African American Equality

Equality. The American Dream. The consensus is all citizens are equal and have the opportunity to succeed and achieve this “American Dream.” However, the notion that an individual’s race does not matter anymore and that America is post-racial is false. Research shows culture and views on African Americans have been shaped throughout the history of the United States and are still being shaped. Although African Americans are no longer subjected to slavery, inequality and misrepresentation still persists. The representation of African Americans in the mainstream media promotes a false sense of unity. Acceptance in the entertainment industry is negated by the stereotypes found in film and news broadcasts. Not only are African Americans’ personas
By looking specifically at perceptions of actuality, results revealed that there were some significant differences in viewers’ perceptions of African Americans on television. Research indicated that viewers perceived the occupational roles and negative personality characteristics that African Americans portray on television as reality. Viewers may feel that television depicts African Americans in jobs that are realistic and believable since African Americans are represented in a large number of careers and represent a widely diverse group of occupations. Greenberg also found an increase in the amount of African American portrayals on television (336). Moreover, Tamborini discovered that African Americans were portrayed in more diverse occupational positions than previous research literature. Thus, viewers may feel that the occupations on television are realistic, because they actually see African Americans in positions similar to ones shown on television
In accordance with these images, viewers feel that the negative personality characteristics of African Americans shown on television are realistic images. On the other hand, viewers do not perceive the low-achieving status roles and positive stereotypes of African Americans on television as real or accurate portrayals. Viewers acknowledge several African Americans in real life achieving high status positions. For instance, Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks, Bob Johnson, Russell Simmons, and Condelezza Rice are all African Americans with high status and profile positions. For that reason, television viewers may see television portrayals as inaccurate representations of African Americans. However, the study further notes that African American television portrayals are repeatedly negative and often influence viewers to perceive them as unworthy. Similar to findings concerning the continuation of negative portrayals of minorities on television, the electronic media still encases negative portrayals of African Americans. These portrayals in turn have an effect on viewers’ perceptions of them