes.

In this study I plan to look at how media may play a role in sustaining and/or creating stereotypes of the African American Male. I will conduct a content analysis of the video series done by the Washington Post. In this series several questions where posed surrounding what is means to be a black man. I will analyze the response to two questions. The first video question will be “How does society view black men?” and the second video question will be “What does it mean to be a black man?” I will then categorize the content and compare and contrast the two videos themselves and then compare and contrast the common stereotypes found in media. To see if there is any link between how the individuals in the video described how society views black

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